Update: Tennessee has announced the hire.
"I am thrilled to be coming to Tennessee," Heupel said. "I understand that Volunteer fans are hungry for a return to the top that they so richly deserve, and it is my goal and commitment to bring a championship back to Rocky Top."
Late last night we heard that the buzz around the building at Tennessee was that UCF head coach Josh Heupel was the prime target for the Vols head coaching job and talks were heating up.
This morning, Pete Thamel tweets that Heupel is finalizing a deal to become the next head coach at Tennessee.
Thamel adds that a deal is expected to be announced today as well.
A hire of Heupel would mean a pairing with Danny White that started at UCF, as Heupel was hired by White to replace Scott Frost, who left for Nebraska after building the Knights into one of the premier Group of Five programs in the country.
Heupel has gone an impressive 28-8 over the past three seasons. He went 12-1 his first season, 10-3 in 2019 and 6-4 this past season. Of those eight losses to his name as a head coach, six of them came by a combined 17 points.
He did impressive work with quarterbacks as the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma, Utah State, and Missouri before landing his first head coaching job at UCF and has led some of the most explosive and efficient offenses in the country at UCF.
As a player he was the runner up for the Heisman Trophy back in 2000 at Oklahoma when he led the Sooners to an undefeated season and national title over Florida State in the 2001 Orange Bowl. He spent two seasons in the NFL with the Dolphins and Packers and started his coaching career at his alma mater in 2004 as a graduate assistant.
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