Josh says, "How you like me now?"

[Jaxon_Vol2017]

You should talk to the manager about it.

I'd rather go straight to the source

 

[pimo1]

Heh, check out some of these first-year head coach rankings a year and a half ago:

Athlon Sports put Heupel in the #9 spot, behind champions such as their #8 choice Blake Anderson (Utah State, in the Mtn West conference, went 6-7 this year) ... #6 Will Hall (Southern Miss in the Sun Belt, 7-6) ... #3 Bryan Harsin (formerly Auburn, didn't last long, ouch) ... and Athlon's #2 hire of that season, Clark Lea (Vandy). Who was their #1? Steve Sarkisian of 8-5 Texas.

Josh says, "How you like me now, Athlon?" Ranking college football’s new head coaches for 2021

Not to be outdone, 247 Sports picked their favorite hires of that season, as well, with Josh again at #9, below #8 Butch Jones (lol yep) ... #7 Shane Beamer ... #4 Clark Lea (there's Vandy again...did the Commodores pay sports writers for the hype?) ... and #3 Bryan Harsin (I think they were just copying off of Athlon's paper for some of these). Again, Sarkisian at Texas was the top pick.

Josh grins and says, "How you like me now, 247?" Ranking the first-year head coaches heading into the 2021 season

A year later, just before this past season, Bill Bender of The Sporting News ranked all 130 FBS coaches. He put Josh at #27. Which, given our 7-6 season in 2021, may not seem horrendously wrong of the writer, except for some of the folks he put above Josh. Like: #22 Mel Tucker (Michigan State, 5-7) ... #20 Matt Campbell (Iowa State, 4-8) ... #16 Lane Kiffin ... #14 Mark Stoops ... #11 Mario Cristobal (Miami, 5-7) ... #5 Luke Fickell ... and hilariously as it turns out, #2 Dabo Swinney.

None of that last group are horrible choices for a top 25 list, but there aren't 10 coaches in America doing better than Josh Heupel, esp. given where he started. There might not be 5 doing better than Josh. Ranking college football coaches 1-131 for 2022 season

This just goes to show, most of the sports writers out there, they don't know football any better than a lot of us fans. It may be entertaining, reading what they write, but it is rarely educational or insightful.

So how you like him now, Vol Nation?

Go Vols!

I am fully on board the Huepel train and have been since day 1, that being said. Lets slow down a bit.. lets's revisit things like this like 3-4 years down the road. Good seasons happen and so do bad seasons. The difference between a good coach and a bad one is which one is their norm. This year's team overachieved by any realistic metric. I am interested to see these next 2 years when the team is pretty much all his guys. I honestly think we will have a slight return to reality this upcoming season and then it all gels in 2024. 2024 is the season we really know what we have for sure. Everything points to something special.

 

[kiddiedoc]

Met CJH at dinner tonight -- super nice guy and had a bunch of recruits with him. He was happy to get a quick pic with my huge fan of a son.

 

[Arrested Devolopment]

“The two keys to success as a sportswriter are: 1) A blind willingness to believe anything you're told by the coaches, flacks, hustlers and other "official spokesmen" for the team-owners who provide the free booze ... and: 2) A Roget's Thesaurus, in order to avoid using the same verbs and adjectives twice in the same paragraph."

Hunter S. Thompson

 

[UTblood4life]

If huepel keeps it going like this for the next 5yrs we will most likely forget 08,2010,2011,2012,2013,2017,2018,2019,& 2020

 

[WoodsmanVol]

Be careful, don't want to create a Karendemic of crying over going back to past predictions.

Love it, might very well enter the lexicology of American slang. The disease of karendemic is certainly becoming more widespread. Indeed, a case of it was one of the first things I saw this morning on the news.

 

[kcvols1]

Love it, might very well enter the lexicology of American slang. The disease of karendemic is certainly becoming more widespread. Indeed, a case of it was one of the first things I saw this morning on the news.

I’m for it as long as we exclude “bigly.”

Pretty sure it’s alas officially excluded, but *** that noise!

 

[GVF]

Heh, check out some of these first-year head coach rankings a year and a half ago:

Athlon Sports put Heupel in the #9 spot, behind champions such as their #8 choice Blake Anderson (Utah State, in the Mtn West conference, went 6-7 this year) ... #6 Will Hall (Southern Miss in the Sun Belt, 7-6) ... #3 Bryan Harsin (formerly Auburn, didn't last long, ouch) ... and Athlon's #2 hire of that season, Clark Lea (Vandy). Who was their #1? Steve Sarkisian of 8-5 Texas.

Josh says, "How you like me now, Athlon?" Ranking college football’s new head coaches for 2021

Not to be outdone, 247 Sports picked their favorite hires of that season, as well, with Josh again at #9, below #8 Butch Jones (lol yep) ... #7 Shane Beamer ... #4 Clark Lea (there's Vandy again...did the Commodores pay sports writers for the hype?) ... and #3 Bryan Harsin (I think they were just copying off of Athlon's paper for some of these). Again, Sarkisian at Texas was the top pick.

Josh grins and says, "How you like me now, 247?" Ranking the first-year head coaches heading into the 2021 season

A year later, just before this past season, Bill Bender of The Sporting News ranked all 130 FBS coaches. He put Josh at #27. Which, given our 7-6 season in 2021, may not seem horrendously wrong of the writer, except for some of the folks he put above Josh. Like: #22 Mel Tucker (Michigan State, 5-7) ... #20 Matt Campbell (Iowa State, 4-8) ... #16 Lane Kiffin ... #14 Mark Stoops ... #11 Mario Cristobal (Miami, 5-7) ... #5 Luke Fickell ... and hilariously as it turns out, #2 Dabo Swinney.

None of that last group are horrible choices for a top 25 list, but there aren't 10 coaches in America doing better than Josh Heupel, esp. given where he started. There might not be 5 doing better than Josh. Ranking college football coaches 1-131 for 2022 season

This just goes to show, most of the sports writers out there, they don't know football any better than a lot of us fans. It may be entertaining, reading what they write, but it is rarely educational or insightful.

So how you like him now, Vol Nation?

Go Vols!

Ray Berrone says Hi.