Tennessee fan with Josh Heupel tattoo comes face to face with Vols coach: ‘Yeah, I’m the guy’The first time Luke Jackson saw a college football game in person, he watched his beloved Tennessee Vols beat Alabama 17-13 in 2004.
His dad had shown him VHS tapes of Tennessee football, but it didn’t compare to the real thing. He was 12. And he was hooked.
Since then, the 30-year-old has grown up, enlisted in the Army, been stationed on Oahu where he woke up at 6 a.m. to watch college football, come home, had four children, built a car detailing business and sold that businJackson already has Tennessee-themed collages on his arms featuring a cartoon Smokey, an outline of the state filled by the Vols’ iconic orange and white checkerboard pattern, the state’s tri-star emblem and Tennessee’s old rifleman logo.
He was never going to bail on his promise, and he certainly wasn’t going to embrace subtlety with his selection, either. He sought inspiration in the weeks that followed and found it in a photo of Heupel with a smile on his face and a cigar in his mouth, bedlam erupting around him.
“I looked at a few different shots with him with cigars, but that happy smile and with him smoking it? That was the one,” Jackson said.
Later, Heupel would agree he’d made the right choIn late November, Jackson made the 20-minute drive down Highway 27 from his home in Coalfield, Tenn., to Oxblood Tattoo in Harriman, Tenn., where his favorite artist, Sam Jarvis, would duplicate the photo with ink on Jackson’s left thigh over a few hours in his shop.
Once it was finished, Jackson posted the proof on his social media channels, and it quickly went viral.
Coach Heup, I sure hope you stay for awhile cause you’re on my leg forever lol. Told everyone I’d get this if we beat Bama and I’m a man of my word. #GBO #VolTwitter #Vols #joshheupel @coachjoshheupel pic.twitter.com/UCJXXkRX7S
— Luke Jackson (@vawldaddy) November 29, 2022
Last Friday, the former volunteer coach attended a coaches clinic for high school coaches around the state at Tennessee’s football facility. He was recognized a few times throughout the day, and eventually Tennessee’s director of football relations Scott Altizer caught wind of their guest.
“Hey, you’re that guy!” he said.
Altizer asked if Heupel had seen the tattoo.
“Not in person,” Jackson replied.
Some of Tennessee’s staff had gathered around and told Jackson they’d all been discussing the source of Jackson’s fame when it first went viral in November.
“Well, we gotta get him, then,” Jackson remembers Altizer saying
They ushered Jackson into Tennessee’s weight room until Heupel arrived later with a few cameras in tow. Jackson was nervous and didn’t know what to say. He’d met Heupel in a group at the clinic a year earlier but had never talked with him.
“Coach, somebody made a bet that if you beat Alabama … ” one of Heupel’s assistants said as he introduced him.
“Oh? What was the bet?” Heupel asked before he caught himself. “Wait, you’re the guy!
“I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m the guy,’” Jackson said.ice.
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