Josh Heupel’s grip on Tennessee still looks firm, but CBS Sports sees a little more heat on the seat heading into 2026.
The Vols’ coach is entering his sixth season in Knoxville, a run that stands out in a program that has cycled through leaders since Phillip Fulmer’s 17-year tenure ended in 2008. Since then, Tennessee has gone from Lane Kiffin for one season to Derek Dooley for three, Butch Jones for five, and Jeremy Pruitt for three. Heupel has brought a level of stability the program hasn’t had in years.
His track record backs that up. In five seasons, Heupel is 45-20 with one trip to the College Football Playoffs. Tennessee still wants more consistency, but it has already reached two 10-plus win seasons under him for the first time since the early 2000s.
CBS Sports ranked all 138 FBS coaches with a “Hot Seat Rating” going into 2026, and Heupel landed at 2.3, which puts him in the “All good… for now” category. That’s a step up in temperature from last season, when he checked in at 1.1 and was labeled “Safe and secure.” Tennessee’s disappointing 2025 season didn’t send him into danger territory, but it did nudge the number upward.
Among SEC coaches, the comparisons help frame where Heupel stands. Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer is listed in “Pressure is mounting,” Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea is “Untouchable,” and South Carolina’s Shane Beamer is in “Start improving now.”
The closest SEC coach to Heupel is Texas’ Steve Sarkisian, who sits at 2.6 in the same “All good… for now” tier. No SEC coach landed in the top “Win or be fired” category.
One of the biggest developments around Tennessee this offseason came on the defensive side. For the first time in his time with the Vols, Heupel moved on from multiple assistants and a coordinator after a rough defensive year. Tim Banks and his staff had been part of Tennessee’s CFP run in 2024, but the 2025 results carried too much weight to ignore.
That led to a major reset. Heupel hired Jim Knowles away from Penn State to run the defense, then gave him the freedom to assemble the rest of the staff. Knowles brought in Anthony Poindexter as co-defensive coordinator, Derek Jones as cornerbacks coach, and AJ Jackson as LEOs coach.
ESPN’s FPI sees Tennessee finishing 2026 somewhere in the 8-4 to 7-5 range, which would leave the Vols out of the playoff picture for a second straight year. With a freshman quarterback set to start and a new defensive system going in, there’s still plenty to sort out. If Tennessee ends up in that 7-8 win neighborhood, CBS Sports’ next hot seat update could look a lot different.
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The reset comes with a loaded 2026 slate waiting on the other side, beginning with a home opener against Furman on Sept. 5 and rolling into a run of SEC matchups that will quickly test the new field. Texas is on the early schedule in a Checker Neyland atmosphere, and the rest of the home calendar brings the kind of opponents that will keep the stadium in the spotlight well beyond opening weekend. [Read more 🡒]
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Jalen Haralson, Terrence Hill and Juke Harris all landed in the mix, with Tennessee set to lean on a group that arrives from Notre Dame, VCU and Wake Forest, respectively. The ranking will only fuel the usual debate around how quickly portal-heavy teams can mesh, especially with several other highly regarded players on the schedule and plenty of chances for these new faces to prove the list right or wrong. [Read more 🡒]
Tennessee Is Getting Preseason Respect But Two Huge Questions Remain
Phil Steeles preseason list has given Tennessee a respectable early perch, slotting the Vols at No. 18 and eighth in the SEC. That kind of placement says there is real belief in what Josh Heupel has coming back, especially with a schedule that features several ranked league opponents and, in a helpful twist, most of those games set for Knoxville.
Even so, the optimism comes with two obvious asterisks. Tennessee is breaking in a new defensive system under coordinator Jim Knowles, and the offense still has to settle the most important spot on the field before anyone can treat the ranking as more than a summer snapshot. ESPN has pointed to the quarterback race as one of the biggest uncertainties in the country, which is exactly why the Vols ceiling feels so high and their floor still feels hard to pin down. [Read more 🡒]