I wouldn’t have believed you. Better yet, I would’ve told you to stop chugging orange Kool-Aid.
There’s no world in which you could’ve convinced me in August that, heading into the Third Saturday in October and at the midway point of the season, Tennessee would own the nation’s No. 1 scoring offense. None.
I say that as someone who has praised Josh Heupel for the whale of a job he’s done as the best post-Phil Fulmer coach in Knoxville, which was a low bar that he’s wildly exceeded. I also say that as someone who looked at this team in August with a question that plenty of Tennessee fans had to ask — who’s the best offensive player on this team? Miles Kitselman?
Think about this. As heralded of an offensive mind as Heupel is, there are elite coaches who would’ve wilted with this type of turnover:
SEC Offensive Player of the Year Dylan Sampson gone Top 3 in receiving yards gone 4 starting OL gone QB1 gone … post-springAny one of those things could be considered a lot to overcome, and all Heupel has done at the midway point of the season is overcome all of them with a scoring offense that’s averaging 48 points per game. Not too shabby.
And sure, take away the 4 non-offensive touchdowns and it’s more like 43.5 points per contest. Fine. It’s still a unit that’s averaging 7 yards per play that can score points in a variety of ways and is a shanked field goal from being undefeated heading into a pivotal showdown at No. 6 Alabama. For now, let’s ignore the fact that Heupel is trying to become the first Tennessee coach since Fulmer to win in Tuscaloosa, or the fact that in those 10 losing, smokey-filled trips to Alabama, none of those offenses scored more than 24 points.
(It was Heupel who delivered that 24-point game in Year 1, which felt a bit like the coming-out-party for the Vols and their new-look offense even though it was in a losing effort.)
Let’s instead shine a light in a team that recognized it needed to adjust — both with personnel and schematically with the type of routes being run — and turned into a more explosive version of itself.
Like, the type of version of itself that put up 41 points against a Kirby Smart defense and has averaged a minimum of 6.5 yards/play every game en route to a 5-1 start. Just for a little context, Georgia hit that mark once this season. Shoot, even that decorated Alabama offense is only averaging 6.2 yards per play with the emerging Ty Simpson.
Of course, part of the reason that the Vols have needed to be more explosive this season — they rank No. 3 in the SEC in 20-yard plays after finishing No. 10 in 2024 — is because of the unit that Simpson will see on Saturday. Tennessee’s defense has been … not elite. Whether you can pin that on the injuries at corner or not, it’s clear that Tim Banks doesn’t have a unit as reliable as what he had the last 2 years when it often did the heavy lifting. It wasn’t long ago when the Vols got shut out in the first half in 3 consecutive games, but managed a 2-1 mark in that stretch.
This year, the pendulum has swung back to Joey Aguilar and a new-look Tennessee offense
It’s been more versatile than anybody could’ve imagined in fall camp. Sure, we could’ve assumed that Tennessee would successfully get back to a more traditional Heupel backfield split, which has played out this year with DeSean Bishop, Star Thomas and Peyton Lewis all between 43-63 carries and 4-5 touchdowns. After all, Heupel ground attacks always find a way to average 200 yards per game.
What we couldn’t have assumed was that this new-look offensive line would be so steady. In addition to paving the way for that prolific rushing attack, that unit only allowed 4 sacks in its first 6 games. There are units like Auburn and Texas that have allowed that in a half. Aguilar has only been under pressure on 23.7% of his drop-backs and just 4.3% of those pressures have turned into sacks against him, which is easily the best rate among SEC starting quarterbacks.
That’s exactly how you’d like to protect someone who was thrown into the fire with this offense. As a result, it’s allowed Aguilar to be the field-stretching signal caller that Heupel hoped he’d be after his well-documented swap with Nico Iamaleava. Aguilar has 14 completions on passes 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, which trails only Arch Manning among SEC quarterbacks and ranks No. 8 among Power Conference signal callers. He’s also No. 6 among Power Conference quarterbacks with a 63% adjusted completion percentage on those throws.
Aguilar to Brazzell WHAT A CATCH pic.twitter.com/56hrjGDsdJ
— gmannVOLS (@gmannVOLS) September 27, 2025And just in case you were wondering, not all of those completions were to Brazzell … just half of them. Seven such grabs is best in the SEC, as are Brazzell’s 7 touchdown catches. A year after Brazzell was part of a group that failed to produce a 700-yard receiver, he’s No. 2 in the SEC in receiving with a 12-game pace of 1,072 yards. If they can stay healthy, it’s not crazy to think Braylon Staley and Mike Matthews could all finish with more receiving yards than any Tennessee player last year.
Sustaining this early offensive success isn’t a given, but it’s a feat worth acknowledging at the midway point of the season. It’s reminiscent of what Heupel did in Year 1 when he inherited a seemingly disastrous post-Jeremy Pruitt roster and turned it into the No. 7 scoring offense in America.
It’s possible that the Vols will come up short against a red-hot Alabama team, and we’ll hear more reminders about Heupel’s issues on the road or Tennessee’s historic issues in Tuscaloosa. That’s the way this sport works.
But at a time in which we’re seeing roster turnover like never before, one shouldn’t look past how impressive Tennessee’s offense has become with so many different contributors than last year’s Playoff team. It was fair to wonder if Heupel and Co. were in for a transition year, especially when fall camp began with a quarterback battle and a flurry of injuries at receiver. A couple months later, Tennessee has an offense that’s established itself among the toughest in the country to slow down.
If you’re not at least drinking some orange Kool-Aid, well, you should be.
We need to put some respect on Josh Heupel’s No. 1 scoring offense in America Saturday Down South.
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