Josh Heupel reveals the advantage of better understanding his players in year two

Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel unleashed his up-tempo offensive attack last season in his first year as the head man in Knoxville and it thrived. Luckily for him, he had the maestro that is Hendon Hooker under center and the dynamic dual threat ran the offense like a thing of beauty. In year two of the Huepel and Hooker partnership, many national media analysts, including On3’s J.D. PicKell are projecting Hooker to be a Heisman sleeper for the 2022 season. Recently, Heupel spoke about how there will be a better understanding between the Tennessee players and coaches in his second season.

“Yeah, for sure. They have a better understanding of who I am and how I’m gonna handle situations and how I’m gonna communicate with them. And it’s true on the other side of the coin for us as a coaching staff, but myself as well. To understand, you know, the successes and failures. The struggles that they have. What is their makeup? Their ability to handle the things that will inevitably come up in the course of a ballgame, but just in life. And how do we help them? I think coaches, a big part of coaching is understanding who you’re trying to communicate with and understanding the right buttons to push with those individuals to drive the absolute best from them,” Heupel said.

What Josh Heupel did with the Vols offense in his first year was nothing short of remarkable. He had the Vols ranked in the top 10 in the nation in scoring offense (39.3 points per game) and total yards per game (474.4). They were also among the nation’s best in the speed and tempo of their offense (plays per second). It’s going to be exciting to watch Hooker and Heupel work together yet again this year.

Heupel and Hooker should be a highly explosive force yet again

Hooker opted to return to Tennessee for the 2022-2023 season and college football fans across the country are in for a real treat. The gifted quarterback admitted a few months ago that he wasn’t happy with the grades he received back from NFL decision makers. He wasn’t ranked in the top 10 of draft-eligible quarterbacks for the 2022 NFL Draft, according to Mel Kiper, Jr. The feedback he received was a big reason why he decided to use his extra year of eligibility and return to Knoxville.

“They were saying mid-rounds,” Hooker said. “I want to go higher, so coming back was a great choice. I thought about it for a couple of days after I met with coach Heupel. I’m happy with the decision and I’m excited to come back and get it going again.”

Hooker is happy with the decision, and he should be. It was a very wise move for him to come back and try to improve his stock for the 2023 NFL Draft. College football fans across America should be happy about his decision, too, because they’ll get a front row seat to watch one of the game’s marvelous talents. Hooker is electrifying with the football in his hands and the fact that he could contend for the Heisman Trophy this year is no stretch of the imagination.

On3’s Nikki Chavanelle also contributed to this article.