Josh Heupel has Tennessee positioned to continue climb up the SEC ladder

Late last week, I had some fun on Twitter X highlighting a particularly audacious take by a Tennessee blogger. 

In response to Kirby Smart’s comments about Georgia’s preseason depth concerns, one blogger believed it was a sign that the Bulldogs’ program had peaked and the Vols were ready to close the gap. 

This is quite the bold take. pic.twitter.com/nTwWAbD2WO

— Jesse Simonton (@JesseReSimonton) August 14, 2024

It’s a crazy claim — Georgia just signed the No. 1 recruiting class in the country and hasn’t lost a regular-season game in three years. But after a raucous recruiting weekend with a 5-star commitment and a marquee flip, the Vols do look to be “hitting their stride” under Josh Heupel. 

Perhaps they are positioned to close the gap on the rest of the SEC? — Just sans Alabama and Georgia.

How Tennessee could continue to climb up the SEC ladder

On Saturday, Tennessee landed a verbal pledge from 5-star David Sanders Jr., beating out Ohio State, Georgia and Clemson for the No. 1 offensive tackle in the 2025 class. Then Sunday, the Vols flipped 4-star linebacker Jaedon Harmon from Alabama. 

Recruiting wins over Ohio State, Georgia and Alabama merit notice, and if Heupel can continue stacking Ws against the best recruiters in the nation, then suddenly Tennessee could climb up another rung on the SEC ladder like it did during its special 2022 season. 

Last offseason, Heupel was rewarded with a $5 million raise, and with it heightened expectations. Tennessee’s head coach — who deftly navigated the program out of the Jeremy Pruitt fiasco and delivered the team its best season in 15 years — was now paid like a Top 10 coach, which meant he needed to recruit like one, too. 

The 2024 class was a bit of a disappointment, though. 

Despite coming off the heels of another solid season (9-4) and a promising future centered around 5-star quarterback Nico Iamaleava, the Vols only inked the nation’s No. 13 class. There were some excellent signees like edge Jordan Ross, wideout Mike Matthews and safety Boo Carter, but it was still just the eight-best class in the SEC — down four spots from 2023. 

It’s hard to “shrink the gap” with that sort of math, but the Vols look to be course-correcting in 2025. 

Heupel & Co., have been on a sizzling recruiting heater all summer, including a flurry of blue-chip commits (safety Lagonza Hayward Jr, Oregon tight end flip DaSaahn Brame, linebacker Christian Gass, wideout Travis Smith Jr.,) in July. 

The momentum hasn’t slowed with the 2024 season rapidly approaching, either. The Vols recently landed a commitment from 2026 quarterback Faizon Brandon —a potential No. 1 overall prospect in next year’s class — and in-state tight end Carson Sneed, but the public declaration by David Sanders represented the exact type of specific victory Tennessee needed on the trail. 

Under Heupel, the Vols have done an excellent job landing blue-chip quarterbacks, playmakers and edge rushers. The one bugaboo was beef up-front. 

Well, he’s addressed that issue in spades this cycle. Tennessee has a trio of 2025 blue-chip OL commitments, with Sanders among the highest-ranked commitments in school history. 

The 6-6, 280-pound tackle is a consensus Top 10 overall recruit and the exact type of prospect the Vols have failed to land in recent seasons. On the field, Tennessee badly missed its last 5-star tackle (Darnell Wright) in 2023, and now Heupel has someone to anchor its future OLs — and protect its horde of 5-star quarterbacks. 

That’s the best path to competing for SEC and national titles.

The Vols have all the pieces in place to be a recruiting powerhouse to compete with the best programs in the country. 

They have a strong, organized and aggressive NIL Collective. They’re an SEC program with a fun, smart head coach who has a high-octane scheme that positions players to excel. 

And for the first time since the late 90s, there’s total alignment within the program’s athletic administration. 

So the early seeds have been set for the future. The Vols are on track to sign a Top 10 (maybe Top 5?) class for the first time in the Josh Heupel era. What happens if Tennessee exceeds expectations on the field in 2024, though? — something I predict will happen in my bold predictions piece set to come out this week. 

The Vols clearly still have some real leg-work to do to be in the same conversation with Georgia, but a Top 5-10 recruiting class and a push for a College Football Playoff spot this fall would absolutely vault Tennessee firmly into the Tier II status in the SEC. 

And that is at least closing a gap … just not the one that prompted the original discussion.