Josh Heupel on Tennessee's offseason evaluations: 'I'll certainly take a hard look at all of it'

Josh Heupel said it himself during his postgame press conference. Tennessee failed to live up to the football program’s standard in the 45-24 loss to in-state rival Vanderbilt Saturday on Senior Day at Neyland Stadium. 

“Ultimately,” Heupel said, “the performance we had tonight is not anywhere near the standard of what Tennessee football is.”

Tennessee (8-4, 4-4 SEC) gave up 582 yards of total offense, including 433 total yards to quarterback Diego Pavia alone, and got outscored 24-3 in the second half while losing to Vanderbilt (10-2, 6-2) for the first time since 2018. 

But whether or not Heupel will make any staff changes during the offseason remains to be seen. 

Heupel after the game was asked about Tennessee’s defensive failures both in the game and on the season as a whole.

“This (game) just wrapped up a few seconds ago,” Heupel said. “It’s my job to evaluate everything inside of our program and, you know, I told our players we’ve had some disappointing results, but the second half was extremely disappointing. Coaches and players, not just one.”

Vanderbilt ran for 314 yards, six touchdowns against Tennessee

The Vols entered Saturday ranked 14th in the SEC in pass defense, scoring defense and total defense.

“There’s been a lot of things that we’ve had to deal with,” Heupel said, “in the beginning, middle parts of the season.”

Heupel was likely referencing the loss of All-American corner Jermod McCoy to a torn ACL during offseason training in January, leading to McCoy to miss the entire season. Corner Rickey Gibson II was lost to a season-ending upper body injury in the season-opening win over Syracuse, before other injuries slowed the defense throughout the season. 

“Felt like we took some steps here last couple weeks,” Heupel said.

The steps only went backward against Vanderbilt.

Heupel said the defensive failures against Vandy started in the run game. The Commodores ran 37 times for 314 yards and five touchdowns as a team, led by Pavia’s 20 carries for 165 yards and a back-breaking 24-yard touchdown run in the second half.

Sedrick Alexander ran 10 times for 115 yards and three touchdowns, including a 39-yarder to put Vandy up 21 points as the capacity crowd emptied the stadium in the fourth quarter. 

“It starts there,” Heupel said of the run defense. “Getting off the field on third down. End of the first half, got a stop, not smart football, give another set of downs and they get seven instead of kicking a field goal. 

“It’s all those little things that add up to a result that you don’t like. And it looks like that on the scoreboard. This game, at this level,  it’s small details.” 

Tennessee defensive coordinator Tim Banks got a raise over the offseason, giving him $2.15 million annually on a deal through the 2027 season.

Banks has been with Heupel all five seasons at Tennessee, helping the Vols get to the College Football Playoff last season with a defense that was third in the SEC in scoring defense, second in total defense and run defense and fifth against the pass. 

‘We’ll have a chance to meet with our guys and move forward as a program’

Heupel was also asked Saturday night what the coming days will look like for the Tennessee coaching staff as the Vols await their bowl game destination. 

“We’ll have a chance to meet with our guys and move forward as a program,” he said, “and revisit the season and look backwards before we look forwards, too.”

He said personnel evaluation would examine the “entire program.”

“We’ll do that as an entire program,” Heupel said, “and I’ll certainly take a hard look at all of it.”