On Wednesday, multiple sources announced that Josh Heupel, a native of Aberdeen, South Dakota, and current head football coach for the University of Central Florida, would be taking over the head football coach position for the Tennessee Volunteers.
This is a big move for Heupel as it puts him in the coveted SEC conference. Last week, Tennessee hired Danny White, who spent six years at UCF as vice president and director of athletics, as their new athletic director, so this move reunites Heupel with White as well.
Heupel grew up in Aberdeen, South Dakota where he played quarterback for the Golden Eagles at Central high school. His father Ken Heupel coached football at Northern State University, where he won a conference championship in 1999.
In college, Heupel spent time at both Weber State and Snow College before transferring to the University of Oklahoma. As the starting quarterback, he led the Sooners to a National Championship win against Florida State in the 2001 Orange Bowl. That football season he was also runner-up for the Heisman Trophy award.
After a short stint as a player in the NFL for the Miami Dolphins (2001) and Green Bay Packers (2002), Heupel went back to the college ranks to get into coaching. Here is his college coaching resume to this point…
- Quarterbacks coach for Oklahoma (2006-10)
- Co-Offensive Coordinator for Oklahoma (2011-14)
- Assistant Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator for Utah State (2015)
- Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks Coach for Missouri State (2016-17)
- Head Coach for the University of Central Florida (2018-20)
This is Heupel’s second head coaching opportunity at the D1 FBS level. As head coach for the University of Central Florida for three seasons, he led the Knights to an overall record of 28-8. Heupel will be challenged with ‘righting the ship,’ for Tennessee, who last year went 3-7 on the season.
