Blake Toppmeyer, who knows all about Tennessee, has quite the take for your Thursday morning. In an opinion piece for USA Today, Toppmeyer advises Josh Heupel to leave Tennessee and head to Penn State.
In an already insane coaching carousel, that would certainly throw things into overdrive.
“Josh Heupel, set your phone to ring. Turn up the volume. If someone calls from a Pennsylvania area code, answer.
Because, the natives are getting restless in Tennessee, in case you haven’t noticed. Here’s Heupel’s chance to stay one step ahead of the Tennessee posse.” — Blake Toppmeyer, USA Today
Toppmeyer goes on to explain his reasoning, mentioning that Tennessee and Penn State are equal jobs. Heupel’s clock at a new gig would reset, however, and Penn State needs an offensive infusion. He also explained that Heupel won too much too quickly, setting up unrealistic expectations for the rest of his time in Knoxville. Heupel had Tennessee undefeated an No. 1 in the College Football Playoff rankings just two seasons into his time at Tennessee.
Now Tennessee has essentially been eliminated from the playoff picture, sitting at 6-3 overall. Sure fans are frustrated with how it happened, but the hot seat chatter isn’t serious from any reasonable Tennessee fan. Following the Nico Iamaleava saga from back in the spring, this is pretty much where Tennessee was supposed to be at this point.
Big picture, Heupel has stabilized a program that badly needed it. Tennessee isn’t that far removed from the awful Dooley-Jones-Pruitt eras, but with success comes expectations. Those expectations have a new bar to clear now in this era of college football — make the playoff or else.
Tennessee will alway be a pressure cooker and it’s only going to get tougher now with nine SEC games. Would Heupel bolt for an easier path forward at a place like Penn State? It’s hard to see that with what he’s built here and with the big-time recruiting class he’s got coming in.
This carousel ride will be a wild one though. LSU, Florida, Auburn, Penn State, Arkansas, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State, UCLA, Stanford are already open and more are sure to follow. Everyone won’t be able to hire Lane Kiffin, and sitting head coaches are sure to be targeted. Will Heupel’s phone ring? Outside of a couple of random hot board posts at Virginia Tech and LSU, the buzz hasn’t quite been there.
Tennessee is a pretty easy target for rage-baiting clicks like this one. The ‘Tennessee posse’ is not coming after Josh Heupel, although results against Florida and Vanderbilt could ramp up the pressure going into 2026.
My two cents — if I’m Penn State, I’m looking a little further south and giving Alex Golesh a call.
