Oklahoma extended a short but unfortunate program trend inside Neyland Stadium in win over Tennessee
The Vols’ home field continued to be a welcoming venue for the Sooners.
Neyland Stadium is one of the loudest and most challenging venues to play in as a visitor, and that’s especially become the case again with Josh Heupel in charge of the program. Over the last five years, Tennessee has dropped just six games in Knoxville.
The sixth came on Saturday in a 33-27 loss to the Oklahoma Sooners in a very winnable game that it felt like Tennessee let slip away. An iffy play/personnel choice on 4th and 1 in the fourth quarter, a pair of poor interceptions by Joey Aguilar, and a missed block (by David Sanders, Jr. on the sack/fumble/touchdown) were big factors in Tennessee’s undoing. On top of those things, Oklahoma kicker Tate Sandell simply couldn’t miss on Saturday night, drilling three field goals from beyond 50 yards.
And while different in game script, it had a somewhat similar feel to ten years ago, when the Vols blew a golden opportunity to beat Baker Mayfield and Oklahoma and lost in double overtime 31-24. Those two wins for the Sooners in Neyland Stadium are the only two road wins against SEC AP-ranked opponents in their storied history, per SEC Network’s Cole Cubelic.
Oklahoma picked up their program’s second win at Tennessee and second road win over an AP-ranked SEC team at the same time
The 2015 season was one that, had a few more breaks gone Tennessee’s way, could have been a memorable one. #23 Tennessee was in position to claim an enormous win over the #19 Sooners back on September 12, 2015 and had a chance to end the game with a stop in overtime against the Sooners. On 4th and 1 with OU down 24-17, Mayfield ran and got the ball into the end zone to keep the game alive, and the Sooners would eventually go on to win 31-24.
Conversely, the game on Saturday didn’t have a single moment where Tennessee could have won it with one play, but there were a number of plays where Tennessee set themselves up for failure.
Tennessee’s chance at an early double-digit lead melted away when Sanders, Jr. missed a block and allowed a sack, and R Mason Thomas picked up the ball and rumbled for a touchdown, with Miles Kitselman on his hip like a fly on an elephant before getting flicked off.
Aguilar had a couple of bad misreads late in the second quarter, and he allowed the OU safety sitting deep behind the play to move over and make two easy grabs to thwart drives, one of which gave the Sooners a gift 3 points at the end of the first half.
And, of course, Tennessee’s coaches l trotted out Jack Van Dorselaer on 4th and 1 in the fourth quarter down 26-17 and threw him the ball, which bounced off his facemask when he was late turning around and looking for the ball. He had two catches coming into the game.
These are two games that felt like Tennessee very much could have won, but instead, they’ll end up in Oklahoma’s history books as two of the vaunted program’s best-ever road wins.
Tennessee Volunteers News
Former Tennessee Vols quarterback has a harsh but fair truth about Josh Heupel after loss to Oklahoma
The VFL sees similarities between Heupel and a recently fired big name coach.
