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Does Heupel have a killer instinct? · Champions of Life

welcome to the champions of life podcast where 3 orangeblooded Tennessee alums discuss how there's always next year Hey, welcome back to the Champions of Life podcast.
We're here again.
It's Laney, Joe and Bobby, and this is exactly where we thought we'd be.
Here we are.
Nine and three is on the table, just like we all predicted at the beginning of the season.
Wait, I thought we said 10 and two.
Yeah, I may have said 12 and oh, but to Joe's point, this is where we knew we would end up.
Yep.
We had hope though.
This is why we're champions at life.
We're working really hard to be good at champions, but we don't know if they're working as hard to be champions on the field.
I'm, I take that back.
They're working really hard, working like heck are players or coaches or all of them.
Oh my.
I appreciate you.
I know you're working hard.
But, but dot, dot, dot.
Oh.
Sometimes it feels like we might be out coached.
Mm.
Oh.
It's hard for say that.
Mm.
I don't want it to be true.
You know, it feels true.
I the, you know, time I timeouts clock management.
Play calling.
There's just been some I, at the end of the day, you go back in time and you say, Hey, your $8 million quarterback is gone.
You're gonna have to get whoever is out there could be anybody.
All right, here you go.
Here's the app.
State guy.
Yep.
He's a gun slinger.
Good luck and you gotta install an offense.
You've got a freshman, right? Tackle.
He's a five star, uh, but he's got no reps.
And then you've lost the offensive player in the SEC for the year and you lose your two star and quarterbacks and you say, okay, would you take a nine and three season? You say, yeah, I probably would.
I think that's reasonable.
I think all things considered that's doable.
Now you zoom in and you say you lose Georgia, the way you lose Georgia, which is coaching.
Mm-hmm.
Taking your foot off the gas.
Horrible defensive adjustments at the last two plays for them to get an absolutely insane touchdown at two pointer.
We're not gonna relive it.
Okay, max, you did your part.
You missed, you're the most accurate kicker in UT history, but you missed Yep, we lose the game.
Okay.
Oklahoma malpractices all around.
It was embarrassment.
That's what it was.
It was bad.
And Bama, you argue you don't throw a pick six, you actually convert six points right there, right before halftime.
That game maybe ends differently.
So nine and three is not unreasonable, but when you zoom in, it's like the way that you lose, it's like, E, that's not great.
I don't think I wanna sign up for that.
And it's not just that.
Yes, we would've said nine and three.
Great.
With all the things you just mentioned, all the caveats.
However you really got our hopes up in the Georgia game.
Mm-hmm.
With this is what level we can be at, this is how we can play.
And then the devastation in the final second.
And then, ever since then it has felt like we're just kind of sliding Yes.
Down.
Yep.
It's the way we were losing.
Yeah.
If we had played really hard, it was really close and maybe they got a lucky and squeaked one out some way, like kicked the.
50 yard field goal, you'd feel be, I mean, still hurt, but to get stomped at Oklahoma, it's like that's a bigger slide than the Alabama mm-hmm.
And Georgia loss.
Well, and our, two killer losses at home where we don't lose at home.
Right.
It's up to Georgia.
I will say I was at both of those games, so maybe it's your fault.
It's my fault on you.
Okay.
It won't go to anymore bad little season.
So does heel need to relinquish his play calling duties? That's my question.
Should he let Halsey focus on it and he just manages everything? I don't, he calls 'em all right now.
All the offense.
I think so.
Yeah.
Right.
I don't know.
I'm like 95% sure.
You're probably right.
You're probably right.
The, uh, tigers, Detroit Tigers.
Who's their coach? No.
Yes.
This is baseball.
The baseball team.
I mean, not Detroit Tigers.
Who's Detroit's NFL team? The Lions.
The Lions.
Dan Campbell? Mm-hmm.
He took over this weekend.
Yep.
And they had a big turnaround.
Mm-hmm.
Maybe the opposite needs to be happening.
For answering your question.
He needs to give it up.
Whoever called the Y two spider banana at half at Bama, whoever's called that play.
That's.
If it was hypo or if it was ju, just they need to relinquish, in my opinion.
But it's another topic.
I do think you could make the argument that it's a, it's clear that like there is some, again, I don't know the nuances of being a head coach and having all those people watching every movie you make, but.
Some of these games, it does feel like the game is maybe too much for him in the moment.
So he's got too many responsibilities.
There's too many game day situations.
Um, you kind of just wanna like roll the dice and just go to your go-to your bread and butter, your team's prepared.
I mean, we're still, we're not.
We're not the worst, but we're near the bottom in penalties per game.
Every game.
Even if against inferior opponents, we always have a illegal procedure every game.
And as a Tennessee fan, you're, you, you gave him grace in the beginning.
Like, okay, surely by week four or five we'll have this cleared up, but it hasn't.
Mm-hmm.
That's the problem.
No, it's not worse.
I've watched a lot of football in my life.
I've never seen an illegal receiver downfield.
Right.
But we've had it multiple times.
Right.
Somehow we we're getting good at it.
Yeah.
And I, and here's the thing, like the coaches like Kirby and those guys that are really, really focal.
They are making sure the referees know to watch for pick plays, to watch for screens for.
So everybody is keyed in on, and, and PLE has done a phenomenal job of transforming the offense from when he got here to now it's more distinguished, it's more he's running a pro style offense where he's putting a focus on running the ball and it's not, I'm using air quote gimmicky with these route trees where Hyatt's running down the field and there's nobody 10 yards away from people have caught onto that.
He hasn't just stuck with it and said, well, that's the way I do it.
Right? And we're just gonna keep doing it and we're gonna lose a bunch of games.
But it's the way we do it.
He has adapted, right? But it does feel like the game management side of things is like, Hmm, man, yeah.
What's going on here? Right? This feels weird.
So New Mexico State, what do we think? How do we feel? I mean, you gotta be injury free.
Take care of business.
Should be over by halftime.
Can't look ahead to Florida, but you just, you gotta take care of.
I mean, it's New Mexico State.
Yeah, we should be fine, but don't need any quarterbacks getting hurt receivers.
When we kicked the extra point, several times, linemen are laying on the ground hurt, like a blown out knee.
Looks like.
Mm-hmm.
Somehow they walk off the field.
Is that, is that intentional or are they Bobby.
Okay.
Okay.
Bobby and I said the same thing to Bobby Weeks ago and instantly what you had to take, hold on.
I think you're right.
Hold on.
There's a lot of buzz around that.
Those are plants.
They, they fake an injury to.
Maybe extend the time before kickoff or the commercial so that it gives the defense a couple more minutes because we are fast paced offense.
Mm-hmm.
When we score quickly, you typically see a guy go down.
Okay.
Got it.
I think, there's guys out there that are giving 100% their all and they are playing for the love of the game, for the power tee, all that good stuff.
My fear in this climate, in this world with student athletes getting paid millions of dollars before they're in their twenties.
Mm-hmm.
You do wonder, we're not gonna the playoffs, we just got beat bad in Mexico State.
We never went in Gainesville.
Are are the guys gonna get up and play? And that's where I'm looking at height to see if he's got that in him, to get them motivated to perform at a high level.
I've watched a lot of bad football in the last two decades, and you can tell when a team has quit.
Yep.
And I don't think that anybody's quit on this team yet, except for maybe there's a couple guys out there that may have quit.
Um, but I wanna see the team come out and kind of punch some guys in the mouth here for the next three games.
Yep.
Because here's the new risk that we have to take into account if we quit whatever.
It's not just what our record is at the end of the season, what crappy ball game we get, but it's also who all are we losing going into next season? Yep.
If we quit and end up what, seven to five? Possibly? Potentially, which is just unbelievably ridiculous, but it's on the table.
It's possible.
Yeah.
And so who do we get? But then who are we not able to get to come here? Right.
It's about recruiting whole new dynamic.
Yeah, that's a great point.
I saw we just lost a four star flip to Ohio State, which, they got money, but yeah.
Keeping guys that you want.
And I love squirrel wide.
I think he was, he was great for our program.
I hated that they transfer to Florida State, but I saw his stats the other day.
He is like, yeah, he's not, he's got like 10 catches.
He's not doing anything.
Mm-hmm.
And they're not using them.
I've watched a couple of their games 'cause I want 'em to do well.
Yeah.
Cheering for them.
They're not using them.
So you do wonder, have we missed him this year? I don't.
I think Bra Braylin has done a phenomenal job in the slot.
Yes, he has.
Um, so it is not like we're missing some of these guys that lead.
But yeah, to your point, you want roster turnover is a huge issue in college football right now.
I'd love to keep guys that want to be here.
All right.
To see some new tight ends, maybe, I don't know.
Just, just a sneak beat.
New tight ends.
