DISRESPECTED: Tennessee Football FALLS to 8th in MOST SEC Power RANKINGS | QB Uncertainty?

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You are Locked On Vols, your daily podcast on the Tennessee Volunteers, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Good Wednesday, everybody. Welcome into Locked On Vols. I am Eric Cain. Thank you so much for being here. Got a big show coming up today. Ward Wednesday, Josh Ward gonna stop by for his weekly conversation in segment number three, Alex Golesh, former Tennessee offensive coordinator, current Auburn head coach. Some interesting comments on the Cube show. Gonna play those talking about Tennessee's offense and how he and Josh Heupel got to work. You don't want to miss that segment. But first, we're gonna react to Chris Gordy, host of Locked On SEC, our friend Gordy. He put out his post spring practice 2026 rankings. And I gotta say, Chris Gordy might be wrong about most things. Just kidding, just kidding. He's right about this. All right. And I'm gonna flash those up here on the screen for you right now. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see it. If you're listening, I will let you know what those rankings are. Chris Gordy has Tennessee ranked eighth, leaving spring practice 2026. Texas is number one. Georgia is number two. Ole Miss is number three. Texas A&M is number four. LSU is number five. Oklahoma is number six. Alabama is number seven. Then there's Tennessee at eight. Tennessee is in the top half of Chris Gordy's post spring practice power rankings. Florida comes in at number nine. Auburn at ten. Missouri at eleven. South Carolina at twelve. Kentucky at thirteen. Vanderbilt at fourteen. Arkansas at fifteen. Mississippi State comes in at number sixteen. So we live in a instant gratification society. Gimme, gimme, gimme. I want it now, now, now. So you're probably sitting here saying, okay, well, somebody ranked Tennessee eighth in the SEC. That's pathetic. That's awful. It's terrible. It's terrible. Where would you have Tennessee ranked right now? And like, here's the thing, and I'm going to tell you, I'm going to tell you why Tennessee's ranked eighth right now from Chris Gordy and many, I mean, Tennessee's ranked way further down by several other publications out there. And you know why? It's because Tennessee does not have an established quarterback. I'm going to put these rankings back up here for Chris Gordy right now. If you're watching, look, what do you see here? If you're listening, I'm about to tell you. Look at the teams in front of Tennessee according to Chris Gordy. Texas, Georgia, Ole Miss, A&M, LSU, Oklahoma. Alabama's also in front of Tennessee. I'll get to Alabama here in a moment. But what is Texas, Georgia, Ole Miss, A&M, LSU and Oklahoma all have in common? It's pretty simple, right? They all have a returning quarterback. A returning starting quarterback, LSU not so much, but Sam Levitt's a pretty good quarterback, right? Tennessee wanted him big time. It's going to pay him a whole lot of money to come here. If he's healthy, he's good, okay? All those teams in front of Tennessee, excluding Alabama, have established quarterbacks in this league. Arch Manning, Trinidad Chambliss, Gunnar Stockton, Marcel Reed, John Matier. I'm not saying John Matier was great last year, suffered an injury, but he's been in this league and he's made plays. And of course, Sam Levitt, not in this league, but he's done it at a high level in the Big 12. He's won a whole lot of football games, played at a high level. Alabama is also in front of Tennessee, according to Chris Gordy's rankings. Alabama is very gettable this year. I think Alabama is still from a roster standpoint top to bottom. It's probably better than Tennessee right now. But there's not that huge gap anymore. Third Saturday in October is going to be played at Neyland Stadium where Tennessee has won the last two in Knoxville. Certainly, I think that's a gettable game for Tennessee. Now, their quarterback situation, as we spoke on earlier this week when we went through, when we ranked the opposing quarterback, Tennessee's defense is going to see this year. Austin Mack or Keelon Russell? Keelon Russell, the former 5-star prospect, red-shirted last year. Austin Mack coming over from Washington with Kaelin DeBoer, backing up Ty Simpson. We think Russell, at least I think Russell is going to be the starter in Tuscaloosa. So that would be the only one of the teams in this postseason rankings from Chris Gordy that has a team in front of Tennessee that does not have an established starting quarterback. The only one. But you can make the case that Alabama's roster is probably better than Tennessee's by a margin, not a big margin, I would say much closer to a slight margin than a big margin for sure. But Alabama is the only team up there. So I think whenever we're having this conversation, eighth or right there in the middle makes a whole lot of sense. Go to all these different publications that have already put out off-season rankings number one, off-season power rankings pre-spring practice, off-season power rankings post-spring practice, which