KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — It has been a year since Josh Heupel was officially introduced as the head coach of Tennessee football.
It was fairly successful, as he was named co-winner of the 2021 Football Writers Association of America Steve Spurrier First-Year Coach Award after leading the Vols to a 7-6 record. That was four more wins than the prior season, albeit in three more games.
One of the things that stood out most was how efficient the offense became. It was something he spoke about in his first press conference when he was introduced as Tennessee's next head coach.
"We are going to play with tempo here," he said on Jan. 27, 2021. "We are going to be the aggressor. We are going to play with our skill players out in space. We're going to give them an opportunity to push the football down the field. At the same time, if you watch what we do, we are extremely balanced in our approach as far as run and pass goes. We want to be physical and we want to dominate the line of scrimmage."
The Vols were the fastest team in terms of the pace of play. Several times you saw players in space and down the field score touchdowns, and as far as run-pass balance the Vols ran the ball just one more time than they passed.
All those held true as Tennessee has the seventh highest-scoring offense in the country. They set single-season program records for points scored and touchdowns scored
Heupel's team executed the defensive promises he made too.
“At the same time, our aggressive mentality on the offensive side of the ball is going to carry over to the defensive side of the ball as well," he said. "We're going to create negative plays."
The Vols definitely brought more pressure to create negative plays. Tennessee ranked seventh in the country for tackles for loss. Their 34 sacks were 14 more from the season prior.
In-state recruiting is one point he touched on in that press conference that still is a work in progress.
“The most important thing we do is lock down our borders," he said. "We have to keep kids inside of this state here. That's for multiple reasons. They are going to come play championship-caliber football. They're going to be developed, they're going to have a chance to go on to the NFL. They are going to get a great degree and they are going to be empowered to live inside of this state when they get that degree."
In the early signing period, one only commit was from an in-state player. Granted, this is his first recruiting class, and it will take some time to deliver on this promise.
He has been traveling around to schools in the Knoxville area, building connections to lay roots for the future. We'll see if that part becomes more of a reality in the coming years.
Overall, a solid start in year one. There are high expectations going into year two for Josh Heupel.