‘Something was unplugged’ – It sounds like something fishy happened on the Arkansas sideline when the headsets went out against Tennessee
The Tennessee Vols weren’t allowed to use their headset communications to start the second half against Arkansas because of an issue with the Razorbacks’ headsets
An odd situation happened during the Tennessee Vols’ 34-31 win against the Arkansas Razorbacks in Knoxville last Saturday.
Just before Tennessee received the ball to start the second half, the Vols were told they weren’t allowed to use their headset communications (which are used to communicate with the coaches in the press box up top and one designated player on the field on each side of the ball).
Tennessee had to start the half without headsets because the Razorbacks’ communications system wasn’t working.
Watching the game live, most folks assumed that the issue happened when Vols quarterback Joey Aguilar crashed into the Arkansas communication box near the end of the first half.
Some comments this week from VolQuest’s Brent Hubbs, however, seem to suggest that there may have been some gamesmanship going on.
Arkansas handled the headset issue during the Tennessee game in a strange way
Hubbs joined WNML on Tuesday to discuss the Vols’ win against Arkansas and to preview Tennessee’s upcoming matchup against Alabama.
During the conversation, the headset situation came up.
“Arkansas was a unique challenge (for Tennessee),” said Hubbs. “Tennessee basically prepared for four different defenses over the last two weeks. And then Arkansas opened the second half, conveniently, without Tennessee having use of the headphones. [Arkansas] opened the second half defensively with a different defensive structure than they played in the first half. So there were a lot of games going on. There were a lot of chess matches going on — a lot of adjustments and that type of thing.”
“Arkansas’ didn’t work,” continued Hubbs when asked specifically about the headset issue. “They told the officials seconds before the second half got started that their headsets weren’t working. I’m not sure why they didn’t check those throughout the half to know whether they were working. I’m not sure why they alerted the officials right before kick off happened to start the second half that their headsets weren’t working. We’ll leave that for interpretation — as long as you want to leave that for interpretation.
“But they quickly found the problem, which was apparently something was unplugged. They didn’t scream that they weren’t working right after Joey Aguilar went into the coms box over there. They finished the half, acted like nothing was wrong, and then nothing appeared to be wrong throughout halftime. But right before kickoff in the second half, they didn’t have headsets. And then when that first offensive possession was over, they suddenly got their headsets working again.”
Tennessee’s coaches that are normally in the press box had to scurry to the sideline while the communication system was down. It made for a challenging start to the second half (the Vols settled for a field goal on that drive, though the drive stalled mostly because of a personal foul penalty on left tackle Lance Heard).
I don’t know if this whole ordeal was gamesmanship by Arkansas or not. But it certainly has the look of a team trying to take advantage of a weird situation by withholding information until right before the half, then breaking out a completely different defensive structure, and then the issue gets magically resolved after that first drive. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but I wouldn’t blame anyone who feels differently.
After the game, Arkansas interim head coach Bobby Petrino said the situation was “weird”.
“That was weird,” said Petrino when asked about the headsets. “Yeah, that was weird. The phones went out at halftime. Someone said they think it was when the quarterback went into the thing. I don’t really know. We were just trying to make sure it was equal, who had them and who didn’t have them.”
Bobby’s right. It was weird. Really weird.
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