is what this is. We'll get into some summer power rankings. We'll get into heading into fall power rankings for each respective conferences. Okay, we're just on rendition three of six here, right? It's a long off-season. People like me, God bless us, we got to talk about something, okay? You know what I'm saying? But you look around other publications in Tennessee is certainly in the back half. Tennessee is down there, probably behind Auburn, probably behind, I don't know, some of these other teams. Missouri might be up a little bit now with the unfortunate injury to Ahmaud Hardy. Missouri's probably slid down a little bit. When I had Chris Gordy on the show last week, he kind of said that's why he slid Missouri down a little bit. South Carolina has a chance to jump big time. Kentucky has a chance to be better. Where is Vanderbilt, Post-Eagle, Pavian, and Eli Stowers? I mean, Jeff Levy, I think, is a good coach, but this is now or never for him. He's got to improve. He's got to improve, and they've got one of the most tantalizing quarterbacks in the SEC. It's fun to watch. I'll be intrigued to see if Mississippi State is better in year three with Jeff Levy. I cannot finish last in the conference. I think Arkansas is going to be horrible. I think Arkansas is going to be horrible. But you could see other publications putting an Auburn, new coach, new players, flashy system in front of Tennessee. You could see other publications putting a Missouri in front of Tennessee. Just again, prior to the unfortunate situation with Ahmad Hardy, right? But I think right there, right in the middle, you could even flip Tennessee and Alabama, and I don't think many people would lose their minds over it. Some people would, especially those in Tuscaloosa. But I think that's about right. I mean, is Tennessee realistically on paper right now better than Oklahoma top to bottom, okay? Plus what they bring at the quarterback position, college football playoff team, LSU had to restart but dominated the transfer portal, did a really good job there, you got an all-star coaching staff there, and of course you got Lane Kiffin leading the way. A&M, that's a really good roster and a difference maker at quarterback. Chambliss, who I believe is the best quarterback in the SEC with Ole Miss, who made the playoffs to deep run last year. Georgia, deep run to the playoffs last year. Texas, who's got a loaded roster with a quarterback that I think is going to take a massive step in Arch Manning. I think it's okay that Tennessee is right here in the middle. So for right now, I think Chris Gordy is correct. I think Tennessee is the eighth best team in the SEC right now leading spring ball. Okay, why do I think that? Well, Tennessee's got some cred, right? Tennessee's got a good run game, fouls to Nard Rusher to DeSean Bishop. Tennessee's got playmakers that whoever's going to start a quarterback for Tennessee, Braylon Staley over 800 yards receiving a ton of touchdowns last year. Mike Matthews over 800 yards receiving last year and some touchdowns. You have playmakers out there wide in the slot and out wide past the numbers, okay? You have an offensive line that brings back four starting offensive linemen at minimum. That's if Ory Williams, the transfer reserve from LSU is you're starting right tackle. If that's the case, Tennessee's bringing back four starters in the offensive line. If he's not a starter right tackle, Tennessee bumps Jesse Perry out, brings in Shamie Morrow and Tennessee brings back five starters in the offensive line. The David Sanders injury and some injuries to some other guys on the offensive line allowed Shamie Morrow to get about eight starts last year, so he's a returning starter in my opinion. Tennessee's set up to go get it now on offense, and oh yeah, as we talked about plenty this off season, Tennessee ranked 93rd in total defense last year. Yes, the bar is so very low, right? Defensive coordinator is gone for a reason. The bar is very low, but you are going to be significantly better on defense. In fact, I think you're going to be really good at linebacker. I'm intrigued to see about the pass rush. I think the secondary is going to be a whole lot better. I know I said secondary is going to be much improved on a radio show a couple months ago, and some guy was just having, just really getting after it on Twitter, calling me stupid and everything. Of course, Tennessee's secondary is going to be so much improved. I mean, yeah, Tennessee's going to be much improved in the secondary, significantly, because Tennessee was not healthy last year in the secondary and not productive last year in the secondary outside the tie red men, who certainly took his lumps as a true freshman starting his first couple of games in his college experience. So yeah, I think Tennessee is about where it needs to be. You can certainly make the case. We can nitpick here. Tennessee's roster is better than Oklahoma's in certain spots. Tennessee's roster is better than LSU in certain spots. Tennessee is better than A&M likely in certain spots. Okay? Georgia, Georgia's better. Texas is better. I think Ole Miss