Tennessee Insider Confirms Josh Heupel’s Blunder That Turned Out to be a Crucial Loss for the College
Something feels off in Knoxville, and if you’re a Tennessee fan, you’ve probably noticed it. The Vols spent the last three years making noise, going 11-2 in 2022, 9-4 in 2023, and then finally cracking the College Football Playoff in 2024 with a 10-3 record. That’s the kind of run that should have the media eating out of Tennessee’s hand, right? Nope. Instead, the Vols got zero love this offseason. No top-tier ranking hype. No “watch out for Tennessee” talk. Just silence. And why? Turns out, Josh Heupel fumbled the bag when it came to the transfer portal.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
On February 18th, Tennessee insider Eric Cain hopped on his ‘Locked On Vols’ podcast and let it rip: “I’m not going to sit here and say Tennessee shouldn’t have went out and got another wide receiver in the transfer portal. Brought in Amari Jefferson—we’ll see what happens, sure. You know, I know Tennessee missed out on—you know, they got two offensive linemen via the portal, which was good. But they missed out on one or two that they might have liked more.”
Translation: Tennessee went bargain hunting while everyone else was loading up on game-changers. The Vols brought in just four players from the portal—Arizona OL Windell Moe, Alabama WR Amari Jefferson, Duke RB Star Thomas, and Notre Dame OL Sam Pendleton. That’s barely a blip on the radar. And it showed. 247 Sports ranked Tennessee’s transfer portal class No. 88 nationally and dead last in the SEC. On3 was a little kinder, putting them at No. 38 nationally and No. 10 in the SEC. Either way, that ain’t cutting it if you want to stay relevant in the cutthroat world of college football.
Is Josh Heupel’s strategy of focusing on coaching retention over aggressive transfer portal moves a smart play for Tennessee?
Leave a Reply