Josh Heupel made a brutal mistake at end of Arkansas game that hurt Tennessee Vols' chances of scoring
The Tennessee Vols — coaches and players — had a rough night in Fayetteville on Saturday. Tennessee's execution on both sides of the ball was lacking in the Vols' 19-14 loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks. The coaching was also questionable — from the offensive game plan to the way the end of the game was […]
The Tennessee Vols — coaches and players — had a rough night in Fayetteville on Saturday.
Tennessee's execution on both sides of the ball was lacking in the Vols' 19-14 loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks. The coaching was also questionable — from the offensive game plan to the way the end of the game was handled.
The end of the game, specifically, is a sequence that Vols head coach Josh Heupel would probably like to have back.
Tennessee had a chance to squeak out a win late in the game after quarterback Nico Iamaleava completed a 42-yard pass to wide receiver Dont'e Thornton to get the ball to the Arkansas 25 yard line.
There were 35 seconds left in the game when Thornton caught the pass. The clock stops on first downs in the final two minutes of the game. And Tennessee had two timeouts left. But the Vols didn't snap the ball for the next play until there were only 21 seconds remaining on the game clock.
At that point in the game, every second on the clock is precious. Tennessee, however, wasted 14 seconds despite the clock stopping on the first down while also having two timeouts.
Heupel should've called timeout in that moment. He could've saved 14 seconds of game clock while also taking a minute to figure out how to attack Arkansas in the red zone.
Instead, the Vols wasted 14 seconds, threw an incomplete pass, had a botched snap (which is when UT finally used its second timeout…with just 11 seconds left in the game), threw another incomplete pass, used the final timeout when the clock was already stopped because the play clock was running down, and then watched Iamaleava run out of bounds to end the game.
Just a completely brutal ending to a rough overall night for Tennessee.
The players have to learn from this loss. But Heupel and his staff have to learn from it, too. The awful clock management at the end of the game was completely inexcusable and it cost the Vols a chance to win the game.
Everyone in orange has to be better moving forward if the Vols are going to achieve any of the lofty goals they set before the season.
