While it’s far from a lock to happen, Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft has honed in on BYU head coach Kalani Sitake as his top target to replace James Franklin in Happy Valley. However, before that news began to bubble to the surface, Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel’s name was circling the rumor mill as a potential candidate.
Well, Heupel was asked point-blank about the Penn State rumors on Monday and clarified that he’s not a candidate for the job. Then, he took a wild, umprompted shot at Penn State, which he might be regretting.
NEW: Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel tells @clowfb that he's NOT a candidate for the Penn State job❌
— On3 (@On3sports) December 1, 2025
“I wouldn’t want low expectations. That’s part of why I want to be here. We’ll win big.”https://t.co/cJupe7PBVT pic.twitter.com/3XKPxPRs9t
Josh Heupel takes a pathetic shot at Penn State
Heupel told On3’s Chris Low that he’s not a candidate in Happy Valley, adding, “I wouldn’t want low expectations. That’s a part of why I want to be here. We’ll win big.”
What a wild statement about the program that just fired its head coach six games into the season, one year after a trip to the College Football Playoff semifinal. You could easily argue that Penn State’s expectations are too high, much higher than what Tennessee has put up with for decades.
Both Heupel and James Franklin made their first CFP appearance last year, thanks in large part to the expansion to the 12-team format. In that way, they are fairly similar. Though Heupel's team got embarrassed by Ohio State in Round 1, and Franklin's was a drive away from the national championship game.
In most other ways, Franklin’s tenure in Happy Valley was far superior to Heupel’s time in Knoxville. Heupel has yet to win a conference title, which Franklin did in Year 3. In fact, he’s yet to lead the Vols to the SEC Championship Game through five seasons.
As for the games against his biggest rivals, Heupel had a major breakthrough in Year 2, upsetting Alabama 52-49 in a thriller. In 2024, he also beat a down Crimson Tide team. However, he still has a losing record against his program’s biggest rival, is 0-5 against Georgia, and is coming off a 45-24 home loss to Vanderbilt in an 8-4 season that did not include a single win over a bowl-eligible team. Penn State’s win over Nebraska is better than anything Tennessee did this season.
It’s understandable that Heupel doesn’t want to leave Tennessee for Penn State. The Vols are one of the biggest NIL spenders, and have been since the rules changed. There’s very little upside to making a lateral move just to start over and rebuild another program in his image. Still, if he did go to Happy Valley and submitted a five-year run like he’s had at Tennessee, he’d be on the hot seat. James Franklin got fired for better.