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Radio and TV veteran Jim Rome believes Tennessee first-year coach Josh Heupel was a strong rookie for the Flights and believes his offensive ingenuity will pay immediate dividends to the SEC this fall. Heupel was a guest on the Rome show this week and received rave reviews upon entering college football’s most competitive conference.
“This is the guy I think is going to do it. I love him as a coach, ”Rome said on The Jim Rome Show via CBS Sports. “And I’ll tell you why – number one, really, really smart.” Like, whatever happens, anyone at this level can X&O, but I think schematically, I think he’s really, really smart at what he does – like scary smart.
“He does a really good job of connecting with everyone, a great job of connecting with each player down the line and knows how to run a program. I think they got it right. He will bring them back.
New energy and optimism is exactly what the medic ordered for the Flights, which plummeted last fall before firing coach Jeremy Pruitt amid reports of recruiting violations as a result of ‘an internal investigation. Pruitt refuted those claims but did not keep his job, making way for new athletic director Danny White to open the door for Heupel.
Heupel told Rome this week that the first month on the job in Knoxville has been a whirlwind since leaving UCF.
“It was a lot of fun. You try to get to know your players here on campus, to know your team and to give them a chance to get to know you too, ”Heupel said. I think this is where you spend the majority of your time and energy. At the same time you need to start recruiting and we did.
“Then you have to bring your staff here. You put those three balls in the air, and juggle a lot here early on, but it’s been fun. Knoxville is a great place, the University has great leadership and is excited about it. that we have inside our building and inside our team room. ”
White appeared on Sirius XM this week with Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and said the search for Tennessee coaches is tough. Although White has had a lot of familiarity with Heupel since their time in Orlando together, the Sporting Director of Flights said he initially tried to avoid bringing Heupel to Tennessee.
White knew this would only cause more turnover at UCF, and he tried not to.
“You know, it was actually painfully difficult once I realized it was the right move because I knew I was creating more transition for the team back to UCF,” White said. . “This part was really difficult. I did not take this job planning to do it. “
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Austin Nivison of 247Sports contributed to this report.
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