Josh Heupel reminisces on Tennessee's game-winning drive last season against Alabama

Josh Heupel solidified himself as the future of the Tennessee Volunteers in one drive against the Alabama Crimson Tide.

With just fifteen seconds remaining in a 49-49 showdown, Tennessee got the ball back, and Heupel wasn’t playing for overtime. Hendon Hooker led the Volunteers on a 45-yard-drive in just 13 seconds, and Chase McGrath kicked Heupel’s squad to victory.

During an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show on Thursday, Heupel explained his thought-process at that moment.

“Yeah, a lot of great moments, had a discussion whether you call a timeout and try to ice the kicker, didn’t want to do that. Wanted enough time, if there was enough time on the back-end of it, if he missed it, to give us a chance to go and put a drive together,” explained Heupel. “At the end of the day, you try to put your kids in a position situationally, what you think you’re going to see. Give them an opportunity, you can go run some plays where you can pick up some chunks.

“Our guys operated and did a great job, from the offensive line to obviously Hendon, in particular that last throw, where he’s getting hit as he’s letting it go. But Ramel Keyton, great coach. Bru McCoy, goes up and grabs the ball and gets hit. They were able to go execute, not perfectly, but we were able to go execute the kick. We wanted our protection to be a little bit better than it was on that play, but it worked.”

Tennessee fans hope Josh Heupel continues to deliver moments like last season’s victory over Alabama for years to come. If 2022 was any indication, we shouldn’t be doubting his ability to do so.

Josh Heupel: Tennessee’s journey to a championship ‘goes through the East’

Continuing, no team made more progress as a program in 2022 than Tennessee. Josh Heuepel delivered in some big games, mainly taking down Alabama in Knoxville. An Orange Bowl win against Clemson was a big deal for the Vols as well, winning a BCS/New Year’s Six bowl game for the first time since the 1998 national championship game.

The NY6 is a good place but Huepel wants to get back to playing in those championship games. First step would be getting to Atlanta for the SEC Championship, revealing that’s the “next step” for Tennessee. Heupel hopes to accomplish his goal soon and preferably, doing so in the 2023 season.

“Real simple for us,” Huepel said during an appearance on SEC Nation. “At the end of the day, you want to play in championship games. For us in ’23, that goes through the East. A lot of work to be put in to put ourselves in a position and accomplish that. Really love what our guys have done to this point of the offseason and looking forward to getting going here with training camp here next week.”

If Tennessee is going to win the SEC East, there is a pretty big elephant in the room. The back-to-back national champions reside in the division with Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs. Time will tell, but all signs point to them having to go through the reigning champions to get to where they want to be in 2023.