KNOXVILLE, Tenn — Tennessee’s new head coach, Josh Heupel, is known for one thing – his offense. A Heisman runner-up, Heupel wears his coaching influences on his sleeve. Mike Leach is the reason he came to Oklahoma to play quarterback in 1999. Kevin Wilson’s no-huddle tempo pushed speed. The success of Art Briles’ “veer and shoot” at Baylor stresses and attacks defenses.
Heupel, a great play-caller in his own right, has been pivotal to offensive success at his stops. At four different schools, over the course of ten years, a Heupel-coached offense has finished outside of the top-50 in total offense just twice and has finished inside the top-25 on eight separate occasions. Here’s a breakdown of each season.
OKLAHOMA
2011 – 512.3 yards per game, No. 5 in total offense (349.4 passing yards, 162.9 rushing yards, 39.5 points per game)
2012 – 497.8 yards per game, No. 12 in total offense (336.5 passing yards, 161.4 rushing yards, 38.2 points per game)
2013 – 423 yards per game, No. 53 in total offense (199.1 passing yards, 223.9 rushing yards, 32.8 points per game)
2014 – 464.7 yards per game, No. 24 in total offense (203.5 passing yards, 261.2 rushing yards, 36.2 points per game)
Even with these numbers, Heupel was fired as offensive coordinator. It’s important to note, that Mike Stoops, brother of head coach Bob Stoops, served as the defensive coordinator at Oklahoma. The team’s 382.3 yards per game allowed ranked 54th in the country, plus the Sooners gave up an average of 38.8 points per game in its five losses in 2014. Alas, Heupel, not Stoops, was replaced by now Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley. The rest is history for the Sooners.
UTAH STATE
2015 – 370.6 yards per game, No. 93 in total offense (205.5 passing yards, 165.1 rushing yards, 29 points per game)
A short stop for Heupel. He served as the assistant head coach, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach during his one year with the Aggies. Injury also proved to be a problem while at Utah State. Quarterback Chuckie Keeton missed quite some time.
PHOTOS: Josh Heupel
MISSOURI
2016 – 500.5 yards per game, No. 13 in total offense (295.4 passing yards, 205.1 rushing yards, 31.4 points per game)
2017 – 502.2 yards per game, No. 8 in total offense (308.6 passing yards, 193.5 rushing yards, 37.5 points per game)
Heupel’s time with the Tigers gives some hope to Tennessee fans – his offense has proven successful against SEC opponents. The results were far from perfect, however. In the two seasons Heupel called CoMo home, Missouri had an 11-14 record. In 2016, the offense exploded against inferior competition. Against Group of Five and FCS schools, Missouri averaged 61.6 points per game! Against the rest though (West Virginia and the SEC) Missouri averaged just 20.8 points per game. The 2017 season went better for the Tigers, finishing with a 7-6 record, and more times than not, it was the defense letting the offense down: in the first six games, Missouri averaged 27.3 points per game, going 1-5. In the final six games, Missouri averaged 51.3 points per game, going 6-0. A fun fact, Heupel and Missouri put up 50 points against Tennessee in Columbia in 2017. It was the final game of Butch Jones’ tenure on Rocky Top. Missouri’s postseason, the Texas Bowl, ended with a 33-16 loss to Texas, but by that time, Heupel had already made the transition to his next destination.
CENTRAL FLORIDA
2018 – 522.7 yards per game, No. 5 in total offense (257.5 passing yards, 265.2 rushing yards, 43.2 points per game)
2019 – 540.5 yards per game, No. 2 in total offense (316.7 passing yards, 223.8 rushing yards, 43.4 points per game)
2020 – 568.1 yards per game, No. 2 in total offense (357.4 passing yards, 210 rushing yards, 42.2 points per game)
Heupel took a team that finished as 13-0 “National Champions” and No. 5 in total offense and didn’t miss a beat. In 2018, UCF finished with another undefeated regular season. Its sole loss came at the hands of No. 11 LSU in the Fiesta Bowl, 40-32 the final score. That was without quarterback McKenzie Milton, who was hurt just two games prior against South Florida. During his time at UCF, Heupel and the Knights lost eight games, but the offense was rarely the issue. In those losses, UCF scored 31.5 points on average, while the defense gave up 38.13 on average. Three of those losses came against top-25 teams.
In conclusion, Heupel’s offense, whether that was pre or post transition toward more of a “veer and shoot” style, has seen a lot of success in multiple conferences, including the SEC. There’s a run/pass balance that Tennessee has been sorely lacking. The only time a Tennessee offense has outpaced Heupel’s since he started calling plays as an offensive coordinator was in 2015, the Utah State season.
There are still many questions to be answered that will dictate just how successful Heupel is: Does Tennessee have the personnel? Can it succeed against the best of the SEC? And can the rest of the Vols play enough defense to keep teams at bay?
You can’t win in college football these days without a great offense. Expect a lot more high-scoring affairs in Neyland Stadium.