is better. Okay? Alabama, I think you can flip-flop those two right there, leaving spring practice. I do. I really do. So don't lose your mind if somebody says, well, Tennessee is ranked eighth in the SEC leaving spring. That's about where I think is right. You know why though? Because Tennessee does not have an experienced returning quarterback to lead the way. Look at all those teams in front of Tennessee outside of Alabama. They all have an established starting quarterback coming back or in LSU's case, a Big 12 player of the year a couple of years ago in Sam Levitt that we know can play. That's the only reason. So what say you? T-shirts, Locked On Vols. What say you on the back? What say you? Let me know. Where would you rank Tennessee football in the SEC leaving spring? I want to know. I think 8th is about right. I can make the case for 7th. I'm not going lower than 8th. Tennessee is better than Auburn. Tennessee is better than Florida. Tennessee is better than Missouri. Tennessee is better than Carolina. Tennessee is significantly better than Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Mississippi State. I'm not going lower than 8th. I can make the case for 7th. Can you? Love to hear from you at underscore Caner and at Locked On Vols. Appreciate you guys for being here. We'll come back. Alex Golesh had some really interesting things to say about his relationships with Josh Heupel when they worked together in Orlando, Tennessee, and about the offense. You don't want to miss that. That is coming up next right here on Locked On Vols. If you're looking to get in on the action, get closer to the action, FanDuel has a great offer to get you started today. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get 150 in bonus bets if you're a first player that wins. You can turn $5 into 150 in bonus bets just for getting started. I love using the FanDuel Sportsbook app because during the playoffs, everything I need is right there in one place. I can see trends, I can see player stats, I can see matchups, all before making my picks. Listen, if I have a stake in the wager here, like if I'm putting down my hard-earned money, I want to be as informed as I can be, and FanDuel allows me to do that. 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Okay, so Alex Golesh, former Tennessee offensive coordinator, current Auburn head coach coming over a couple months ago from three years being the head man down at University of South Florida, USF. Had some moments, beat Florida this past year, just knew it was a matter of time. When he was here at Tennessee, you knew it was a matter of time. He was going to be a head coach. He was. He left one of that opportunity, and now he's in the SEC at Auburn on the plains where it'll go really well, it'll go really poorly. That fan base is crazy, right? We had a question on the Mailbag Show a couple days ago about, from Bruce, from my guy Bruce, saying, you know, talking about paying fire coaches. That is the school, the post shop of paying fire coaches, that being the Auburn Tigers. Anyway, a lot of good things to say. Alex Golesh, last week, joined the Cube Show with Cole Kublick, SEC Network Analyst and Jock's radio personality down there in Birmingham. Does a fine job. Does a fine job. And he had a lot of great things to say in this conversation with Cole Kublick. This being Alex Golesh about why he was brought in to coach with Josh Heupel, what they did their first year in Orlando, what they did over COVID when they couldn't do anything else, and what they had to change when coming to Tennessee. Give this a listen. It's a couple of minutes, okay? This audio is courtesy of The Cube Show. And again, I want to give credit right there. The audio is courtesy of The Cube Show, Cole Kublick. You can go listen to the full episode. It's really, really good. Give this a listen, Alex Golesh on his relationship, his partnership while working together with Josh Heupel and what they did when they came to Tennessee. When Heupel hired me at UCF, it was really unique. They were really good on offense, but they were really, really bad at situational football. Really bad on third down, really bad in the red zone. Scored a bunch of points and had a bunch of explosives and ran the ball efficiently, but situationally were really bad. And that was one thing that hype said, man, like my challenge to you is get us really good on third down, get us really good in the red zone and don't mess with a whole lot else. And we're going to take the next step. Well, COVID happens and it gave us an opportunity for hype and I to spend every living moment for four months together and fix the one. Let me learn how he saw it because he's really innovative and unique in how he sees the game. Very much through a quarterback lens, I still see the game very much through a defensive lens and honestly like meshed it in a lot of unique ways. And we had time. I think if we just went through normal spring ball, normal summer, I don't know that it would have meshed the way it did just because you wouldn't have had the time, like the time in May where I'd be on the road recruiting. I know we were supposed to be quarantined, so we'll just say we did all this on Zoom. But literally every day of, man, how do you see this? How do you see this? How do you see this? How many plays is enough? How many plays isn't enough? Like everything from game planning to scheme to in every imaginable way. Well, we get done with that year and we go to Tennessee, and Hype's biggest thing was, hey, if everything we've just done, if we don't change, we're going to get blown up. