The Tennessee Vols are an unserious program
The Tennessee Volunteers were thoroughly embarrassed by the Missouri Tigers on Saturday afternoon. It seemed like the Vols were never interested in winning this game, and the Tigers took full advantage. However, what hurts the most is that the Vols were still alive in the SEC East race and failed to show any fight at all once adversity struck. There seem to be some conclusions that you can make about Josh Heupel’s program at this point, and that’s what I want to focus on instead of getting into any major details about the abortion of a performance the Vols turned in Saturday afternoon. After all, talking about the finer points of our overall suckage might put me into a mental hospital.
The first conclusion is that Josh Heupel can not figure out how to win an important game on the road late in the season. Last year the Vols blew their chance at a CFP appearance by getting railroaded by South Carolina 63-38, and this year the Vols pissed away what little chance they had left at winning the SEC East by getting railroaded by Missouri 36-7. Both of these performances came against teams that the Vols were more talented than. Both of these performances came against teams that you eviscerated the year prior. Both of these performances included pathetic defensive game plans. When you lose to teams that you are more talented then all of the blame comes back to coaching. When your players look like they couldn’t give a single shit about the outcome of a hugely important game all of the blame comes back to coaching. Josh Heupel needs to seriously assess why his teams have shit the bed two years in a row with everything to play for, and if it means firing some of your buddies so be it. This is year 3 of Josh Heupel so any culture issues within the program are 100% on him, and when your team shows no fight two years in a row in a pivotal road game questions have to be raised.
The second conclusion is that Josh Heupel is not stressing being disciplined enough. Every team Josh Heupel has had so far at Tennessee has been one of the most penalized teams in the country. Again, this is year number 3 for Heupel, so this is a trend at this point. Every time the Vols seemed to get a good play against Missouri it came back for a stupid ass penalty. It’s not just underclassmen committing these penalties either, in fact, more often than not it’s a senior. Heupel might be a player’s coach to a fault is all I’m saying because at some point the players have to fear what they will be doing in the next practice if they commit a drive-killing or drive-extending penalty. Another thing that comes down to a lack of discipline is Elijah Simmons’ decision to take a cheap shot on Brady Cook when he was kneeling to end the game. When your players are more interested in getting some cheap shots in instead of doing what it takes to win the game you are not doing a good enough job at instilling discipline. This is not the first time a Tennessee player has cheap-shotted a quarterback kneeling to end a game either as Omari Thomas hit Graham Mertz at the end of the Florida loss. It’s downright embarrassing for a team to get whooped all game and then start a scuffle by being dirty, and it all comes back to Heupel.
The third conclusion is that until Josh Heupel decides to care about the defensive side of the ball the Vols will continue to be an unserious program. Tim Banks needs to be fired as soon as the wheels touch the ground in Knoxville tonight. Tim Banks has been Heupel’s defensive coordinator since the beginning, and every single time the Vols play a team with a pulse in a big game the defense looks like they’ve never seen a football. Tim Banks doesn’t know what to do when a team runs a play with any type of motion. Tim Banks doesn’t know what to do when he faces a mobile quarterback. Tim Banks has seemingly fallen in love with a soft-ass cover 4 defense, and it has killed him two years in a row in pivotal games. The biggest thing about the defense to me is that a bend do n’t-break approach does not mesh with how Heupel wants to win games. When the defense is on the field for 8 minutes at a time, like they were against Missouri Saturday, the offense never has a chance to face a tired defense. I just don’t see how Heupel can enter 2024 with Tim Banks as his defensive coordinator, and if he does I will have serious doubts about his ability to run a legitimate program.
If you had told Vol fans before the season that we would go 8-4 a lot of people wouldn’t have been all that disappointed. However, I implore all of these fans to yearn for more. Tennessee is entirely capable of winning 10+ games every year and shooting for just being bowl-eligible is not good enough. I could care less which meaningless bowl game the Vols will be playing in now unless Nico is starting at quarterback. 8-4 is a disappointment, and any Vol fan who is satisfied with this season needs to snap out of their battered Vol syndrome. The bottom line is that until Josh Heupel addresses the issues I pointed out 8-4 will be the norm, and that is lightyears away from a record that a serious program is ok with year after year.