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Tennessee Vols no more jokes and a playoff revived by Josh Heupel

By TERESA M. WALKER AP Sports writer

A turnover bin heralded a coaching search best described as a dumpster fire that ended up costing both a coach and an athletic director their jobs. A revolving door in the coaching office. NCAA Investigations and Scholarship Reductions.

Don’t forget the mustard bottle thrown onto the field at Neyland Stadium or the golf ball that got dangerously close to Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, whose one-year stint made him the first of seven coaches, including two interims, at Tennessee after Philip Fulmer. fired after the 2008 season.

No. 6 Ohio State is well-accustomed to the playoff stage with the Buckeyes chasing their first national championship since 2014 and their first title since 2020. Seventh-seeded Tennessee has its own pedigree championship, although their last national title was in 1998. The Volunteers had been the subject of too many jokes for too many painful years.

That officially ends Dec. 21 when ninth-seeded Tennessee visits Ohio State (10-2, No. 6 CFP) in the first round of the newly expanded College Football Playoff with the winner traveling to the Rose Bowl for face the top. -Oregon Classified.

“We did our job and got that spot on the back where it needs to be and where it’s supposed to be,” said center Cooper Mays, who played high school ball in Knoxville and knows what means this game. “We’re here in the middle of things until December, to get into the playoffs. And that’s all you can ask for at this point in the season.”

Much credit goes to coach Josh Heupel, who has the Vols (10-2, No. 9 CFP) here in his fourth season at Rocky Top.

A quick revival for a program that went 3-7 in 2020 with a season capped by the chancellor firing then-coach Jeremy Pruitt and nine others for what she called “shocking” NCAA violations. Tennessee took its medicine to ease the NCAA sanctions by reducing scholarships, leaving Heupel with 65 in his first season. University officials refused to self-impose a bowl ban on top of that.

That investigation ended in the summer of 2023 with the NCAA’s scathing report detailing more than 200 violations, including 18 Level I violations and roughly $60,000 paid to athletes and families for recruiting violations under Pruitt.

Yet Heupel, who called the possible NCAA punishment a “mere speed bump” when he was hired in January 2021, has accomplished something none of his recent predecessors could. He has led Tennessee to 30 wins since 2022, matching the Vols’ winningest three-year stretch from 1998 to 2000.

For Heupel, the playoffs are simply the next step.

“You earn the right to be in a game like this,” Heupel said. “Proud of what we’ve done throughout the regular season. The new season starts here. There was an expectation within our program to earn the right to play in a game like this in the postseason. So there’s a lot of excitement here, but we also understand that we’re getting ready to play a great team and we have to be at our best.”

Heupel was initially seen as a quick fix. New athletic director Danny White, who was lured away from Central Florida to rebuild the athletic program, brought Heupel with him to Knoxville a week after his own hiring.

Heupel is now the third coach in Tennessee history with multiple 10-win regular seasons with two in three years. He joins Fulmer (five in 17 years) and General Robert Neyland (five in 21 including the 1951 national championship season). Neyland Stadium is full again. The waiting list for season tickets now exceeds 20,000, even with a ticket hike announced for 2025 to help the Vols pay and keep top talent.

“Vol Nation proves again why you are all the best fans in all of sports!” White wrote on social media Wednesday night.

When the NCAA returned to Tennessee to compensate athletes for name, image and likeness, the same chancellor who made sure everyone cooperated in the latest investigation didn’t hold back. Donde Plowman called the NCAA a “failed” organization in a letter in January that pursued allegations that were “factually false and procedurally flawed.”

He was supported by the attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia who sued the NCAA, and a federal judge granted his request for a writ in February preventing the organization from enforcing the NIL rules for recruits.

The win has been contagious in Tennessee:

– Coach Rick Barnes won the Southeastern Conference regular-season men’s basketball title in March and now has the top-ranked team in the nation.

– Manager Tony Vitello won the Vols’ first baseball national title in June.

– New Lady Vols coach Kim Caldwell returns AP Top 25 women’s basketball team after White fired Kellie Harper, who won national titles for the late Pat Summitt at point guard.

However, football really means more in the SEC. Devoted Vols fans, who halted the hiring of then-Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano before Tennessee could even announce a press conference in 2017, had expected Tennessee to host a game. Road losses to Arkansas and Georgia are the reason Tennessee goes on the road.

This game seemed like a distant hope for Tennessee after too many blowouts by Alabama, Georgia and Florida, and yes, even Vanderbilt. Not Heupel, who was the quarterback who led Oklahoma to the 2000 national championship.

And not for Tennessee, not now.

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The Associated Press contributed to this article