We have a theory on exactly what went wrong on Tennessee’s botched fourth down play, and it leads to a bigger question that needs to be asked about Josh Heupel
A botched fourth down play likely cost Tennessee a win against South Carolina on Saturday in Columbia.
Tennessee was a few plays away from securing a win against South Carolina on Saturday, but a botched fourth down play gave the Gamecocks late life and they were able to capitalize.
With 3:38 left in the fourth quarter, Tennessee went for it on fourth-and-one from the South Carolina 38 yard line.
The play was instantly busted and Vols quarterback George MacIntyre was tackled for a loss, which resulted in a turnover on downs.
After the game, Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel said there were “missteps” by MacIntyre on the play.
When MacIntyre was asked about the play, he said it was supposed to look like the play earlier in the game when he handed the ball off to tight end DaSaahn Brame for a touchdown.
“Just simple miscommunication,” said MacIntyre. “A formation we’ve been running all game. Just got to be more locked into the details of the different plays and that big jumbo formation. … There’s a lot of moving parts of the play with kills and checks and what fronts they’re going to run. But yeah, it would have been similar to DaSaahn’s touchdown in the first half.”
Based on the postgame comments, I think what happened is that MacIntyre, in the moment, felt like Brame was lined up deeper in the backfield than he really was. It was essentially the same play from earlier in the game, and I think MacIntyre just kind of lost his feel there for a split second, which is all it takes for a play to bust.
Now, I’m not throwing any shade at MacIntyre. Anyone who plays this game will make mistakes. Every quarterback in the Hall of Fame has made more mistakes than MacIntyre has made. It’s just part of competing — no one plays perfect.
But I think that learning moment coming in that situation on the road in the fourth quarter leads to a bigger question that needs to be asked about Heupel.
Why isn’t Heupel leaning into playing more experienced quarterbacks instead of going with inexperienced youth?
I get what Heupel is doing — he wants to develop quarterbacks out of high school — but it’s just not a smart approach in this current era of college football. Heupel has a team right now that would be undefeated if he had an experienced quarterback. And look, I think MacIntyre played really well outside of a couple mistakes on Saturday, but those couple of mistakes came in critical moments — especially the botched fourth down play.
I believe in Heupel at Tennessee. I believe he’s the right guy for this program. But longterm, I don’t think he can continue to go with youth at the quarterback position if the Vols are going to put a $40 million roster on the field.
