Josh Heupel addresses aftermath for Tennessee amid Notice of Allegations from NCAA

Josh Heupel’s program took a hit earlier this month once the NCAA’s notice of allegations against Tennessee was announced. The notice comes after an investigation into the program during Jeremy Pruitt’s tenure in Knoxville. With that now in play, Heupel has now opened up about the indictment for the first time.

Heupel answered questions about the NOA during a press conference that opened the Volunteer’s fall camp. He said that it’s good to have it out in the open now so his new program can move forward.

“There’s been so much dialogue and communication between our administration and the NCAA. Some of the things that hit publicly are things that we haven’t been able to talk about. We knew that was coming and we’ve been very transparent with our current roster and our recruits. It’s why I think we’ve positioned ourselves extremely well,” Josh Heupel said. “You look at some of the things that have come out of that (with) the NCAA talking about us being a model of how to move forward for universities when they’re dealing with something. From the very beginning, I said it’s really just a speed bump for this program…I think we’ve positioned ourselves extremely well to swallow things up here early, be able to move forward, and compete for championships.”

The notice revealed that Pruitt paid recruits $60,000 in cash or gifts during his time at Tennessee. It involved Pruitt, his wife and several members of his staff and boosters. In total, it included 18 Level I NCAA violations against the Vols.

With it being public knowledge now, Heupel says it hasn’t changed his recruitment of players. The school understands the severity of the infractions and Heupel wants to be completely clear and honest about the incident with every player considering or committed to Tennessee.

“For us, we’ve been very transparent with the two recruiting classes that we’ve been involved with since our staff has gotten here. I think there’s great trust from them. We’ve been able to talk openly about the things that we were doing inside of our program. Once the notice of allegations came out, being able to have a Zoom call with all of them and be able to speak more directly about the things that we’re doing,” said Heupel. “This recruiting class really hasn’t felt the things that we’re doing internally and so they can understand that the things that are gonna happen in the future won’t have an impact on how they’re being recruited, their experience as a student athlete here on campus and what they’re going to be able to compete for on the football field.”

Josh Heupel must now continue his work to get Tennessee past these infractions. Success on the field is a start, but transparency off of it will be key as well. To this point, Heupel and the school have been nothing but cooperative in and about the NCAA’s investigation. From here, it’s all about how they conduct themselves as a program moving forward.