Report: New Front-Runner Emerges for Tennessee Coaching Job

Tennessee now appears poised to poached Danny White and Josh Heupel from UCF over the last week and a half. Heupel would follow White to Knoxville to take over a Tennessee program that is coming off of a 3-7 season and is facing possible NCAA sanctions following the firing of Jeremy Pruitt and nine other coaches with cause.

According to a report from VolQuest, Heupel is now the front-runner. You can view the report below.

White hired Heupel at UCF following the departure of Scott Frost in 2017, and he has produced a 28-8 record since. Heupel is known as an offensive mastermind, and he already has a strong rapport with Danny White.

According to White's UCF bio: "The (UCF) 2018 offense churned out an average of 522.7 yards per game to finish the season ranked fifth in the nation—and the 2019 version proved even better than that in averaging 536.6 yards, best in UCF history and ranking fourth nationally. The Knights’ ground game set a program single-season record with 3,448 yards on the ground in 2018—as UCF averaged 265.2 yards rushing per game, eighth in the country. Running back Greg McCrae in 2018 became UCF’s first 1,000-yard rusher since 2013 with 1,182 yards on the ground, fourth most in program history. Then in 2019 a diversified Knights’ run game saw the top four runners combine for 2,488 yards, 27 TDs and an amazing average of 6.46 yards per carry. Those figures allowed UCF to average more than 200 yards per game on the ground over two straight years for the first time.

Heupel has always been a viable candidate for White, but it was not the first direction Tennessee headed, and only time will tell if it is the last.