On3 Roundtable: Another impressive Tennessee season is SEC’s ‘worst nightmare’

The turnaround of Tennessee’s football program behind head coach Josh Heupel is well documented, as he immediately doubled the wins of the 3-7 team he inherited in his first season and followed it with a phenomenal 11-2 finish last year, signifying the program’s first double-digit win season since 2007.

But what happens if the Volunteers do it again next year? Sustaining the success of the strong foundation laid by Huepel? On3’s JD PicKell spoke with VolQuest’s Austin Price on a recent episode of On3 Roundtable about that very possibility.

“For all the people that are saying Tennessee was a one-hit wonder last year, it would validate everything that Huepel and everyone is doing here,” Price said. “And it puts them into playoff conversation again, it puts them in the New Year’s Six Bowl again, and it’s to me the SEC’s worst nightmare.”

The Volunteers’ offense surely gave teams nightmares already last season, leading the nation in points and yards a game averaging 525.5 yards and 46.1 points per contest. They put together eight straight wins to start the season before falling to the defending back-to-back champion Georgia Bulldogs, and meeting that standard again or going above it in 2023 could mean bad news for the SEC.

“Because Tennessee is a national brand and, they’ve been held down for so long and any time they’ve tried to stand up, they’ve been beaten back down to the ground. So if they can actually stay upright, that’s a good sign for the Vols and I think a bad sign for the rest of the league,” Price explained.

Price elaborated on the expectations for Tennessee this upcoming season, detailing how big of an impact another successful season in Rocky Top would be for the Volunteers.

“And I don’t mean they’re going to win the national title, but it just makes another formidable opponent for all the heavy hitters at the top of the league, and so I think there would be a massive step in the right direction for Heupel,” Price said. “Obviously, last year was a huge step, but to me, this would be the ultimate defining moment for Heupel is to do it back-to-back years, to win 10 games.”

It’s no secret that Heupel’s offensive system has been a major catalyst in the recent success of the Tennessee program as a whole. And Price even went as far as to say that another slam dunk season for the Vols led by their offense could have major implications regarding the draft status of their leader under center.

“And if that happens then Joe Milton is a top 10 pick and could be the number one pick. Because even if Tennessee goes 9-3 I think Joe with his skillset is gonna be a top 10 pick at that point. I think he goes rocketing up draft boards if they’re winning nine, 10 games,” Price said.

A breakout season for Milton could be reminiscent of Tennessee’s previous QB1 Hendon Hooker, who burst onto the as one of the nation’s most effective and efficient passers in the country last year. But being drafted in the top 10 of the 2024 NFL Draft would make him the highest pick at the position for Tennessee since Peyton Manning.

There’s no question that the table has been set and the pieces have been assembled by Heupel to build on last year’s season, which is good news in Knoxville and bad news for the rest of the Southeastern Conference.