Former Mizzou OC Heupel welcomes challenge to revive Rocky Top

It was in 2017 when Heupel’s Mizzou offense led the SEC with 502.2 yards per game and 484.9 per conference game while Lock set an SEC single-season record with 44 touchdown passes. Heupel’s boom-or-bust offensive pace can put a strain on his team’s defense, but after two years of Jim Chaney’s plodding system, the Vols welcome the more modern attack.

“I’m so excited with my ability to catch the ball, to get yards after the catch and (be a) deep-ball threat,” UT receiver Velus Jones Jr. said. “It’s like a dream come true playing in this offense.”

With a roster depleted by the transfer portal and scholarship reductions likely coming, it could be years before the Vols become serious threats to Georgia and Florida in the SEC East, but if Heupel wins sooner or later — he’s got a six-year, $24 million contract, same as Drinkwitz — a fan base so hungry for relevance will embrace him while the school fills his bank account with cash and security. Just look at how Tennessee rewarded baseball coach (and St. Louis native) Tony Vitello after he guided the Vols to the College World Series. Tennessee has never been a baseball superpower but now pays Vitello like a superpower: UT just jacked up his salary from $600,000 to $1.5 million with a new contract through 2026. Women’s basketball coach Kelly Harper just landed an extension after her second season.

Can Heupel reach that point? At UCF, he inherited a ready-made Group of Five power, produced respectable but measured results, enough to convince his AD he could thrive at a place with greater resources but greater expectations. Heupel believes he’s more equipped now to tackle the Rocky Top challenge than he would have been three years ago when he moved from Mizzou to Orlando.