Josh Heupel and the Tennessee Volunteers are gearing up for a crucial rebound season this fall, but the sting of last year's finish still lingers on Rocky Top. After closing the regular season with two straight losses—including a particularly painful defeat at the hands of Vanderbilt—the Vols are facing serious questions about their trajectory.

Longtime college football analyst Paul Finebaum didn't mince words this week, sounding the alarm on Tennessee's direction under Heupel. Speaking on Crain & Cone, Finebaum laid out a stark reality check for the Vols faithful.

"I bring Josh Heupel up—I like him, he has made the playoffs one time," Finebaum said. "But he's been there four or five years, and it feels like the program is going in the wrong direction. That should not happen, and it's a very bad sign for a name-brand program. And maybe I'm old school enough to still believe that Tennessee is one of those schools that should always be at or near the top."

Finebaum didn't hold back when dissecting last season's collapse. "The end of last season was a complete disaster. Losing at home to Oklahoma, and they also lost at home to Vanderbilt. They badly lost the bowl game (against Illinois). You can't let that happen. And then they got some bad luck in court losing (Joey) Aguilar, but they don't have a quarterback. You guys tell me, how can you win in the SEC without a quarterback?"

There's no denying the Vols' late-season slide was alarming. The no-show against Vanderbilt and the uninspiring bowl performance against Illinois left fans searching for answers. Some of that, however, can be chalked up to the emotional letdown once College Football Playoff hopes evaporated—a challenge many programs now face in the tournament era.

Still, Finebaum's core concern is hard to ignore: a program with Tennessee's pedigree should be trending upward, not sideways. As the Vols look to regroup, the pressure is on Heupel to prove that last year's finish was an exception, not a new norm.