The Tennessee Vols could get an SEC coach fired in 2025, and it would be the ultimate twist of irony for Josh Heupel

The Tennessee Vols could be the team that gets a prominent SEC head coach fired this season -- and it would be quite poetic for Josh Heupel if it happens.

CBS Sports recently detailed the college football coaches with the "hottest seats" entering the 2025 season. 

Two of those coaches are on Tennessee's schedule in 2025 -- Arkansas Razorbacks head coach Sam Pittman and Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables. 

Tennessee will play Arkansas on October 11. The Vols will play Oklahoma on November 1. 

It's unlikely that a loss to the Vols will lead to the Razorbacks firing Pittman in early October. 

An Oklahoma loss to Tennessee in early November, however, could lead to the Sooners firing Venables (but that's only if the Sooners are in the midst of a rough season). 

Venables is very much on the hot seat after going 6-7 last season (the Sooners' second losing season in three years under Venables). 

From CBS Sports: Oklahoma hired Venables to get SEC ready, and the program responded with its worst run of the 21st Century. The Sooners have suffered two losing seasons in three years and face another tall task in SEC play. The main reason for optimism is the transformative investments in quarterback John Mateer and running back Jaydn Ott. The pieces are there to succeed, but Venables has to do it. 

The fact that Joe Castiglione, the athletic director that hired Venables, is set to retire this year will only make it tougher for Venables to keep his job through another rocky season. 

If the Sooners lose to the Vols on November 1 to fall to 3–6 (which would mean losses for OU to Michigan, Auburn, Texas, South Carolina, Ole Miss, and Tennessee), it's easy to imagine Oklahoma firing Venables, especially with a bye week coming the following weekend. 

Heupel, of course, was fired as Oklahoma's offensive coordinator after the 2014 season despite the fact that his offense ranked No. 21 in the nation (and despite the fact that Heupel was the quarterback who led the Sooners to a national championship in 2000). 

It would be quite ironic for Heupel to be the coach that causes an Oklahoma coach to get fired considering the way his time in Norman ended a decade ago. But there's a very real possibility that it could happen this fall.