Josh Heupel Has Work Cut Out for Him at Tennessee

Long gone are the days when the Tennessee Volunteers were considered one of the top programs in college football.

Tennessee now enters the 2021 season having finished with a winning record just four times since 2008. They’ve also failed to reach the SEC Championship game since 2007.

Even with new head coach, Josh Heupel, taking over the reins, there is still little hope for Tennessee to turn itself into a successful program this season.

WynnBET has set Tennessee’s projected win total for 2021 at 6.5, with the under heavily favored at -575. That means you should expect a 6-6, or a 7-5 season at best, from Tennessee in 2021.

The Volunteers finished the 2020 season with an abysmal 3-7 record in the shortened season. They gained just 346.2 yards of offense per game, which ranked 102nd in the country, while also scoring only 21.5 points per game which ranked 108th.

The glaring issue that was a big cause of a lot of their offensive woes, were the fact the 10th-worst team in college football in third down conversion rate, getting a first down on just 30.23% of attempts.

Heupel, who served as the head coach at UCF from 2018-2020, will attempt to breathe new life into the stagnant offense.

A lot of the success of the offense will come down to who starts at quarterback for them. The battle will be between Harrison Bailey, Michigan transfer Joe Milton and Virginia Tech transfer Hendon Hooker.

It doesn’t help that Tennessee lost its two best running backs to the transfer portal, Ty Chandler and Eric Gray.

The transfer portal also hit Tennessee’s defense, as their best player, Henry To’oto'o, transferred to Alabama.

A 6.5 win projection seems optimistic for the Volunteers, especially considering WynnBET has them with the fifth lowest odds to win the SEC at +5000.

Heupel may eventually turn this program around, but it won’t happen in 2021.