It's time for coach Josh Heupel and No. 15 Tennessee to prove they can keep up. Not just the bigger and even more powerful Southeastern Conference .
Heupel and his Vols have to measure up to the other programs on campus. The Vols won the SEC men's basketball title under coach Rick Barnes, and Tony Vitello led the baseball program to Tennessee's first national title in any sport since 2009. In Knoxville, no program faces more pressure or attention than football, where Heupel has revived a program that was struggling to fill seats inside Neyland Stadium into one with a lengthy waiting list for season tickets.
He knows better than anyone that it's his turn to prove just how good his program can be. “I’m not sure that there’s ever been a better time to be a Vol,” Heupel said. Heupel goes into his fourth season coming off a 9-4 record and a No.
17 ranking in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll. He has guided the Vols to 20 wins over the past two years, the program’s best two-year stretch since 2003-04. That's not what Vols' fans and supporters want, not with millions being spent renovating Neyland and the SEC now bigger with the additions of Texas and Heupel's alma mater, Oklahoma.
Heupel won quite a few games with Hendon Hooker and Joe Milton III, both now in the NFL. Star recruit Nico Iamaleava now gets his turn to run Heupel's fast-paced offense, and he will have both Heupel and offensive coordinator Joey Halzle in his ear with college coaches now able to talk dire.