You’d think Tennessee is merely at the onset of a special few years. They steered through the treacherous SEC to make the inaugural 12-team CFP last season. Something a lot of their very capable contemporaries can’t say. Sure, it didn’t go very well once they got there. The orange was well and truly squashed in Columbus that fateful day in the round 1 playoff game. But alas, Josh Heupel can take some solace from reaching that juncture now that the dust has settled. His individual trajectory as a head coach is pointed skywards. The program, collectively, is also well-positioned. Or so it seemed. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows in Rocky Top.

The CFB recruitment process is more convoluted now than the playbooks themselves. The dynamic shift has been rather stark, and the advent of the transfer portal is the flagbearer of this change. The power lies with the individual more than their program. Talent jumping ship is a perpetual threat now. “Player power” is often a point of discourse among pro-sports, especially the NBA. It’s a prevalent notion that athletes have too much control in moving around teams. This notion is somewhat justified as well, with so many examples of players turning into mercenaries to secure their franchise of choice. It appears this effect has trickled down to college football as well.

Josh Heupel and his Vols find themselves on the wrong end of a star player realizing the true power he holds. That would be Rickey Gibson, who’s announced he “plans” to enter the transfer portal. Plans being the operative word. This ordeal stems from Tennessee losing their CB1 and 2nd-team All-SEC selection, Jermod McCoy, tearing his ACL last month. McCoy was the key cog in a secondary that was pretty airtight last season. Losing McCoy is unequivocally a blow. However, in a morbid way, it raises the stock and importance of his fellow cornerback on the other flank.

Now that Heupel and the Vols’ Broyles Award finalist D-coordinator Tim Banks are staring at the possibility of missing McCoy for the start of next season, it means Rickey Gibson gained leverage. Tennessee can’t afford to lose him as well. As such, he’s exploiting this exact leverage to perhaps angle for a better deal. That’s according to Vols insider Eric Cain. He took to the “Locked On Vols” podcast to leverage his thoughts after the reports around Gibson entering the portal. Of course, once it opens back up in April. Cain reckons Gibson’s camp is putting this out there in advance so that Tennessee’s hand is forced, given their dependency on their only fit starting cornerback.

“Leaking it out there, making it go public, puts so much pressure on the University of Tennessee. As a fan, you’re gonna sit here like, ‘Man. I hate that. Gosh, that’s so gross. Why would Rickey Gibson do that? But from a business perspective, it makes all the sense in the world,” said Eric Cain. He refused to blame Gibson’s entourage. Football’s a short career after all, and NIL is there to be made the most of. However, Cain did speak about where he sits as a fan who wants his team to not lose a talent of this ilk. “From a fan’s perspective, we got to pay the guy,” he said. But caving into Gibson’s demands opens another can of worms.

“If Tennessee goes ahead… What’s to say that Boo Carter doesn’t walk in tomorrow and say, ‘Alright, I want that same thing.’? What if Joshua Joseph walks in and says, ‘I want that same thing’?… there’s some gray area there. You’ve got to be smart in how you want to go about this,” remarked Eric Cain. Josh Heupel and the front office are stuck between a rock and a hard place. It remains to be seen if Gibson stays put in Knoxville on better terms or actually leaves. You know what they say—when it rains, it pours. Heupel has received another alarming verdict.

Rickey Gibson bombshell preceded by another head-turner for Josh Heupel

Success breeds standards. Josh Heupel has now set himself a bar that isn’t unsurmountable by any means. But it’s not easily breached, either. Not making the CFP next season won’t go down well among the very vocal Tennessee faithful. Now that QB1 Nico Iamaleava has garnered a year of experience, progression is considered requisite. But things don’t often work with that sort of linearity in CFB. Especially when the schedule consists of away trips to Tuscaloosa and Gainesville. This was one of many reasons baked into why one national analyst reckons the Volunteers may miss the playoffs.

Over ESPN’s College Football Podcast, Greg McElroy stated the following: “I look at the playoff forecast, and I think it’s absolutely possible for Tennessee [to miss] this year.“ He pointed to the glaring aforementioned road trips in the SEC. “This year, it’s going to kind of hinge on how they play at Florida and how they play at Alabama.” Heupel has actually had success over Bama after the Vols went over a decade without beating them. They beat them in Neyland last season, too. Something that spurred them on to make a run at the playoffs. As for Florida, Billy Napier’s unit is on the up. DJ Lagway under center has transformed both performances and perception.

Tennessee is one of the more stable programs at this juncture. There’s been a steady improvement under the head coach. Players don’t leave too often, and they’re hovering around the double-digit win mark each year. However, this sport is fickle. One missed playoff, or one player such as Rickey Gibson leaving, can domino into a fall of the foundational pillars Heupel has laid. A huge year beckons for the Vols. They’ll look to get a proverbial monkey off their back and make a deep playoff run. Something fans are yearning for. While hoping Gibson is a contributor to it.