New AD Danny White hires Josh Heupel to join him at Vols

(AP) – Josh Heupel was hired as Tennessee’s football coach on Wednesday, giving the Vols a package deal with athletic director Danny White, who started in his job last week.

White announced that Heupel will become Tennessee’s 27th head coach. He’s now the Vols’ fifth coach, not counting interim or acting coaches, since the end of the 2008 season.

White said the school looked at a number of candidates before coming to Heupel, someone he has worked with the past three years at UCF. White said Heupel wins with integrity, has a history of winning titles and is an architect of explosive offenses.

Heupel will be introduced at a news conference later Wednesday.

He takes over a program that went 3-7 in 2020 and is expected to deal with NCAA sanctions – a challenge that previous coaches Lane Kiffin, Derek Dooley, Butch Jones and Pruitt did not face.

Tennessee has had five winning seasons since last winning the Southeastern Conference’s Eastern Division in 2007. That was also the last time the Vols double-digit wins. Their last SEC title was in 1998 when Tennessee won its last national championship.