Josh Heupel shares why love for coaching remains amid changing landscape, distractions

The job of a college football coach has changed rapidly in recent seasons as rule changes swing the sport in new directions. Despite all of that, Tennessee Volunteers head coach Josh Heupel hasn’t lost his love of coaching.

Heupel explained that while things are different off the field, they haven’t changed on the field. That ability to compete and be a part of a team is why he coaches and what he wants to continue to do in his professional career.

“What happens outside of the game in some ways has changed, right,” Josh Heupel said. “But the game hasn’t changed. You’ve got to be tough, smart, and physical, you’ve got to play extremely hard, you’ve got to have fundamentals and technique. I choose to coach college football because I love dealing with 18 to 22-year-olds most of the time.”

Along with things like conference realignment and a new postseason system, NIL has allowed for players to receive money and the Transfer Portal allows wide movement in the sport. At Tennessee, those changes became very apparent this spring when starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava left over an NIL dispute. Still, even with those changes, the college game remains special to Josh Heupel.

“But I love the pageantry of college football. I love — the NFL’s different, right? Not in a bad way, it’s just different. I love the growth of young people, taking somebody that shows up from different backgrounds,” Heupel said. “And helping them grow in their maturity as a man and how that parlays itself into helping them grow as a football player too. It’s a chance to be in the middle of their journey as a man and as a player versus being on the back end of the journey, being at the destination point. I love so much about this game and this timeframe.”

Josh Heupel briefly played in the NFL but got into coaching following the end of his playing career. He’d finally get a shot as a head coach in 2018 with UCF and after three seasons there he made the jump to Tennessee.

“When you have a team that’s — the best part of my day is when they show up every single day. When you’ve got a staff that’s like-minded, that is selfless, that cares about the people around them,” Heupel said. “Man, I don’t consider it work. I get to go compete and try to be our best every single day. It’s awesome walking in there.”

Regardless of the game staying the same on the field, the changes are very real. Josh Heupel acknowledged those are a challenge too. At the same time, he understands where those changes are born from.

“Well, that’s the part that’s changed, for sure. It’s a part of this game at this point in every job that anyone has. Man, not 100 percent of it is exactly what you want,” Heupel said. “But, at the same time, I can understand a player’s perspective, too, having played the game too, and there’s some benefits to it as well.”

With the spring transfer window behind him, Josh Heupel will likely turn his attention to getting the players in Knoxville ready for the 2025 season. There, the Volunteers will open against Syracuse in Atlanta on August 30th.