Tennessee football is coming off a disappointing 2025 season where they posted an 8-4 (4-4 SEC) record with four losses to quality opponents but no wins against quality opponents. That sets the stage for a critical offseason for Josh Heupel and his staff.
There’s a lot to like about Tennessee’s roster entering the offseason, but the Vols will also play a harder schedule with a nine-game SEC slate and a road matchup against Georgia Tech in their out of conference slate.
The one thing that Tennessee will have going for them next season is that they will face four first-year head coaches in its nine SEC games.
Auburn, Arkansas and LSU all fired their head coach earlier in the season and made a move to replace them on Sunday. Auburn tabbed South Florida head coach Alex Golesh to replace Hugh Freeze while Arkansas hired Ryan Silverfield to replace Sam Pittman and LSU hired Lane Kiffin to replace Brian Kelly.
It sets up reunions of sorts for both Golesh and Kiffin as they bring their first-year Tiger teams to Neyland Stadium. Golesh spent two seasons as Heupel’s offensive coordinator at Tennessee while Kiffin infamously left his perch atop the Volunteer program after one year to become head coach at USC.
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But a fourth future Tennessee opponent made a coaching change on Sunday night when Kentucky fired head coach Mark Stoops after 13 seasons. It’s unclear which coaching candidates the Wildcats are targeting to replace Stoops.
There could still be even more coaching changes for Tennessee’s future opponents. Kennesaw State head coach Jerry Mack is reportedly a candidate for the head coaching vacancy at Tulane. The Owls travel to Knoxville on Sept. 19 for a non conference matchup next season.
Facing a first-year head coach is not as beneficial in the transfer portal era as it has been in the past because it is much easier to flip a roster and hit the ground running in year one. But it should still be somewhat of an advantage for Tennessee in the 2026 season.
Dating back to Josh Heupel’s first year, Tennessee is 6-0 against first-year SEC head coaches. Those wins came against Shane Beamer, Clark Lea, Billy Napier, Brian Kelly, Kalen DeBoer and Jeff Lebby.
