Putting Tennessee’s rise back to prominence in perspective
Coming off the heels of the team’s first New Year’s Six bowl win in the College Football Playoff era, the expectations for Tennessee football in 2023 are the highest they have been in a long time. However, with the rapid rise to the highest ranks of college football, it can be easy to forget how far the program has come under head coach Josh Heupel.
When Heupel arrived in Knoxville in January 2021, the state of football was at one of the lowest levels it had seen in what seemed to be a series of low points. The team was coming off of a 3-7 SEC-only campaign. After the season, head coach Jeremy Pruitt was fired and athletics director Phillip Fulmer retired. Pruitt was fired with cause as the program went under NCAA investigation due to alleged recruiting violations that took place under his watch.
In both the lead-up to and the immediate fallout of the investigation’s launch, there was a mass exodus of players into the transfer portal, with 35 players transferring out of Knoxville between September 2020 and July 2021. Some of the names included quarterback Jarrett Guarantano, running backs Eric Gray and Ty Chandler and linebacker Henry To’oTo’o. On top of the roster attrition, Tennessee self imposed a scholarship restriction after concluding its own investigation, with the program losing 16 scholarships from the 2021-22 and 2022-23 academic years.
With both the roster turnover and the unknown that was Heupel, fan expectations for Tennessee were low, as the preseason over/under win total was at six. Even The Daily Beacon’s game-by-game preview for the 2021 season acknowledged the likelihood of a tough season, saying the Vols were “in full rebuild mode.”
However, the 2021 Vols had a winning season, going 7-6 with one of the top offenses in the SEC. The Vols finished second in points per game (39.3) and third in yards per game (474.9) amongst their conference foes. Some of the season highlights included a 62-24 thrashing of Missouri in Columbia, a 45-20 win over South Carolina at home and a last-second thriller in Lexington to defeat then No. 18 Kentucky, 45-42.
The following offseason, many Tennessee fans were excited to see what growth would come in the program in year two under Heupel. The potent offense was still going to be under the command of quarterback Hendon Hooker, as Heupel was able to complete his full recruiting cycle at Tennessee, and the vast majority of the coaching staff remained for 2022.
But even with the renewed sense of optimism in Knoxville, very few could have predicted how the 2022 season would go for the Vols. With a preseason over/under win total sitting at 7.5, the Vols surpassed all expectations by going 11-2 and finished second in the SEC East.
In the midst of Tennessee’s first ten-win season since 2007, the Vols took the college football world by storm. ESPN’s College Gameday made two appearances on the Tennessee campus for the football edition of the show. The first was on Sept. 24 for the Vols’ first conference game of 2022, a 38-33 victory over then No. 23 Florida. The show returned on Oct. 15, ahead of what some consider the best game of all of last season, a 52-49 win over then No. 3 Alabama. The win marked the first time that Tennessee got the better of the Crimson Tide since 2006.
Other noteworthy moments from last season include an undefeated record inside Neyland Stadium — a first since 2007 — a dominating performance in Baton Rouge over eventual SEC West champion LSU and a No. 1 ranking in CFP rankings for the first time in team history.
Now, many fans are looking to see if Tennessee can replicate its success for the 2023 season. If so, it will have to do so without Hooker, who was selected by the Detroit Lions in the third round of the 2023 NFL Draft. Taking over at quarterback will be former Michigan transfer Joe Milton, who started the regular season finale against Vanderbilt and the Orange Bowl against Clemson in Hooker’s absence to end 2022. In those starts, Milton went 30-for-49 in passing attempts with 398 yards and four touchdowns.
On top of the on-the-field momentum for the Vols, the dark cloud of the NCAA investigation has been cleared. On July 14, the NCAA released its findings into the recruiting allegations from the Pruitt era, citing there were “hundreds of violations” that occurred over the course of three seasons, including 18 Level I violations. However, the program did not face a postseason ban. Instead, Tennessee football was placed on five years of probation, with a reduction in scholarships and official visits during the probationary period, as well as having to vacate all wins from the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
With the off-the-field matter now settled, Heupel and his staff can fully set their sights on the future of Tennessee football. Given the exponential growth of the program over the last two seasons, that future appears to be as bright as ever.
