Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel is entering his sixth season as the Vols’ head coach in 2026, which is a feat that hasn’t been seen on Rocky Top in quite some time. Following Phillip Fulmer’s 17-year run as head coach, Tennessee has been stuck with Lane Kiffin for one season, Derek Dooley for three seasons, Butch Jones for five seasons, and Jeremy Pruitt for three seasons.
It’s been somewhat of a revolving door in Knoxville since Fulmer in 2008, but Heupel has provided Tennessee with significantly more stability than UT’s past four coaches. Heupel holds a .692 winning percentage, which is by far the best since Fulmer’s tenure.
In five seasons, Josh Heupel has a record of 45-20 with one trip to the College Football Playoffs. The Vols are still looking for more consistency, but Heupel has given Tennessee two 10-plus win seasons for the first time since the early 2000s.
Still, though, it’s a volatile league out there, and some coaches have been on the receiving end of surprising moves. That’s why CBS Sports went through all 138 FBS coaches to give them a “Hot Seat Rating” heading into the 2026 season.
Heupel lands a 2.3 rating, which is in the “All good… for now” category. He held a 1.1 rating last season, which landed him in the “Safe and secure” tier. So while Tennessee’s disappointing 2025 season didn’t put him on notice by any stretch, it did warm up the seat slightly in CBS Sports’ minds.
For some comparisons, Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer is in “Pressure is mounting,” Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea is in “Untouchable,” and South Carolina’s Shame Beamer is in “Start improving now.” The closest SEC coach to Heupel is Texas’ Steve Sarkisian, whose 2.6 rating also puts him in the “All good… for now” tier.
No SEC coach is in the uppermost “Win or be fired” tier.
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One huge change (that has obviously spun into multiple changes) that Tennessee and Heupel made this offseason was an overhaul of the defensive staff. For the first time during his Tennessee career, Heupel let go of multiple assistant coaches and a coordinator following a dismal defensive season. While Tim Banks and his assistants did help lead Tennessee to the College Football Playoffs with a terrific defense in 2024, the results from the 2025 season were too impactful to notice.
Therefore, following the end of the season, Heupel made the changes. He brought in defensive coordinator Jim Knowles from Penn State as the first big outside domino. And rather than internal promotions, Heupel let Knowles build his defense staff as he saw fit. This included Penn State’s Anthony Poindexter as the Co-DC, Derek Jones as the cornerbacks coach, and AJ Jackson as the LEOs coach.
ESPN’s FPI rankings project Tennessee with an 8-4 to 7-5 record in 2026, which would leave the Vols outside of the playoff conversation for a second straight season. But with a freshman quarterback set to start this fall, plus the installation of a new defensive scheme, there’s some time on the horizon to see how things fall into place. If Tennessee does end up in that 7-8 wins tier, it’ll be interesting to see just how much that changes CBS Sports’ hot seat rating next summer.
