Josh Heupel has Tennessee positioned to take next step as a program

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Josh Heupel was remarkably composed Saturday night following a gut-wrenching 44-41 overtime loss to Georgia. Even Kirby Smart said Tennessee probably deserved to win in what was an electric environment at Neyland Stadium, which has regained its place under Heupel as one of the toughest venues for an opponent to play in all of college football.

One of the things that stuck out about Heupel’s postgame comments was how he’s OK with the bitter loss sticking with his football team.

“It’s going to hurt,” Heupel said. “And we need to drink all that in and taste all of it, because if we’re going to move forward and be the team that we’re capable of, this feeling tonight’s got to be a part of what continues to propel us and the urgency and the focus and everything that we do.”

Dissect those comments all you want, and Vols fans certainly will.

The translation on this end: Heupel knows he has a good football team, a team that’s still growing, a team that’s not healthy but hopeful of getting some key players back and a program that’s still trying to cross that daunting divide between being nationally relevant and being elite.

It’s a divide and a margin that can be agonizingly thin. But it’s also one that’s no longer a talent issue at Tennessee.

Perhaps it’s avoiding costly false-start penalties.

Or not giving up 28-yard touchdown passes on fourth-and-6.

Or making potentially game-winning field goals.

Or being more aggressive on offense when you’re up 35-30 after your defense forces a turnover with 8:21 to play.

Or taking a shot or two into the end zone in the final seconds of regulation instead of settling for a field-goal attempt when the opposing defense is gassed.

It’s easy to play Monday Morning Quarterback after such a tough loss but the bottom line is that teams that play for championships finish games like the one Saturday on Rocky Top, especially in such a favorable home environment.

Tennessee, for all the many steps it’s taken under Heupel, is still learning how to do that.

Even though Heupel said he wants his team to let that loss fester to a point, one of the things he’s done best as Tennessee’s coach is not allowing one loss to become two or three. The only time the Vols have lost consecutive SEC games the past three years was in 2023 when they were routed 36-7 on the road by Missouri and then returned home the next week to lose 38-10 to Georgia.

As Heupel told his team Saturday: “I love the competition part of it, competitive. We’re continuing to compete. We just gotta be a little bit better together, coaches and players.”

After a home game this Saturday against UAB, Tennessee travels to Mississippi State on Sept. 27. It’s a Bulldogs team that should be unbeaten and is greatly improved in Year 2 under Jeff Lebby. And Davis Wade Stadium and all the cowbells, as we saw two weeks ago against Arizona State, isn’t exactly a party for the opponent.

The best news for the Vols is that they should be as healthy as they’ve been in their first SEC road test. They did their best to rotate defensive linemen as much as possible against Georgia, but the starters probably played more snaps than anybody would have preferred. That’s what makes the possibility of getting back defensive linemen Jaxson Moi and Daevin Hobbs so important for Tennessee.

It still may be a stretch to get back cornerback Jermod McCoy in time for the visit to Starkville as he rehabs from an ACL tear he suffered in January, and the Vols’ other starting cornerback coming into the season, Rickey Gibson III, is likely out for the season.

Yes, Georgia picked on freshman cornerback Ty Redmond in the game Saturday, and he gave up some big plays. But the fourth-down touchdown pass to London Humphreys was thrown about as well as you can throw a ball, and Redmond was in great position.

Like Tennessee’s entire team, Redmond will get better, and the fact that the Vols are deep enough at cornerback to have a fourth corner who’s ready to play as a freshman is indicative of the way they have recruited and stocked the roster under Heupel.

The future is equally bright with quarterback Faizon Brandon, receiver Tristen Keys and two-way player Salesi Moa headlining a star-studded 2026 recruiting class, so all the evidence points to the Vols continuing to upgrade their personnel. Offensive tackle David Sanders was one of the most coveted prospects in the 2025 class, but has yet to play this season with a lingering shoulder issue.

The Nico Iamaleava debacle and all the money Tennessee paid him has soured some of the Vols’ fans, but that’s the game now in this era of college football. As Heupel told me this offseason, either you choose to play that game, knowing there are going to be some misses, or you choose not to and get left behind.

Quarterback Joey Aguilar has been a huge breath of fresh air for Tennessee. He quickly won over his teammates in a span of a few months and is going to help the Vols win some key games on the field. He’s a good fit for Heupel’s offense, has a nice feel in the pocket, gets rid of the ball quickly and gives his receivers chances to make big plays down the field.

Nine-straight losses to Georgia is difficult for anyone in and around the Tennessee program to digest, but the game Saturday was as close as the Vols have played the Bulldogs since Heupel’s arrival.

Granted, close doesn’t cut it in the SEC, but there’s more reason to be optimistic than pessimistic about the Vols taking that next (and steepest) step to being elite. Heupel has beaten Alabama and Florida two of the last three years, and the Vols face both of those teams on the road later this season.

This version of the SEC looks to be a bloodbath the rest of the way, and Smart referenced as much Saturday night that teams are going to beat up on each other like never before. One coach in the league told me that NIL and the transfer portal have made college football, especially in a league like the SEC, a carbon copy of the NFL.

True parity.

The Vols will have more chances this season to prove they belong in the upper tier of the sport.

They looked the part Saturday. Now, they have to go be it, and that starts with finishing teams when you have them on the ropes.