The Tennessee Vols' offense under Josh Heupel is built on utilizing an up-tempo attack to catch the opposing defense off guard.

Heupel's offense moves as fast as possible to keep the defense from substituting and reacting to Tennessee's formations.

The up-tempo approach certainly works — Heupel's offenses routinely rank among the best in the nation.

But there are some drawbacks, too. Three-and-outs can happen in less than a minute. If the opposing defense forces a couple of three-and-outs in a row, it can be disastrous for the Vols' defense.

One big question when it comes to Tennessee's offense is whether or not Heupel can bleed the clock in certain situations. Going as fast as possible isn't always ideal (sitting on a lead late in a game for example).

In the loss to Florida, the Vols faced a situation where it seemed like Heupel should've used some timeouts and slowed the game down a bit. At the end of the first half, Heupel eschewed his remaining timeouts in favor of his up-tempo attack. The Vols ran out of time and had to attempt a 47-yard field goal (which was missed).

That situation made some fans wonder if Tennessee is even capable of playing at a slower tempo.

After the game, Heupel explained his thought process behind not using any timeouts.

"Wanted to stay in tempo, that was just a choice by me," said Heupel after the loss.

"It felt like we had a chance to hit a shot and catch those guys out of position," added Heupel. "Didn’t hit it. Felt like we had to go kick a field goal at the point we were at. Had a couple of issues with our snaps and that type of thing. We were right on the fringe of his range, and we decided to take the field goal at that point."

That's a strong example of Tennessee's inability to slow down the game.

However, there was at least one example of the Vols being able to run some time off the clock when they wanted to.

Buck Reising had Austin Burlage (better known to Twitter users as Power T Tape) on 104.5 The Zone this week to discuss the Volunteers' loss to the Gators.

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Burlage pointed out that Tennessee actually did manage to slow down the game in certain situations.

"Their (UT) pace was what we've come to expect, but what I really liked was on a couple of third downs they actually slowed it down and used the whole clock," said Burlage. "That's what happened on the Tiyon Evans screen pass for the touchdown on a third-and-eight."

"They got to the line quickly like they usually do, but then actually took some time, saw what Florida was trying to do, signaled in a play, and got what they wanted."

Here's the play that Burlage is referencing.

The Vols snapped the ball with just three seconds left on the play clock.

It's nice to know that Heupel can use the clock to his advantage in certain situations. The Vols won't be able to always win games in the SEC by playing with an up-tempo attack. That will obviously be the bulk of what Tennessee does under Heupel, but there will be certain situations where the Vols need to use some clock.

And in those situations, it appears Heupel will be able to deliver.

Featured image via Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel via Imagn Content Services