There are stupid comments, and then there are comments that Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel made after questions about him being the next head coach at Penn State.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand there’s a long, rich history down in Tennessee as well, but for him to come out and try to suggest that Penn State has low standards by any means should be quite embarrassing to even suggest.
"I wouldn't want low expectations," he said, per Bleacher Report. "That's part of why I want to be here. We'll win big."
If we’re talking low standards here, how about an 8-4 season and losing to Vanderbilt at home by 21 points?
If we’re being honest for a second, while I understand that Vanderbilt is definitely improved, the University of Tennessee should never lose a football game to Vanderbilt. When we start factoring in that the game was at Tennessee and it lost by 21 points, wouldn’t not getting fired suggest that UT has low expectations?
"Ultimately, the performance we had tonight is not anywhere near the standard of what Tennessee football is," Heupel told reporters after the Vandy loss. "There have been a lot of things that we've had to deal with in the beginning, middle parts of the season. I felt like we took some steps here the last couple of weeks. ... It's my job to evaluate everything inside our program. I told our players we've had some disappointing results, but this second half was extremely disappointing, coaches and players, and not just one."
If Heupel had the season that he’s had right now over the past few years at Penn State, he would have been fired five years quicker than James Franklin was.
I try not to be too mean when saying this because I understand he probably has a lot of stress on himself, and the comments about leaving a school he might love could be infuriating.
But let’s be real here for a second, though: there’s a very good chance he won’t be coaching the Volunteers sometime in the next year or so, so he probably shouldn’t burn any bridges along the way.