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, listen, like this league, one, we don't have better players than everybody now. Two, this league, they have corners that can play press man every snap, which is like, all right, I get that. So we got to move bodies, we got to stack bodies, we got to create leverages in different ways. He's like, oh, and by the way, flip some games on like these pass rushers are unlike anything you've ever seen in your life. I'm like, no, man, I coach in the Big 10, I coach in the Big 12, and I'll be all right, and look at that 21 Georgia defense for reference. Look at 21 Alabama defense for reference. Heck, look at South Carolina defensively that year. Like every team in this league has freak edge rushers and have corners that can cover. Oh, and by the way, the linebackers, they can run and hit. That's where this league was different. Alex Golesh on The Cube Show with Cole Kublick, SEC Network Analyst, college football commentator, one of the great personalities in our sport, and of course, over at Jock's Radio Station, host of The Morning Show with Greg McElroy. All right. A lot of good stuff there, man. Quickly, we'll unpack a couple of those things. I like the fact that he said he was brought in there to fix third downs, to fix red zone, okay? I like the fact that they just got after it during COVID, and I love how he made the joke in there. We'll just say it was over Zoom. Every day, he was like, no, I mean, every single day we just poured over tape, poured over concepts, how do you see this? How do you see that? And Josh Ward will talk about this here in a moment. We welcome on the show for Ward Wednesday in segment number three, but that just goes to show you, hey, for the people that are saying Josh Heupel never changed, Josh Heupel never evolved, it's his way or the highway, it's his system, his system, he'll never evolve. Well, number one, hopefully, if you were one of those people, you're not one of those people anymore, because clearly the offense changed last year, that we got to see it from our own eyes. There's always tweaks, there's always adjustments, okay? A lot of things that we don't see, we don't notice. And that's just because we don't live football like they do, right? But it just goes to show that Josh Heupel is always about evolving, always about a self-scout. And then at the end of that clip, he said, hey, and when we got to Tennessee, he came up to me and said, hey, everything we just did, we got to tweak again, because the SEC is bigger, faster, stronger. I love how he said, oh, I came from the Big Ten, I'm like, I'll be all right. Nope, South Carolina game, Georgia game that year, the defensive line showed you why. Linebackers can run. Everybody can play press man on the outside. It is a different league than that of a group of five or other power leagues. Like top half of the Big Ten, comparable, right? But every Saturday, top to bottom, this is clearly, and again, there's the great debate. Big Ten's won three straight natties. That is true. That's a fact. That's a fact. What also is a fact is, well, it's in my opinion, I guess, but I think it's a fact, is the SEC top to bottom is clearly the best conference in college football, and it's not even close. Not even close. Because every single Saturday, you can get got. Okay? It's just, you know, and so Alex Golesh is saying, well, no, no, I kind of know what I'm getting myself into. Not necessarily. So you come over here, and they had to tweak everything again. So I thought that was really enlightening. And one of those clubs that was making the rounds last week on the same show, Cube Show, with Cole Kublick, was how Golesh was talking about, he was quoted saying, what we were doing when I was in Tennessee is not what they're doing anymore. They've changed. And talking about how all these different teams are running similar things right now, coming from the Braille system, a combination of the Braille system. And Kendall Braille is now, you know, his father art obviously, but Kendall's now at South Carolina, quarterback coaching and offensive coordinating the Gamecocks and the Norse Sellers. So again, everybody was making a big deal out of that and everything. We thought, Josh and I thought this was the better clip, talking about why you do things, evolution and all that. So I thought that was really, really cool stuff. I'm a football nerd. I can sit there and listen to Alex Golesh talk for 50 minutes. And a lot of times his press conferences felt like 50 minutes. So I hope you guys enjoyed that. I thought that was really cool. Again, that was Alex Golesh's appearance on the Cube show