⚡ CFB Dashboard

David Cutcliffe still remembers the first time he watched one of Josh Heupel's teams practice. Cutcliffe was Duke's football coach at the time, but he was visiting his son, Marcus Hilliard, at UCF and got a chance to see one of the Knights' spring practices in 2018, Heupel's first year as a head coach. Cutcliffe told the Knoxville Quarterback Club on Monday that he came away from the UCF practice he attended "with two thoughts about Josh Heupel." They both explained why Cutcliffe said he thinks it's "appropriate" that Heupel is now the head coach at Tennessee, where Cutcliffe spent a combined 19 years during two separate stints as an assistant coach. "I coached against [Heupel] when he was a quarterback at Oklahoma — actually beat them in the last game they lost before his senior year, when they won the national championship, in the bowl game," said Cutcliffe, a former head coach at Ole Miss and Duke. "I'm watching and the defense is allowed to be extremely aggressive. Here's a former quarterback — offensive-minded coach — and the defense is getting after it, now, in practice. That's impressive. He didn't put restraints on them for offensive success. And I watched their quarterback at the time function really well. "And then what thrilled me the most was how much emphasis they put on the kicking game in spring ball, which a lot of people didn't do or don't do still today. And with my Tennessee ties, with General [Robert] Neyland and Coach [Johnny] Majors, I was just grinning from ear to ear. "And then, lo and behold — who would've known? — years later, he's the head football coach at the University of Tennessee. How appropriate that is." Heupel has a 48-20 overall record as the Vols' coach, and he led them to their first College Football Playoff appearance in 2024. They're off to a 3-0 start this season, and No. 14 Tennessee is in the national spotlight this week going into its showdown with top-ranked Texas (3-0) on Saturday at Neyland Stadium. Cutcliffe said the magnitude of Saturday's game, which is bringing ESPN's "College GameDay" to Tennessee's campus, is a reflection of the program Heupel has built since arriving in 2021. And it’s a program that still means plenty to Cutcliffe, particularly with Hilliard now serving as UT’s executive associate athletic director/chief of staff. "Now, I'm going to tell y'all something: You don't have a game this early in the season, this big because you've got two good teams playing," Cutcliffe said. "This is only created by programs. They've got a great program, and there's a difference. And it's hard to have a great program. But there are standards that are met. "I watched them as an SEC employee a lot, coming up watching practice," added Cutcliffe, who retired as the SEC's special assistant to the commissioner for football relations earlier this year. "So those standards are the Tennessee way of doing things, and I've enjoyed the heck out of that. "So get excited — not only about this coming weekend and 'College GameDay' being in town. Get excited about what lies in the future and support that program and what [athletic director] Danny White has done to make it work in the most difficult time."