Report: Heupel a “Top Candidate” for Tennessee Job

UCF Knights head coach Josh Heupel has emerged as a “top candidate” for the vacant Tennessee Volunteers head coaching job, according to Austin Price of VolQuest, Tennessee’s Rivals.com site.

Tennessee’s athletic director is, of course, Danny White, who just left UCF, where he hired Heupel to take over for Scott Frost in late 2017.

According to our Dani Medina, Heupel’s buyout is in the $3.5 million range:

UCF, of course, doesn’t have a full-time athletic director right now. Deputy A.D. Scott Carr is running the program as UCF searches for a replacement for White.

Should Heupel also leave, UCF would be in the exact same position as it was in the Fall of 2015, when George O’Leary resigned as both head football coach and interim athletic director, and President John C. Hitt hired White, who then hired Scott Frost within two weeks.

It’s entirely possible - and within character - that Heupel might not be a candidate at all, if White’s history has anything to do with it:

This is a developing story. We will keep you updated as anything breaks.