After repeatedly spending the last few days going after Kalen DeBoer and Alabama, Paul Finebaum’s spotlight has turned towards Tennessee. The Vols had an interesting two seasons under Josh Heupel. In some ways, the team overperformed in 2025. However, Finebaum still believes that they are heading in the wrong direction.

“I bring Josh Heupel up,” Finebaum said on Crain & Cone. “I like him; he has made the playoffs one time, but he’s been there four, five years, and it feels like the program is going in the wrong direction. That should not happen. And it’s a very bad sign for a name-brand program.”

“Maybe I’m old school enough to still believe that Tennessee is one of those schools that should always be at or near the top, but the end of last season was a complete disaster. Losing at home to Oklahoma, and they also lost at home to Vanderbilt. They badly lost the bowl game.”

The Vols hired Heupel in January 2021 to succeed Jeremy Pruitt, who was fired after a 16-19 record over three seasons. During the 2020 season, the Vols finished the campaign with a 3-7 record. The failures went way back: Tennessee had eight seasons from 2008 to 2020 in which it lost seven or more games.

With Heupel, the Vols progressed from the onset. He finished 7-6 in his first year, and the team went on a run to start the second year. At one point, the Vols were 8-0 and ranked No. 1, their first #1 ranking since 1998. However, the team fell to No. 2 Georgia and unranked South Carolina and missed out on the playoffs. The season ended 11-2 after their victory at the Orange Bowl.

The third season was a drop from the second, as they fell to No. 21 in the CFP final rankings. They finished with an 8-4 regular season record and a blowout victory at the Citrus Bowl. Heupel’s fourth season seemed more like the second, as it was his second double-digit winning season. They finished with a 10-2 record and made the college football playoffs. However, they were eliminated in the first round.

The 2025 season felt as if the target was just to manage a winning season. The Vols finished 8-4, and that was the end of it. Their season was marked by a 27-33 home loss to the Sooners and a 30-28 defeat to Illinois in the Music City Bowl.

By Finebaum’s standards, a mere College Football Playoff appearance is decent, but that should not be happening once in five years. However, looking at what the Vols were before Heupel, just competing every season is progress. Of the three top 10 finishes in final AP rankings for the Vols, two have happened during his tenure. Currently, they don’t belong at the top of the SEC, and in Heupel, the Vols have a head coach who can take them there.

Even Finebaum had been an admirer of Heupel’s job in Knoxville. He once lauded Heupel for being better than any other CFB coach at the time. He also praised his leadership culture, saying, “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen more of a player’s coach than Josh Heupel.”

The last campaign may have prompted Finebaum to change his stance, but the program remains satisfied with its head coach, rewarding him with a $45 million contract last August.

Paul Finebaum on Tennessee’s quarterback situation

The Vols thought they had a settled quarterback room until former quarterback Joey Aguilar was denied another year of eligibility, which led him to the NFL draft and an eventual UDFA deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Now, the program is left with no fixed QB1, as the competition remains open among redshirt freshman George MacIntyre, five-star freshman Faizon Brandon, and Colorado transfer Ryan Staub. It is a situation Finebaum vehemently disapproves.

“You can’t let that happen, and then, they got some bad luck in court, losing Aguilar. They don’t have a quarterback. You guys all tell me how you can win in the SEC without a quarterback.”

In the end, there was a consensus among Crain & Cone hosts that the Volunteers would have to rely heavily on their defense, with their fans tipped to get “absolutely jacked” if they manage even an 8-4 record.