'There's Only One UT': Tennessee's Josh Heupel Throws Shade At Longhorns
Come 2024, two programs with the initials "UT" will call the Southeastern Conference home, but only can reign supreme once Texas joins the party. According to Tennessee coach Josh Heupul, that decision has already been made.
"There's only one real UT," Heupel said with a smile during Thursday's SEC Media Days press conference. "One right shade of orange."
Heupel has a history of facing off against the Longhorns going back to his college days at Oklahoma. During the national championship season in 2000, he threw for 275 yards and a score en route to a 63-14 beatdown at the Cotton Bowl. Overall, he went 1-1 against the Horns during his tenure at Oklahoma.
History is on the Volunteers' side in a sense well past the game on the gridiron. The University of Tennessee was founded in 1794, 51 years before Texas gained statehood. The football program in Knoxville began in 1891, two years before the Longhorns called the Forty Acres home and proved to be the flagship program of the Lone Star State.
The Longhorns, the projected favorite to win the Big 12 in their final season before heading to the super conference of the south, will have an uphill battle to climb. No one is going to open the door for them to make headlines in 2023, especially the Volunteers as they look to become the next big-time program to break barriers in the foreseeable future.
The two UTs will eventually be able to settle the score on the gridiron for the first time since 1969 when Texas beat Tennessee in the Cotton Bowl, but there will be conversations for at least another year. Tennessee faces Heupel's alma mater in the 2024 SEC schedule, while Texas will take on programs like Georgia, Kentucky and in-state rival Texas A&M.
Should the game be played in Neyland Stadium, expect Vols fans to show no shortage of "Horns Down" signs. During media days in Nashville, Tenn., SEC coordinator of officials John McDaid said in a statement that while unsportsmanlike conduct penalties can still be dished out, they would have to fall into one of three categories.
"Is it taunting an opponent? Is it making a travesty of the game? Is it otherwise compromising our ability to manage the game?" McDaid said, per The Action Network's Brett McMurphy. "There’s a difference between a player giving a signal directly in [the] face of an opponent, as opposed to doing it w/teammates celebrating after a touchdown or on the sideline. To get all that out, every single occurrence is not an act of unsportsmanlike conduct.”
Bragging rights will come down the road for either program. For now, it's about winning in 2023. Both teams are projected to be contenders to make the College Football Playoff for the first time in program history.
Could that be a step up for the case of who is the "real" UT?
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