I love this. Lets take a look at this from a few angles. So there are folks that want to say the Tennessee offense is a gimmick. Ok, this is the United States of America. You have the right to be as stupid as you like. Remember what Lincoln said? "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt." So the same ilk at CBS recently ranked the top 25 football coaches, I'm sure you've seen the thread. Our Josh Heupel moved up to #16 on the list for 2023. So to me, it looks as if people in the media have noticed that CJH deserves to be in the top 20 of the college coaching profession. Appears to be pretty high praise for a coach running a gimmick. I'll get back to that.
It has also been said that imitation is the highest form of flattery. I believe that to be true. So is our offense is just a gimmick based on trickery that once exposed will be summarily squashed? I don't think so, and Dabo Swinney doesn't think so either. He only has a 6-4 record in the College Football Playoff with two Natty's under his belt. Oh, remember that CBS list of top 25 coaches? He was ranked number three. So why would someone of his stature be enamored by CJH's gimmick offense? The answer is Dabo is smart enough to understand something great when he sees it. You may or may not be aware that Dabo hired Garrett Riley (Lincoln's lil' bro) specifically to install the Heupel offense. Garrett worked with Hal Mummie and Mike Leach, sound familiar? Here is a link if you'd like to read up:
Does Clemson have what it takes to replicate the Vols’ offense? - Off The Hook Sports
I think we can be done with the idea of a gimmick offense. During time before the NFL draft people will do whatever it takes to try and minimalize player's values to save money. Labeling the Vols offense a gimmick was used as a tool to save money on the Vols skill players in the draft. Using terms like gimmick are also ways Vols haters can try to explain away the resurgence of this great program. One last thing, so if the #3 ranked coach copies the #16 ranked coach, shouldn't those numbers be reversed? Go Vols!