Over the last several years, the Tennessee Vols have dealt with negative recruiting from other programs due to Josh Heupel's offense. Opponents often float the idea that Tennessee's offense doesn't prepare player for the NFL.
The Tennessee Vols have dealt with negative recruiting from opposing programs the last several years due to the style of offense that Josh Heupel runs.
Opposing programs like to point out that Tennessee hasn't had any offensive players under Heupel become star players in the NFL.
Several national media outlets, such as ESPN, also like to push the narrative that Tennessee's offense doesn't prepare players for the NFL.
"Tennessee, to their success and credit during the college seasons - not as much during the pro development stage - has had a few of these guys come out as super long, fast, twitchy, athletic perimeter receivers that, at least to this point, haven't really panned out that much at the NFL level," said ESPN's Field Yates earlier this year. "So I do think that will be part of the conversation (with Chris Brazzell). A lot of the route tree at Tennessee is run far, run fast, run straight. Or run far, fast, straight, and then come back to the football. Guys like Cedric Tillman and Jalin Hyatt a few years ago. Remember, they were the talk of the town during that breakout year for Tennessee, and they have not become, at least to this point, super consistent contributors for their respective teams."
The narrative around Tennessee's offense is problematic for the Vols when it comes to acquiring talent, but the good news for Heupel is that he received some ammo this week to use against the Georgia Bulldogs, one of the programs that likes to subtly push that narrative .
Five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Steve Smith offered some strong thoughts this week on the way wide receivers are used in Georgia's offense, calling it "utterly pathetic".
Smith made the comments while discussing Bulldogs wide receiver Zachariah Branch ahead of the 2026 NFL Draft.
"This is disturbing and just utterly pathetic," said Smith . "Corner route, post route, and a comeback route [made up] one percent [of Branch's routes]. I almost cursed. You talking about… setting a guy up to fail, or not giving him enough opportunities to be drafted, is what the Georgia offense did to these wide receivers. It's hard to tell (Branch's potential) because there are very few routes that you want to see him run that he gets an opportunity [to run]."
Those are the exact same type of comments that we've heard about wide receivers in Tennessee's offense for the last few years.
The Vols, though, actually started incorporating more pro style routes in their offense last season.
Heupel is doing his best to change the narrative , but it's been an uphill battle — even though Tennessee's offense evolved significantly last season.
"The old offense had questions, the new offense has more NFL traits to it," said VolQuest's Austin Price in February on 104.5 The Zone's Ramon and Will . "They rehauled and did everything different after two years ago. So, this past year, it's why the route concepts, the route trees, the route combinations, all the things they do, had much more of an NFL twist to it.
"Before, Bru McCoy lines up at wide out and is split almost to the out of bounds line. And then stays in that same spot the whole game. Now, they move around. And so Brazzell was split out wide right, split out wide left, in the slot, in the slot left. The routes were different. And so I think the people that want to continue to recruit against Josh Heupel want to make that claim that it's same offense, but it's not. And they'll be the first to tell you that. What Dont'e Thornton ran, or what Bru McCoy ran, and what Chris Brazzell ran this past year, are two totally different offenses."
Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar echoed those sentiments at the combine earlier this offseason.
"Honestly, I think the offense in general, if you go back and watch film, we went a little less option game (in 2025)," said Aguilar. "A lot more pro-style offense [with] pure progression reads and things like that. So, I think the offense that we ran this year was different from the past few years. And I'm excited for this journey and these next steps. And [I'm] prepared [because of] the way they threw me in there, in this offense, and kind of switched it all around."
Brazzell made similar comments at the combine.
"This last year was a completely different offense than what y'all think Tennessee's offense is," said Brazzell. "2024 and 2025 were almost two different offenses with Nico (Iamaleava) and Joey (Aguilar). So I was really playing in a more regular, traditional offense this last year versus any other year at Tennessee."
Ultimately, the only thing that will completely change the narrative for Tennessee is a former player reaching the NFL and becoming a star player. If the Vols produce the next Ja'Marr Chase at some point, then the nonsense about the offense will stop.
But until then, Heupel can at least use Smith's harsh criticism of the Georgia offense to combat the shade that's regularly thrown at Tennessee's offense on the recruiting trail.
The post 'Utterly pathetic' – Josh Heupel and the Tennessee Vols just received the biggest gift of the offseason and it's bad news for Georgia appeared first on A to Z Sports .
