Heupel says not self-imposing bowl ban ‘absolutely right thing to do’
NASHVILLE — Given the here and now of Tennessee football following last season's run to an 11-2 record and the Orange Bowl championship, being able to avoid an NCAA bowl ban is obviously a huge dose of good news for the program.
Volunteers third-year coach Josh Heupel was certainly relieved to learn of last Friday's verdict, and he will always believe that not self-imposing a bowl ban his first season was the correct decision. Tennessee was coming off a 3-7 collapse under former coach Jeremy Pruitt that is now recognized as 0-7, but the Vols went a surprising 7-5 during the 2021 regular season before dropping a 48-45 overtime decision to Purdue in the Music City Bowl.
"We had 35 guys who left our program," Heupel said Thursday as Southeastern Conference Media Days came to a close. "The guys who were around were the guys who cared about the 'Power T' and cared about their teammates. In all reality, they were guys who weren't a part of what was going on.
"I think it's tough to punish innocent guys, so I felt it was extremely important that we tried to navigate that space the right way and allow those guys to compete. It was absolutely the right thing to do."
Heupel learned last Thursday night that the NCAA decision would be revealed last Friday around noon. He was out of town along with several of his assistant coaches, so he orchestrated a Zoom meeting with his staff and players.
"I felt great we were going to land where the administration thought we were going to land," Heupel said, "but at that point, you don't know what you don't know. When we got word the following morning, it was such a relief.
"I don't recommend anybody going through this."
Reliving sanctions
Several months after Lane Kiffin left his job as Tennessee's head coach for the vacancy at Southern California, the NCAA hammered the Trojans. In June 2010, the governing body handed down penalties that included a two-year bowl ban, the loss of 30 scholarships over a three-year period and a vacating of 14 victories.
Tennessee received a five-year probation sentence that also included scholarship reductions and vacating wins, but the Vols avoided any postseason punishment. The school instead has to pay more than $8 million.
"I've got a lot of thoughts on the case at USC and the case at Tennessee and the penalties and all that," Kiffin said. "I'm not really going to get into that, because we're here to talk about the Ole Miss team, but, you know, I'm happy for Coach Heupel.
"I read where he was ecstatic about the penalties and the $8 million fine, so that kind of probably tells you about how severe the penalties are in their eyes. I'm happy for them that they don't have to go through what we went through."
Kiffin led the Trojans to a 10-2 record and a No. 5 ranking during his second season in 2011, but they were ineligible for a bowl. His one postseason appearance with USC was the 2012 Sun Bowl.
'Not a rag doll'
Tennessee offensive coordinator Joey Halzle said earlier this year that he doesn't want sixth-year senior quarterback Joe Milton III throwing any more oranges more than 100 yards.
Yet earlier this summer, Milton was launching a football more than 70 yards at the Manning Passing Academy, so are there times he's allowed to show off his arm strength and others when he's not?
"I'm not a rag doll, so if a person offers me an object to throw, I wouldn't throw it," Milton said. "Sometimes I would, just to get everybody roweled up, but other than that, I'm not a rag doll.
"That was just part of the (Manning Academy) drill. Coach Peyton Manning had us throwing post routes and overs, so it was just part of the drill."
Torching the Vols
The Vols were in the hunt for the College Football Playoff last November when they traveled to South Carolina and were demolished 63-38.
Spencer Rattler was among the lowest-rated SEC quarterbacks going into that contest but completed 30 of 37 attempts for 438 yards with six touchdowns. He guided an offense that was 8-for-11 on third downs, 2-for-2 on fourth downs and scored touchdowns on nine of its first 10 possessions.
"Nothing really changed," Rattler said Thursday. "I feel like a lot of people think, 'Oh, you must have changed overnight.' We changed up some things with the offense that needed to be changed, and that was the product of it.
"As you could see from those last couple of weeks we did that and had a lot of success."
Odds and ends
Heupel when asked about next year's arrival of Texas and who would be the real UT: "There's only one real UT and only one real shade of orange." ... Milton on viewing videos from Hendon Hooker's appearance at media days last year: "I just learned to stay calm, smile and answer questions." ... Kiffin when asked where Ole Miss boosters rank in the league: "I am not about to start putting rankings out on boosters from top to bottom in the conference. God, I want to so bad, though." ... Heupel: "We've sold 71,000 season tickets. The energy inside and outside of our program is real."