with Cole Kublick. That was last week. Josh Ward, I think, ran it on his radio show as well. I'll ask Josh Ward a lot of these questions when he joins us here. Coming up next as we continue on here at your Wednesday Locked On Vols, Ward Wednesday coming up next. More conversations on quarterbacks on Tennessee's roster. Those comments from Alex Golesh and a little bit about Tennessee basketball as well. Right here on Locked On Vols with Josh Ward. Coming up next. Josh Ward, Ward Wednesday. He's the co-host of Josh and Swain on 991B Sports Animal. Of course, you can hear that here in Knoxville. He streamed on the Sports Monster. You can listen in the Tri-Cities as well. Josh did a show earlier this week talking about the quarterbacks that Tennessee will play this next fall, this next football season. I had the best quarterback Tennessee will face is Arch Manning. Number two is Marcel Reed. Number three is Sam Levitt. Would you go in that order? Am I leaving somebody out? No Gunnar Stockton on the schedule, obviously. No, you know, some other good quarterbacks in the league aren't on the schedule, those are my top three. Did you agree with that or would you go in a different direction? I think I would probably agree with that today. I think a guy that scares me for what he could either become or get back to from from his best that we've seen is Lenore Sellers. When Tennessee goes on the road to take on South Carolina, part of it's the spot as well who have a couple weeks get ready for Tennessee. It'll be at home. Marcel Reed will be at home against Tennessee. Traveling on the road, taking its defense there, that concerns me. But I would probably go, this is assuming health, Manning Leavitt, one, two. Leavitt in that offense with the talent that's going to be around him with what they've brought in at wide receiver. That is concerning. Tennessee gets both of those teams at home. That has to help. But I would probably go with my top two, Manning, then Leavitt. And then again, if he can get back to the form we saw, for example, against Clemson two seasons ago where Lenore Sellers was running all over the place and was difficult for NFL defenders to bring down, that form of Lenore Sellers scares me for Tennessee's defense. Marcel Reid has a lot of experience and he has played well. He needs to improve as well. But his experience in another offseason to get there, he has a chance to be really good in 2026 as well. Yeah, Sam Leavitt, this is the caveat. Again, you mentioned health and that ankle is good and everything. Obviously, Tennessee was very much in on that one in the transfer portal. Marcel Reid at number two for me, like I have always thought he was overrated. But gosh, man, I mean, he just puts up numbers. And like I understand to be in the Southeastern Conference that, that A&M schedule last year was kind of weak to be honest, but he just feasted. He did, and he did not play well in the college football playoff or in those tops of games, right? And big time games, same with Arch, but Arch finished very strong. So I think both those guys can take a big leap. Lenora Sellers, I had him there at number four based on what he can be potential, kind of like Arch Manning as well. I had Byron Brown at Auburn at number five. And again, you get kind of to the back half of the schedule. There's not a lot of proven commodities. But Byron Brown, based on what he did at USF, holds like 15 to 20 school records, very mobile, can really hurt you with the legs. If he can make that jump and play well in the Southeastern Conference, he's going to be its quarterback that Tennessee's really going to have to square off with and try to hone in because he can bring a lot to the table. Yeah, running through the schedule in my head and attaching the quarterbacks to them, and there are some unknowns like at Alabama. Whoever's playing quarterback there, obviously you have to respect with what will be around them, and that's going to be a talented quarterback either way. But if it's a second year player with little experience at that point in Keyland Russell, I would probably lean towards somebody that's more experienced. With Byron Brown, we know that he has succeeded. Now he has to prove it at a higher level, but he's going to try to prove it in an offense that he knows, with Alex Golesh, who knows the SEC. So, Brown is a guy that absolutely has to be ready for. Again, Tennessee will be at home. It will be a week after playing Texas and Arch Manning. So, from a team standpoint, Tennessee will have been more tested against Texas, which will help getting ready for Auburn. But Brown is a guy that you absolutely have to respect. He's a player that we would get calls and texts about at the very start of this offseason. Eric saying, hey, could Tennessee go after this guy? Because he had played for Golesh, and Tennessee fans were thinking maybe we could get him to Knoxville when we were just running through potential transfer targets. But obviously that wasn't going to work out because he went to Auburn with Alex Golesh. Rolling through that roll of decks. Hey, what about this guy? What about this guy? What