Paul Finebaum expresses concern over Josh Heupel's leadership of the Tennessee Volunteers, noting they are trending in the wrong direction after finishing last season with two consecutive losses.
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Josh Heupel and the Tennessee Volunteers are looking to rebound this fall after finishing last season with two straight losses. The Volsā loss to Vanderbilt to end the regular season was particularly painful on Rocky Top.
Longtime college football talk show host Paul Finebaum made it very clear this week that he believes the Tennessee Vols are trending in the wrong direction under Josh Heupel.
Finebaum joined Crain & Cone this week and offered some strong thoughts on the Tennessee football program.
I bring Josh Heupel up, I like him ā he has made the playoffs one time,ā said Finebaum. āBut heās been there four or five years, and it feels like the program is going in the wrong direction. That should not happen, and itās a very bad sign for a name brand program. And maybe Iām old school enough to still believe that Tennessee is one of those schools that should always be at or near the top.
āBut the end of last season was a complete disaster. Losing at home to Oklahoma, and they also lost at home to Vanderbilt. They badly lost the bowl game (against Illinois). You canāt let that happen. And then they got some bad luck in court [by] losing (Joey) Aguilar, but they donāt have a quarterback. You guys tell me, how you can win in the SEC without a quarterback?ā
I donāt disagree with Finebaum that the end of last season was a disaster for Tennessee.
The Vols didnāt show up against Vanderbilt, and the performance against Illinois was uninspiring. But I think some of that was because the air was taken out of the team once the College Football Playoff was off the table (I think thatās something most programs are going to struggle with now that college football is a tournament sport).
My biggest issue with Finebaumās comments is that heās still approaching his college football āanalysisā (or hot takes in this case) like itās 10 or 20 years ago. And you just canāt do that anymore.
Essentially, whatever happened in college football before the rise of NIL in the post-Covid era doesnāt apply anymore. It doesnāt matter what Tennesseeās reputation was under Phillip Fulmer, Derek Dooley, or Butch Jones. It doesnāt matter how many championships Alabama won under Nick Saban, or what Florida did when Urban Meyer was in town.
Paul Finebaum stated that he believes the Tennessee Vols are trending in the wrong direction under Josh Heupel.
The Tennessee Volunteers finished last season with two straight losses, including a painful loss to Vanderbilt.
Concerns include the team's performance under Josh Heupel and the implications of their recent losses.
The future for Josh Heupel and the Vols is uncertain as they aim to rebound this fall after a disappointing end to last season.
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Rosters are built via big budgets now. Relationships and coaching are still extremely important to winning ā the most talented rosters that are the most well-coached and most well-connected will be the teams that go the furthest. But if a program wants to compete for a championship in college football, they have to build a strong roster via a mix of the transfer portal and retaining high school talent.
This new era of college football means that some years, the roster combination just isnāt going to be quite right. Maybe a team pays the wrong quarterback (sometimes you donāt know who the guy is until theyāre under the lights). Or maybe injuries wreck the season (quality depth is nearly impossible to build thanks to the portal/NIL).
The Oklahoma Sooners are a great example of how quickly a program can go from wanting to fire the head coach to being a playoff team. Oklahoma went 6-7 in 2024 and Brent Venables entered the 2025 season on the hot seat as a result. The Sooners then went 10-2 during the regular season and reached the playoff. If a narrative can change that quickly, should it be narrative at all?
I just donāt think we can judge head coaches the same we did a decade ago. The landscape of the sport has drastically changed.
Finebaum, however, hasnāt calibrated his hot take machine to align with the new era of college football. And until he does, heāll continue to dish out antiquated takes like the one he dropped about Heupel and the Vols this week.