Wild stat proves that officiating has been one-sided against Tennessee the last 2 weeks
The Tennessee Vols had to fight through another tough night of bad officiating to get a win against the Kentucky Wildcats in Lexington on Saturday. Tennessee was flagged nine time for 70 yards worth of penalties. Kentucky, meanwhile, was flagged just four times for 21 yards worth of penalties, which was a remarkable turnaround for […]
The Tennessee Vols had to fight through another tough night of bad officiating to get a win against the Kentucky Wildcats in Lexington on Saturday.
Tennessee was flagged nine time for 70 yards worth of penalties.
Kentucky, meanwhile, was flagged just four times for 21 yards worth of penalties, which was a remarkable turnaround for a program that entered the game as one of the most penalized teams in the nation.
A week ago, against Alabama, the Vols were flagged eight times for 55 yards while the Crimson Tide were flagged just once for five yards (and that one penalty, which was called late, helped Alabama avoid a disastrous snap that could've easily resulted in a turnover).
Now, here's the crazy part about the last two weeks — not a single live ball penalty was called against Alabama or Kentucky, despite numerous obvious holds and defensive pass interference violations that should've been called.
The penalties that were called against Tennessee in their 33-27 win against the Wildcats were legitimate. It's not like there were phantom penalties that were called. But it's not like the officials conveniently missed any, either.
The officials seem completely unwilling to call even obvious penalties against the Vols' opponents. Tennessee edge rusher Tyler Baron has been getting blatantly held by opponents the last two weeks and not one time has an official decided that he should do his job and throw a flag.
It's hard enough to win in the SEC as it is. But when the officiating is tilted against you, it makes it nearly impossible. Fortunately for the Vols, they were able to dig deep and get the win against Kentucky despite another week of one-sided officiating.
The worst part about all of this is that there's zero transparency with the SEC. Fans won't get an explanation for the poor officiating. Instead, they'll have to wonder if there's some sort of conspiracy against the Vols. And you know what, fans might as well lean into that at this point. If the SEC isn't going to be transparent with their terrible and obviously one-sided officials, then they deserve to be peppered with with complaints and accusations of cheating. They've brought this on themselves.
It’s obvious after win against Kentucky that Tennessee needs to do 2 things differently moving forward
And it could make for a 10 win season if they do