about this guy? This guy played for this coach, the coach of Tennessee, five years ago. That one's a bit more of an easier connection. I get that. But once he took the job, he was going to go with him. That being Golesh to Auburn. I did Byron Brown there at number five. Keelon Russell at number six. I think he's going to win the job for Alabama, the former five-star. Kenny Minchie at number seven. Not a whole lot of experience, but again, he's been in college for a while. It's kind of funny. I went on a little bit of a rant. Like, Kentucky had the basis to be a solid football team, run the football well, good offensive line, good defense. Then they started adding some really talented quarterbacks out of the transfer portal. Just never worked out. Obviously, that's why Mark Stoops is not there anymore. Kenny Minchie, in my opinion, would be at the bottom of the total poll of these transfer quarterbacks they brought in the last five, six years. We'll see how that pans out there with a new coach, a new system. Jared Curtis, Vanderbilt there at number eight, and KJ Jackson there at number nine. I think he's going to win the battle there for Arkansas. Again, some proven commodities at the top, and we'll see if Tennessee's defense, this new look defense, can feed some inexperience at the bottom. But again, a lot of dual threat guys on that list, Marcel Re-Arch Manning, Marcel Reed, Byron Brown, Keelon Russell, KJ Jackson can run. There's a lot of dual threat on this list. But the Tennessee defense is going to be ready for it. Well, something that's interesting with Minchi is, it's a lot about his coach, right, Will Stein. So Minchi, you mentioned his experience. But okay, does he have a better chance to succeed with somebody like Stein, who he was coaching more talent at Oregon, don't get me wrong here. But he did a good job with quarterbacks that came in. He kind of, he was one of the top coaches you want to go play for if you're a transfer quarterback. But the guys that were able to go there and succeed, I think it would Dante Moore was able to do with a couple of seasons to get ready. Dylan Gabriel before that, Bo Nix with what he did after leaving Auburn where it was up and down. But a lot of disappointing performances from Bo Nix. He goes to Oregon, succeeds at a level where he becomes a high draft pick in the NFL. So can Stein work some of that magic with Minchi again with less talent? That's something to pay attention to. Jared Curtis is interesting because he's so highly talented. And it would be easy to sit there and say he's a true freshman. We might be talking about Tennessee playing a true freshman quarterback. So that would be a very interesting battle. And of course, that's at the end of the season. We'll learn a lot more about each of those guys assuming Faison or if it's George McIntyre against Jared Curtis by the end of the season when Tennessee and Vaney play. Yep. When I was on the Jared Curtis conversation, I said, and everything I'm saying right now, others are saying about Faison Brandon and George McIntyre for that fact. George McIntyre, it's not like he's a seasoned veteran. So yeah, same with Russell at Alabama. We know he's talented. We know there's a lot of excitement. We also know that he would be making his debut as a starter if he wins that job. You had an audio clip from Cole Kublick's podcast when he had Alex Golesh on the show and Alex Golesh was talking about his time at UCF coaching with Josh Heupel in the 2020 season and COVID and how they just got to work on Zoom, of course. They just got to work and they were prepping and they were changing the offense. The team was brought in to really fix third down the red zone and stuff like that. And then when they got to Tennessee, he said, you know, one thing that stood out to me in that audio clip that you shared and actually played it on the show earlier today here on Locked On Vols. So thank you for that audio. Is when they got to Tennessee, Heupel said, all right, we got to change things up again now, because again, this is a bigger league, better corners, better linebackers. He referenced the Georgia game in 2021, just how different the defensive line, South Carolina in 2021. Some really interesting stuff, and again, the audience here on this show already heard it just a few minutes ago. Some really interesting stuff there from Alex Golesh, who in that same interview, and it made the rounds late last week from the, from Cole Kublick's podcast saying that, hey, what they were doing Tennessee when Golesh was there is not what they're doing anymore. And I think that's pretty evident with the tweaks and changes in the system last year. Yeah, right. I think those comments about what they're doing now at Tennessee versus previously when he was there in 2021 and 2022, that applies to some of that conversation that we've also had around Chris Braslin comments he's made about routes he ran at Tennessee, now getting ready for the NFL, playing for the Carolina Panthers, that Josh Heupel has changed. We saw some of that this past season, this past fall. But I thought what Alex Golesh was talking about