Josh Heupel has quite a way of making a first impression.
Tennessee's football coach on Monday night was named as the co-winner of the Steve Spurrier First-Year Coach Award, sharing the accolade with South Carolina's Shane Beamer. Heupel, who guided the Volunteers to a 7-6 record and to a third-place finish in the Southeastern Conference's Eastern Division this past season, also won the honor in 2018, when he led the University of Central Florida to a 12-1 mark and the Fiesta Bowl.
"Any individual honor is really a recognition of everything that's going on inside of our program, from our on-field coaches to our support staff to, most importantly, our players," Heupel said on a Zoom call. "For the last 12 months, the growth inside of our program of who we are and how we conduct ourselves and how we interact and are connected with each other every single day is the reason that we were able to have a successful season in year one.
"As good as it was, we are so excited about the future of Tennessee football because of the young men we have inside of the building. The best is truly yet to come."
The First-Year Coach Award has been around for 20 years and is voted on by the Football Writers Association of America, but this was the first year with Spurrier as the namesake. Spurrier was named SEC Coach of the Year in his initial year at Florida (1990) and at South Carolina (2005).
Heupel is the award's only two-time recipient.
UCF's Gus Malzahn was the other finalist and actually had the best record of the three, capping a 9-4 season with the Knights with a 29-17 topping of Florida in the Gasparilla Bowl. Beamer inherited a South Carolina program that went 2-8 in 2020 and lost its last six games, but this past season's Gamecocks avoided a similar fate by heating up in November with home upsets of Florida and Auburn that clinched an unexpected 6-6 record.
South Carolina earned a winning season with yet another surprise, downing North Carolina 38-21 in the Duke's Mayo Bowl, a contest that was overshadowed by Beamer getting drenched in mayonnaise.
"A coach doesn't need four or five years to get his players in there to build his system and build it up and this, that and the other," Spurrier said. "There are a lot of excuse words that coaches used to use, but these candidates didn't use any excuse words, and they weren't predicted before the season to have that much of a team.
"I think South Carolina was picked like 13th out of 14, and Tennessee was 12th. They were right down there with Vanderbilt at the bottom of the SEC in the preseason predictions, and both coaches led their teams to winning records and really energized their fan bases and did excellent jobs with what they had to work with."
Monday marked celebration and remembrance on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but it was on Martin Luther King Jr. Day last year when Tennessee fired Jeremy Pruitt and announced that an internal investigation had uncovered a slew of rules violations by Pruitt and linebackers coaches Shelton Felton and Brian Niedermeyer. The Vols topped all of college football in player departures through the NCAA transfer portal, but Heupel would lead the up-tempo Vols to 511 points to set a new program record.
Tennessee repeated defeats of Missouri, South Carolina and Vanderbilt from Pruitt's 3-7 finale, with its 45-42 outlasting of Kentucky in Lexington pushing the Vols over the top in their quest for a winning season. Their drive for eight wins came up short in a 48-45 overtime loss to Purdue in the Music City Bowl.
"In coming to Tennessee, there was obviously a lot of outside noise, but we were able to quiet the storm and quiet the chatter," Heupel said. "Our kids bought in immediately into what we were doing, and they understood that connection and accountability were going to be extremely important in the success that we were going to have."
Given all that went right, Heupel was asked how he would use a mulligan on his first season in Knoxville.
"I would take any of the losses and replay them," he said. "I'd like to have the overtime back against Purdue in the bowl game. There are a lot of things you would like to have the opportunity to replay and change the outcome, but at the same time, that doesn't define where we're going. I'm so excited about the future of what we have, who's coming in the building and really the passion that our players have for one another and for the ability to compete and get better.
"There are high expectations in the locker room and outside the building as well, and I'm ready to get back to work with these guys next Monday."
The FWAA also awarded its Freshman of the Year Award to Georgia tight end Brock Bowers, who amassed 56 catches for 882 yards and 14 total touchdowns, with 13 via receptions, for the national champions. Alabama outside linebacker Will Anderson won the honor for the 2020 season, with former Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence capturing the inaugural award in 2018.
Georgia tight end Brock Bowers (19) during the College Football Playoff National Championship against Alabama at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Ind., on Monday Jan. 10, 2022. (Photo by Mackenzie Miles)
Smith returning to UGA
Georgia junior outside linebacker Nolan Smith announced Monday on Instagram that he would be returning for his senior season with the Bulldogs.
"What a ride it has been during my junior season," Smith said at the start of his post before eventually ending it with, "Let's run this thing back! Go Dawgs!"
The 6-foot-3, 235-pounder from Savannah racked up 56 tackles and nine tackles for loss this past season, and he was also quite the turnover machine, forcing three fumbles and snagging an interception.
Fifth-year senior defensive back William Poole announced Monday that he would be using a second senior season in Athens, while Pro Football Focus reported that backup quarterback JT Daniels is expected to enter the transfer portal.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.