Opinion by Contributing Writer Clayton Wood

Inside the Swamp in Gainesville in a rare night game in mid November, something bigger than a rivalry game happened. Tennessee up 31-0 on Florida at halftime, took their foot off the gas for a final 31-11 victory that wasn’t really that close. But the score only tells part of the story. The deeper truth is that Tennessee has become everything Florida once claimed to be: innovative, fearless, stable, and built for a new era of college football where chaos reigns, money flies, and only the programs with real identity survive. And chaos is everywhere.

Florida fired Billy Napier weeks ago. LSU has fired Brian Kelly. Auburn fired Hugh Freeze. Arkansas fired Sam Pittman. Penn State cut ties with James Franklin, and he’s already resurfaced at Virginia Tech. Oklahoma State is searching for direction after moving on from Mike Gundy. Even Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer may be on thin ice if the Tide loses to Auburn this week. The landscape is a howling storm of change even more pronounced than usual. Bluebloods are bleeding. Powerhouses are rudderless. Entire recruiting classes are wobbling on the brink. NIL created mercenary classes that are hard to gel while still developing recruits who stick around. Changes make things feel chaotic around a lot of programs.

But not Tennessee.

While half the SEC is melting down, Tennessee is doing exactly what elite programs do during huge chaos; standing still, standing tall, and welcoming the storm. The Vols are in a position few SEC teams have tasted in the modern era, simultaneously contending on the field and poised to capitalize off it. This is not an accident. This is the result of Josh Heupel’s program finally coming of age and out of the penalties imposed thanks to the Pruitt era.

The irony, of course, is that Tennessee’s season has not been perfect. Not even close. The Vols probably cost themselves a playoff spot when Jermod McCoy tore his ACL in January. Tennessee had one preseason All American. He hasn’t played. Colton Hood did great as a transfer, but the secondary collapsed under the weight of youth and injuries. Tennessee has been good enough to beat almost everyone they’ve played but not healthy enough to be the best version of themselves. And yet here they are not sulking, not spiraling, but poised to rise higher in the next twenty four months than at any point in the last two decades. And despite the missteps this season, young personnel, and tough losses, they are literally a missed field goal against Georgia from a likely college football playoff appearance.

A big part of that is Joey Aguilar, who has unintentionally delivered the clearest and loudest message of the Heupel era: in Knoxville, the system elevates the quarterback, not the other way around. Aguilar is a good young man, by all accounts a hard worker, but he wasn’t signed for headlines. He wasn’t Nico Iamaleava, the former five-star centerpiece of Tennessee’s future. He wasn’t supposed to outproduce or outshine or outmaneuver Nico in year one. And yet he has. For a fraction of the NIL cost.

No one watching Aguilar carve up Florida could miss the point: Josh Heupel is not simply recruiting quarterbacks. He is manufacturing them. And in a sport where half the SEC is desperately trying to buy them, Tennessee is developing them. That speaks volumes to recruits and transfers in a way money alone never can.

It’s also why Tennessee is positioned as a major winner in the portal era. While Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Ohio State can outspend anyone when they choose to, Tennessee offers something those programs cannot: proof that players get better here. Actual results. The Hendon Hooker arc. The Joe Milton arc. The Joey Aguilar surprise. The wide receivers who blossom in Knoxville. The defensive backs who finally find footing under a competent staff. Transfers want guaranteed impact, not hollow promises. Tennessee is one of the only programs that can prove it delivers.

Still, no amount of coaching brilliance can hide the fact that Tennessee is entering 2026 with both enormous opportunity and enormous need. The secondary injuries were crippling, and the roster was built thin in exactly the wrong place. Losing McCoy destabilized everything, and at the end of the season Tennessee will lose even more in that room to graduation and the NFL. The program needs cornerbacks and safeties like a drowning man needs oxygen.

They also need defensive line help. They need a tight end with Kitselman departing. They need at least one more explosive wide receiver, maybe two. They need an edge rusher who changes protection schemes just by stepping onto the field. They need another running back who can survive the grind. And they need depth — real depth — on the offensive line.

On paper, that list is long. But in reality? This is the perfect offseason to have holes.

The portal is about to explode.

With so many fired coaches, the market will be flooded with players from rosters that were built as top-ten machines but coached like bottom-ten messes. LSU is overflowing with defensive talent that no one has gotten close to maximizing. Florida has skill players who signed up for a modern offense and instead got an offense that looked confused half the time. Auburn and Arkansas have multiple classes worth of SEC-caliber players who were failed by their systems. Penn State is a strength-and-conditioning machine whose athletes are ready to win now they simply need a program with direction. Oklahoma State has players who know how to fight, know how to compete, but have been trapped in an identity crisis.

All of them suddenly have 30 days to explore the portal without penalty.

And Tennessee is the safest landing spot in the SEC. Not the richest. Not the flashiest. But the safest the most stable, the most predictable, the most development-driven. The Vols can lose ten players and upgrade twelve. They can go portal hunting without desperation because they already have a quarterback pipeline, already have a strong offensive core, already have returning weapons who simply need reinforcement, not replacement.

The Vols also have something every transfer looks for: clarity. They know who they are. They know what works. They know the path. They know how to use their talent. And while every other SEC program is explaining what their next chapter will look like, Tennessee is already writing theirs in permanent ink.

It helps that Tennessee’s young talent is real. Faizon is a freshman five-star quarterback who will define the future. Behind the starting receivers are underclassmen who are physically ready to play. Behind the offensive line is a mix of young, raw blockers ready to become something tougher than what the NFL factories are producing. Tennessee is no longer a rebuild. Tennessee is a reload, year after year.

What Tennessee needs and what Tennessee will go get are impact defenders, a game-changing corner, a safety who erases mistakes, and a few veterans who can walk into the locker room and elevate expectations even higher. And they need one or two explosive offensive pieces to replace the inevitable departures to the NFL.

The good news is that the schools with coaching changes have exactly those players. LSU’s secondary could provide multiple starters if Tennessee wants them. Florida’s roster is a treasure chest of receivers and skill position speed that never got unlocked. Arkansas and Auburn each have defensive linemen who would instantly be in Tennessee’s rotation. Penn State’s linebacker room is an SEC team waiting to happen. Oklahoma State’s skill players would thrive in Heupel’s system immediately.

And most importantly: the players at those schools can see Tennessee, up 31-0 at the half on Florida, efficiently moving the ball, confidently running a program that looks nothing like the disorder on their own campuses. They can look at Aguilar and see a path to relevance. They can look at Heupel and see a coach who doesn’t panic. They can look at Tennessee’s culture and see a program with an identity.

In late November 2025, the SEC is a storm. Florida is sinking. LSU is spinning. Auburn is lost. Arkansas is in freefall. Penn State and Oklahoma State are drifting. And while the wealthy programs in Texas and Columbus will throw more money at the problem, Tennessee is doing the thing that actually wins: it is giving players a future.

In a sport where almost everyone is improvising, Tennessee feels inevitable.

This is what stability looks like. This is what development looks like. This is what happens when a program stops chasing identity and instead becomes one. Tennessee may not have reached the playoff this year, but the path is clearer than ever. Knoxville isn’t just surviving the chaos. Knoxville is benefitting from it.

Knoxville is becoming the place players go to grow.

Knoxville is becoming the eye of the storm.

And with the portal about to explode like never before, Tennessee is the one school in America that knows exactly who it wants and exactly who it already is. The best is yet to come.

Clayton Wood is a Knoxville attorney and pastor who runs Thrive and Wears Valley Ranch. https://www.helpusthrive.com/