in those comments that he made, being hired by Josh Heupel, coaching with him at UCF, and then transitioning to the SEC at Tennessee, was a reminder of how Josh Heupel is always self-evaluating, and he is willing to change. I thought last year what Kelsey Pope said about how they went back after the 2024 season, which was successful for the program, but not as successful as they wanted to be offensively, and they decided we have to continue to make changes and evolve and get better. Josh Heupel was looking at what's going on in the SEC, and he recognized this scheme that we're bringing in, we got to make some kind of changes because the personnel we're going to go up against. The point being that Josh Heupel is willing to make changes if he believes that's necessary, and he has done that, he's implemented that, and that's going to be important moving forward. He's not just sitting back saying, this is what we do, this is who we are, and we'll go down with the ship doing exactly what we've done previously. He does have to get the results, he does have to succeed, he's going to have to have the right personnel to run whatever he wants to run in the future. But Josh Heupel is always going to evaluate himself because he knows other teams are able to look at film, they're able to see what Tennessee has done, always be adjusting and moving forward, and that's what Josh Heupel has done so far. That's why I think he is one of the better coaches in the SEC. We'll see if that turns into championships or not. But any idea that Josh Heupel is willing to just sit back and keep doing what he's done, defensively, he made big changes, strength program, he made big changes this offseason. Josh Heupel realized what was happening wasn't good enough, he needed to change. Yeah, some really great stuff there from Alex Golesh on Cole Kublick's podcast. Again, whenever I was talking to Zach Blackerby, I know you know him, whenever they hired Auburn, hired Golesh, he's like, what do you think about him? I'm like, you're going to love him, man. If they win, obviously, if they lose, then everybody hates him. But just the way he talks, he explains. He's a talker, man. I used to transcribe those press conferences. It took a minute, several minutes. He's a talker, goes into detail. Yeah, he provided some history on on learning what he has done offensively as well before working for Josh Heupel, learning from Jeff Levy with what was going on at Baylor. That's another connection that existed with Josh Heupel. And again, that doesn't mean you're all doing the same thing. Other coaches have made changes. But around the league, Jeff Levy is at Mississippi State. Kendall Brials is now the offensive coordinator at South Carolina. We'll see what the impact is with the Gamecocks offense. Obviously, Lane Kiffin at LSU and then Josh Heupel at Tennessee. So you see a number of coaches with similar systems or approaches around the league. It comes from a similar place with what was going on at Baylor. But there have been tweaks since then, including in Knoxville. Again, the talk was, oh, that offense isn't going to work in the SEC. It's not going to work. And again, it evolves and tweaks and all that. Right. All these teams aren't running the same thing. But as you just pointed out and as we talked about in years past, I think Kendall Brausen out of South Carolina, Lane Kiffin, LSU, Alex Golesh, Auburn, like it's all over the place. Jeff Levy, it's all over the place, a version of what they all ran at one time. So interesting stuff. Great stuff there from Alex Golesh on the Coal Keeper Podcast. Great stuff from Josh Ward. You can listen to him and Jason Swain, VFL Jason Swain on 99.1, the Sports Animal. In the Knoxville area, you can listen to it as well in the Tri-Cities on the Sports Monster. And you can listen to Josh every Wednesday, right here on Locked On Vols. Josh, as always, man, thanks so much. Thanks, Eric. Great stuff, as always. They are from Josh Ward, Ward Wednesday, every single Wednesday right here on Locked On Vols. This is Locked On Vols. We are a part of the Locked On Podcast Network, the number one sports podcasting network. Really appreciate you guys for being here, making this your first listen, your first watch each and every single day, making this a part of your morning routine. Never goes unnoticed. It seriously never goes unnoticed. Go ahead and check out the show, Locked On Vols, on all the social platforms. You can follow me at underscorecainter on all the social platforms. Cainter on air on Facebook. We drop reels. We drop conversation pieces all the time over there. So go and join in the fun. And of course, you can always reach out, be a part of the Mailbag Edition, the show, and Content Tuesday every single week right here on Locked On Vols. How's Tennessee doing in Hoover? What's Tennessee baseball outlook moving forward? The rest coming up in terms of offseason rankings, and we're dive down into recruiting what Tennessee's got to accomplish for this class of 2027, all that and more on tomorrow and Friday's Locked On Vols. Appreciate you guys for being here. This is Locked On Vols.