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Tennessee officially names next head coach

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

This time, Tennessee’s coaching search wasn’t quite as dramatic. A week after the program parted ways with Jeremy Pruitt, the Volunteers have named a new leader.

Wednesday morning, Tennessee announced that UCF’s Josh Heupel will be the next head coach of the Volunteers. He heads to Rocky Top after spending the last three seasons in Orlando.

Heupel was named the head coach at UCF before the 2018 season, taking over for Scott Frost, who left the Knights to take over at Nebraska. In three seasons, Heupel is 28-8 with the Knights, leading the team to a bowl game in each year. His best season was his first, with UCF finishing 12-1 and the only loss coming to LSU in the Fiesta Bowl.

In 2019, UCF finished with a 10-3 record and in 2020 it was 6-4.

Prior to taking over at UCF, Heupel was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Missouri in 2016 and 2017. He also had stops at Utah State (2015), Oklahoma (2006-14) and Arizona (2005).

Tennessee finished the 2020 season with a 3-7 record. The Volunteers were just 16-19 under Pruitt in three seasons.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB