Tennesee Football: 3 takeaways from loss at Florida
Well folks, it turns out Tennessee might not be a very good football team. I will be the first one to admit that I expected the Vols to take care of business against a team they very easily could’ve beaten. I will be the first one to admit I expected a get right performance against the Gators after the Vols embarrassing showing against Austin Peay last Saturday. I will be the first one to admit I expected Heupel and his staff to draw up a decent game plan to attack the Florida defense and finish off drives. The bottom line is Billy Napier put Josh Heupel in a torture chamber starting late in the first quarter and didn’t let him out until the final whistle. The Gators were ready to show out in front of their home crowd and the Vols were not able to overcome the challenges of the tough environment. What specifically plagued the Vols in this game? Let’s get into it.
Undisciplined All-Around
After being one of the most penalized teams in the SEC last year, being undisciplined is becoming a trend for Josh Heupel and the Vols. 10 Penalties for 79 yards are tough to overcome on the road. Even worse is that these penalties came at the worst possible times either extending a Gator drive or killing a Vol drive. Whether it was late in the game jumping offsides on a 4th and 1 for the Gators or the numerous pre snap penalties on offense the Vols couldn’t get out of their own way. Josh Heupel might need to examine how his offense functions in a tough road environment after this performance. Pre-snap penalties plagued the Vols in Athens last year too, and it makes you wonder if a snap count based on clapping your hands might not be the best idea when opposing fans have it cranked up to 11.
The Vol’s also struggled to tackle tonight as the Gators racked up 183 yards on the ground. Kamal Hadden might have had the most pathetic tackle attempt you’ll ever see on Trevor Etienne’s 62-yard touchdown run. Instead of wrapping up Etienne on what would have been a 5–10-yard gain Hadden decided to try and lay a big hit and failed miserably as Etienne shrugged him off leaving Hadden to look like a car with a flat tire in pursuit. That missed tackle sparked the Gators offensive explosion in the first half, and it all came down to being undisciplined. Hadden then embarrassed himself at the end of the game squaring up with a Florida player after a scrum broke out following a hit on Graham Mertz.
Sputtering Offense
Josh Heupel’s approach on offense is very boom or bust, and tonight it was a massive bust. After the Vol’s 6-play 71-yard touchdown drive on their first possession they went into a massive rut. The offensive line without Cooper Mays is abysmal in pass protection, but the way Joe Milton refuses to escape and make a play is hurting the offense just as much. The play-calling tonight on offense looked indicative of a staff that knows Milton doesn’t have great pocket presence and isn’t much of a runner. Either that or they don’t trust Milton to fit the ball into tight windows over the middle and opt for quick screens and swing passes instead.
The Vol’s came out of halftime and were able to move the ball close to the redzone but being out of sorts twice with the play clock running down forced Josh Heupel to burn two important timeouts. Joe Milton as a sixth-year senior should be able to get the team organized in those situations. The Vol’s were able to muster a field goal on that drive, but it could’ve been more with better organization. The defense showed up in the third quarter and gave the offense a chance to get the Vol’s back in the game, but two drives ending with a turnover on downs resulted in 3 points on 3 drives for the Vols in the 3rd quarter. The Vol’s were able to convert on a deep ball to Bru Mccoy in the 4th Quarter to cut the lead down to 13 points, but the writing was already on the wall as the Gators killed the clock and put the win on ice.
Joe Milton’s stat line in this game doesn’t look all that bad, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Milton just doesn’t look like an SEC QB at this point in the season. He fails to make plays on the run and lacks the awareness that a veteran QB should have. Two examples of this are checking it down on a free play when Florida jumped offsides, and not giving a receiver a chance on the two-point conversion after the Bru Mccoy touchdown. I’m hesitant to call for Milton to be benched but having a 5-star stud freshman in the wings while the coaching staff seems to not trust Milton is befuddling. If Milton is going to make freshman-like mistakes as he did tonight, why not give Nico a chance to see if the offense functions any better? After all, Milton is gone after this season so if the offense can function the same or better with Nico the change needs to happen sooner rather than later, loyalty be damned.
Heupel Outcoached by Napier
The game plan Josh Heupel and staff took into the swamp was clearly doomed from the start. Save for the opening drive on offense for the Vol’s Billy Napier outcoached Josh Heupel all game. Napier had an excellent ball control-based gameplan on offense and Tim Banks and the Vol defense played right into it by not getting off the field on 3rd downs in the first half. While the defense laid an egg in the first half, they got things figured out in the second half holding the Gators to only 3 points. The offense failed to take advantage though and that rests squarely on the shoulders of Josh Heupel. Heupel failed to draw up anything on offense that resulted in a touchdown while the defense was getting stops, and the penalties I mentioned earlier that killed drives contributed to that as well. Heupel is responsible for his team being undisciplined and not being ready to execute. When a team shows up as uninspired as the Vols did on Saturday it always comes down to coaching failure. The Vols were expected to have the coaching advantage in this matchup, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Also, what the hell was Heupel doing calling a timeout with 9 seconds left down by 13 points. That reeks of being a sore loser, and it may result in some of his players being suspended for next week’s game against UTSA due to the scrum that ensued after Omari Thomas decked Graham Mertz. I said after the Austin Peay game that Heupel has earned the benefit of the doubt at Tennessee, but after tonight’s performance, the leash has gotten a lot shorter.
The Vols will host UTSA in Knoxville next Saturday and they better take care of business. UTSA is fully capable of winning if the Vols have a bad performance for the third week in a row. Heupel needs to have his team ready to play or things could get ugly in Knoxville before the calendar flips to October.