Yeah, I, you know, you don't like Ben Dorsal here? Ethan Davis.
I think Ethan had a great game he did against Oklahoma.
I mean, he's been hurt.
He came back.
Cannot say the same for other.
You don't.
Okay.
Interesting.
I don't know what that means.
I don't, I'm getting a look.
I don't, I don't know where your tickets were on that fourth down.
Oh, well, okay.
Fair enough.
Fair enough.
Okay.
All right.
Are we, are we wrapping this up? Are we giving score predictions any hot takes? We miss you, Tony.
Yes.
And do you see what he said about paying players? Mm-hmm.
That's what he hated about it.
Really? Really? Like this week, that's what has ruined is ruining baseball.
But I think that all sports, which you're saying about football, so he is going to the pros then.
Yeah.
That's, at least there's structured, at least there's, I mean it, yeah.
Well, there's not a cap in MLB, but the Dodge basically bought two.
World It is.
Okay.
It's not a big deal.
Mookie Nashville Native.
Shout out Mookie.
He did not wanna leave Boston.
Mm-hmm.
Horrible trade.
Horrible trade.
That's a different podcast.
But that was a bad trade.
We should do it on bad trades in all sports.
Plenty of bad trades out there.
Instead of 30 for 30, we would call it.
Or un untold.
Or un, yeah.
What's those? Yeah.
Yeah.
I'll tell you what was a good trade, Joey Ika.
Great trade.
I think I'll take that.
Great trade.
I'll take it.
Okay.
Josh heel's back from the top.
He's great.
He's doing awesome.
Please.
Uh, I will say, Josh, if you're listening, you're doing a great job.
Please don't leave us for Penn State.
We've been in the land of darkness in destruction.
Uh, we've seen the barren wasteland.
Okay.
Would you, if, um.
Ole Mrs.
Coach Lane, Kiffin Lane train.
If Lane is coming back, where do we make the PLE train? Would you? If you have the choice between keeping ple, oh my goodness.
For Lane Kiffin, how long are we guaranteed lane to stay? There are no guarantees in this world, but you have to give me guarantee.
Five years I'm taking Lane.
Well, I No hesitation.
Well, no hesitation.
Wow.
Okay.
I don't know.
I have a hard time of think seeing him in orange and white again, something about it's, it is really hard.
I, I mean, but look at where Ole Miss was and look at where they are now.
Redemptive story, that would be, they have, have they not bypassed Tennessee? Yeah.
Would you not say Yes.
Yes.
So like, ma'am, if I can be where Ole Miss is, which is a horrific statement to say, I know, then I'll take Lane back.
Didn't he name one of his kids, Knox? He, did he still name Knox? Mm-hmm.
He hasn't changed his name yet.
He may have changed it.
There may have been some legal work done there to fix it.
I don't know.
I think it's a family name.
It was convenient that he Oh, was a coaching Knox.
Really? Yeah.
Interesting.
Don't you know, don't let Lane.
Hey, speaking of Knox.
The Johnny Knoxville appearance at the Oklahoma game.
That was a shock.
Oh, he at the game and I thought it was great.
Hmm.
But it was really random.
'cause he runs it on the field and he's like, Hey, I'm Johnny Knoxville.
Go Balls.
And then he runs off and I was like, that's it.
Like that's all he's doing.
I didn't, I missed that point.
And he is like completely gray.
So I'm like, who is this guy going out on the field? And then he turns around and says that I was like, oh shoot.
He's, he's really, it's PJ Club.
There's some heavy hitters of that game.
There were, Peyton was there, Theo v Morgan Wallen were right behind.
Oh really? In the, yeah.
Wow.
In the little box thing.
Mm-hmm.
And then he had a ton of former, I saw the Ice Man was there, Jamal Lewis was there.
Jamal, yeah, he had some heavy hitters.
Former was Samers.
Yeah.
Fulmer's family thing.
Yeah.
It's a shame.
I asked Laney this the next, the Monday morning that we came back from the Oklahoma game and I said, do we just, is it too much like.
The production, the blackout, the checker, like all of that is amazing.
And the fan base is incredible.
But if you're the opponent, do you come in there and you go, oh, this is incredible.
I'm not intimidated, I'm actually gonna kick 'em in the teeth 'cause I wanna shut 'em up.
And does our team go, oh, there's too much pressure but then that means, I don't know, back to coaching.
Right.
That we, it's po Yes, Bobby, it's possible that they were thinking that.
Surely they're more mentally tough than that.
