Tennessee's Josh Heupel Dismisses Penn State Rumors After James Franklin Firing

Tennessee head coach Josh Huepel told Chris Low of On3 that he isn't a candidate for Penn State's coaching vacancy and said he understood fan frustrations after Tennessee finished the season 8-4 with a 45-24 loss against Vanderbilt.

"I wouldn't want low expectations," he noted. "That's part of why I want to be here. We'll win big."

Tennessee started the season strong with a 5-1 record, and the lone loss was an overtime thriller against Georgia. But losses to Alabama, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt in the second half of the season extinguished the Vols' College Football Playoff hopes.

"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."

Heupel has been one of many names linked to Penn State, but that ship has clearly sailed. While most of the high-profile schools with vacancies have already made hires, the Nittany Lions are still in the market, to the surprise of many.

BYU head coach Kalani Sitake has remained a potential candidate, though he isn't addressing the rumors.

"I'm all about the Big 12 championship and keeping our team focused on that," he told reporters when asked about the potential Penn State interest. "So I'm going to avoid all the distractions."