Josh Heupel loses control, and a Tennessee QB carousel highlight key concerns for the Volunteers entering the 2025 CFB season

Head coach Josh Heupel and the Tennessee Volunteers head into a very interesting 2025 college football season. For a team that is coming off of double digit victories, and a playoff berth, this program doesn’t seem to have a ton of optimism behind it right now. That makes this upcoming season very, very important. 

There is certainly talent in Knoxville, and a lot to be positive about, but there are also potential pitfalls to navigate this fall. Here are some of the biggest concerns for Tennessee heading into 2025. They must be able to navigate them accordingly, and hopefully find answers. 

Josh Heupel loses control 

Coach Heupel has done a really good job for Tennessee, but we have continued to hear more and more chatter about complaints behind the scenes. It goes beyond the Nico Iamaleava situation, especially since the program wasn’t the biggest issue in that saga. If you think back to when Hendon Hooker was playing on a high level a few years ago, and there was still some unrest with the NIL money some players were making. Seeing the Volunteers look lifeless in the playoffs against Ohio State doesn’t do much to show full buy in, at least from the public perception. 

Perhaps the issues are somewhat understated, but where there is smoke, there is usually fire. This 2025 season could go a long way to showing that Coach Heupel has complete control over this program, and things are still trending in a great direction. 

Tennessee QB carousel 

Unless you have been living under a rock this offseason, you know about the Nico Iamaleava saga, and how things ended for the Tennessee Volunteers. With Nico now with the UCLA Bruins, the Volunteers were forced to try and find answers in a quarterback room that desperately needed it. That included Joey Aguilar transferring in, and trying to get Jake Merklinger ready to play. The hope is that an experienced player like Aguilar can play solid enough to keep this offense afloat. There’s a chance, however, that this quarterback carousel ends in disaster. 

Offensive line rebuild? 

Tennessee dipped into the transfer portal multiple times to help rebuild the offensive line this offseason, including with projected starting guards Sam Pendleton and Wendell Moe. Bringing in two players with substantial experience is a positive, at least in theory. The problem, however, is that neither player was very good last season. They should fit in well with the Volunteers group, which also wasn’t very good in 2025. 

With a new starting quarterback, young running backs, and an inexperienced wide receiver room for the most part, having a strong offensive line would be a huge help to raise the floor of the offense. Without it, this has a chance to be the worst Tennessee offense under Coach Heupel. The big guys up front outperforming expectations would be massive for the program, quite literally.