Why Tennessee's Josh Heupel should inspire and encourage Auburn football | Toppmeyer

Auburn needs to find a Heupel in a haystack. Throw in a Hooker, and the woebegone Tigers will be on their way.

When all hope seems lost, when the dark cloud is overhead, when even those who ardently support the program through thick and thin wonder, “What pour soul would want this job?” let Josh Heupel be your ray of hope.

No, I’m not suggesting Tennessee’s second-year coach is bound for the Plains after Auburn eventually fires embattled second-year coach Bryan Harsin. Heupel is not going anywhere.

But 21 months ago, Tennessee was positioned on the edge of the abyss after the disastrous Jeremy Pruitt tenure. If you'd have told me then the Vols would be undefeated in Heupel's second season entering its annual rivalry with Alabama, I would have thought you needed to enter concussion protocol.

Now, Auburn (3-3, 1-2 SEC) has replaced Tennessee as the tradition-rich program operating under cloudy skies.

All that means is the Tigers are a Heupel away from a turnaround.

Heupel will lead the No. 8 Vols (5-0, 2-0) into a clash against No. 1 Alabama (6-0, 3-0) on Saturday that, for the first time in more a decade, Tennessee can claim with a straight face it has a chance of winning.

Alabama is a 7½-point favorite, marking its first time being favored by fewer than two touchdowns since 2008 – Nick Saban’s second season in Tuscaloosa.

Saban has never lost to Tennessee while at Alabama, but he did lose, multiple times, to a couple of former SEC coaches who boasted cutting-edge offensive schemes: Ole Miss’ Hugh Freeze and Auburn’s Gus Malzahn.

Heupel’s up-tempo spread wreaks havoc by putting defenses into conflict.

And Hendon Hooker, the sixth-year senior quarterback, is a smooth operator in his second season as the Vols' starter after transferring from Virginia Tech.

Tennessee leads the nation in offense. The Vols blitzed LSU 40-13 one week after Auburn stumbled around in a 21-17 loss.

And to think, Heupel inherited a bleaker situation than what Auburn experiences today. Tennessee finished 3-7 in the 2020 pandemic season, when the wheels fell off Pruitt's clown car.

Tennessee fired Pruitt for cause and without buyout in January 2021. An NCAA investigation was underway into an impermissible benefits scandal after what Chancellor Donde Plowman described as a “stunning” amount of malfeasance carried out by Pruitt and some of his underlings. While her comments explained UT’s stance for firing Pruitt for cause, they didn’t well-position Tennessee to lure top candidates to replace Pruitt.

Pruitt marked the third consecutive Vols coach to be fired from a job featuring unyielding expectations and a rugged schedule. Tennessee seemed far removed from its flourishing 1990s.

Finding a home-run candidate to accept the job seemed unlikely, I remember thinking.

Still, whomever UT hired hardly could have been worse than Pruitt, who ranked among the worst coaches in program history.

When Tennessee tapped Heupel from Central Florida, the hire was met by a collective shrug.

Not bad, not extraordinary, but given the circumstances, as good as could be expected.

That was my assessment.

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Tennessee players were streaming for the transfer portal after the tumultuous offseason, but Heupel inherited one prize, albeit in disguise at the time. Hooker signed to play for Pruitt, but he stuck around for Heupel – even after not winning the starting job to open the 2021 season.

Once Heupel handed Hooker the reins, the skies brightened over Rocky Top.

A new coach, paired with a transfer quarterback, offers the chance to fast-track a slumping program in college football's microwave era.

Coaching hires, with few exceptions, remain a toss of the dice.

Auburn rolled craps with Harsin, while Tennessee hit it big with Heupel in the same offseason.

It’s about time for Auburn to pitch the dice again. Do so with confidence.

Let Heupel serve as the inspiration that a proud SEC program operating in dark days is one good hire away from reclaiming national relevance.

We could rehash all the reasons why Auburn will fire Harsin, but let’s be succinct: He was seen as an unpopular choice from the start within some influential AU circles, and his performance hasn’t rallied support. He’s 9-10 in his Auburn tenure, after his Tigers were once again beat over the head by rival Georgia, 42-10, last week.

The Tigers aren’t playing well, they aren’t improving, and Harsin isn’t recruiting well.

The union of an Idahoan and Auburn became an odd blind date that needs to end without an exchange of phone numbers or plans to meet again.

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Of course, Harsin didn’t receive much support, and he endured an offseason university tribunal that helped neither Harsin nor the school’s ability to attract coaches in the future.

You might wonder: Who would want to coach Auburn after its kangaroo court spilled into public last winter and brought more scrutiny onto a struggling coach? Who would covet this pressure-packed job that resides in Alabama’s shadow?

Trust me, when you pay as much as Auburn will pay its next coach, when you compete in the nation’s best conference, and when you won a national championship as recently as the 2010 season, candidates will emerge.

In fact, I can think of a guy coaching an FBS independent in Virginia who defeated Saban twice and who probably would love nothing more than an SEC reboot at a school with fertile recruiting terrain, ardent fan support, a vibrant stadium environment you can pitch to recruits, and enough good bones that the Tigers achieved 19 winning seasons in the first 22 years of this millennium.

But rather than focus on what mystery candidate might succeed Harsin, the larger point is this: Auburn is not forced to choose between a decent on-hand commodity versus the possibility of something greater.

Auburn knows its current situation stinks like four-day-old fish.

Luring a top candidate to Auburn will be complicated by last winter’s spectacle.

Regardless, the end result can’t be much worse than its current streak of eight losses in its past 11 games.

Like the Vols two years ago, Auburn must fold its hand in pursuit of a transformative duo like Tennessee's Heupel and Hooker who can cast the clouds away.

Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC Columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Why Tennessee football's Josh Heupel should inspire downcast Auburn