Surely like just push that.
It doesn't even matter.
You're going to battle.
You play to not lose the game versus let's go out and win.
Right.
Do you think that Josh Happel has a killer instinct and if so, do you think he instills it in? No, I don't think he does either, and I think that's what we need.
I, yeah.
Uh, from a coaching perspective, he did have the killer instinct with Hendon.
He took some risks.
He threw the ball down the field.
He said, let's give our guys a chance.
He almost won the Heisman, he won a national championship, like he's got the fi, like the competitive edge.
He led a team as the quarterback.
I think he's changed over the last five seasons.
To where he's gotten more conservative, he's gotten more, less killer.
But I don't, that's the other thing is like, I don't know how much of that is his play call.
Like how much of that is play calling with goldish? How much of that is your quarterback? Hendon was a third string cast offer from Virginia Tech.
Didn't have any other offers and we weren't even gonna start 'em until Joe went down.
I know.
And then Joe was great for us, but he was a step down from like the ability to make a read and let it rip.
Accurately and Hendon could take off and get you eight yards when the play broke down like Dopps would.
We haven't had anything close to that.
No, it's true.
But I don't think Hale's ability to coach up Hendon to get him to the level that he was is the same as having a killer instinct.
I look at like Kirby Smart in the way he coaches.
Mm-hmm.
And Happle does not have that.
And I want a coach that has a killer instinct that even if we're up by 15 whatever, and games in hand, I wanna ram it down their face, whoever we're playing.
Hoppel just, he doesn't, he's not gonna do it.
He doesn't do that.
Case in point, the end of the Georgia game.
Yeah.
When we should have sealed the deal.
Yep.
Killer instinct didn't Kirby had it.
Right.
They get out of there with a win and he couldn't even admit it was the other thing.
Right.
That he was a bad call.
I watched just a handful of minutes of the NFL and.
Former Tennessee Titan, Mike Vrabel, we love you.
He's coaching the Patriots and they get down on the goal line with like a minute and a half before halftime, and they're down 10 to seven.
He can knee it three times and kick a field goal and go into, but instead he runs his quarterback straight down the middle just to kill the, like to just burn time.
So it's second down quarterback goes down.
He's got one play to figure out if he wants to score or not.
He does not wanna give them the ball back with a minute.
Before half.
So it's third down, they run it again and they don't get it.
So now it's fourth down.
He burns the clock all the way down to two seconds, calls a timeout, kick the field goal.
You go into halftime, it's time he doesn't, he calls ACEs a fade to digs, quarterback delivers a beautiful ball and digs makes a great catch.
And they go up 14 to 10.
If that doesn't work, you're getting ridiculed.
You're getting critiqued 'cause you burned a play, a chance to score.
You burn that and you're now losing versus tied.
But I love You could see the team reacts in a way that was like, oh yeah, We're gonna do this.
Exactly.
He's betting on us.
Exactly.
He's betting on us.
Exactly.
Dan Campbell's the same way.
Yeah.
And that's where I'm wondering, is that a hypo thing or does he not trust his quarterbacks that he's had in the last three seasons? I think it's a hypo thing.
Yeah.
I think it's in his DNA.
I don't think he has it.
Well, maybe he needs someone like a goldish in his ear saying, coach, we didn't make it this far to come this far.
Yep.
Let's go beat Georgia Versus All right, let's not mess this up.
But he did everything right now defensively, bad series against Georgia.
You did everything you, that was a picture perfect 32nd drill to get a field ball out of that minus a false start.
And then you got scared and you kicked it versus running another play.
Yep.
So again, he came out after the game and said, yeah, I shouldn't have been scared that we fall started.
I should have ran another play.
Yep.
We should do a next podcast on where we think goldish is gonna land.
Which of the SEC schools? Hey, I'm not take goldish, I'll take goldish.
Whole Miss after Lane comes to Tennessee.
Really? Mm-hmm.
That's a good, don't think LSU is going after, unless u's got a lot of money they gotta pay out between.
That's true.
Uh, did you see they're trying to fire for cause and he sued him, like he counter sued.
Yeah, he's got federal court involved I believe.
Woohoo.
Brian Kelly.
Okay.
Don't mess with that man's money.
Yep, he's a professional in getting money.
All right, is that it? Are we done? I mean, we go for hours, but you gotta cut us off at some point.
All right.
Thanks for listening.
Champions of Life Podcasts, catch us next time.
Go on.
Come on.