The Tennessee Vols couldn’t get the job done against the Illinois Fighting Illini in the Music City Bowl on Tuesday in Nashville.

Illinois made a 29 yard field goal as time expired to secure a 30-28 win over the Vols.

It’s the the third time in four trips to the Music City Bowl that Tennessee has lost on the final play of the game.

Tennessee’s loss to Illinois confirms what fans already knew about Vols head coach Josh Heupel

One of Tennessee’s biggest flaws this season has been the way the team has handled end 0f half moments.

The Vols simply weren’t good at situational football in 2025.

And that falls on the head coach.

Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel botched the end of regulation sequence against Mississippi State, he mismanaged the end of the first half against Alabama, he forgot a well-known rule against Oklahoma, and he went conservative against Georgia instead of putting the game away in the fourth quarter.

I like Heupel. I think he’s a really good coach. And what he’s done at Tennessee over the last five seasons has been impressive — especially considering the disastrous situation he took over. I don’t think he should be on the “hot seat” entering the 2026 season. But Tennessee isn’t going to be a championship caliber program until Heupel and his staff are better in end of half moments.

And Heupel wasn’t good enough in those situational moments against Illinois.

Tennessee went ahead by one point with five minutes left in the fourth quarter. The Vols had all three timeouts left. But they didn’t use any of those timeouts until after the two minute warning. Tennessee could’ve saved nearly two minutes of clock before the two minute warning had they used their timeouts correctly. But instead, they saved about 34 seconds by using their three timeouts after the two minute warning. At that point, the game was basically over because Illinois was able to take three knees before kicking the game winning field goal.

Heupel has to figure out the situational stuff. And it’s not just a scenario where he has too much on his plate (Tennessee’s mismanagement against Illinois came when the Vols were on defense). It’s simply not good enough. And the Vols won’t get to where they want to go until Tennessee’s end of half operation improves.

Tennessee Volunteers News

Former Tennessee Vols offensive lineman is reportedly reentering the NCAA transfer portal

A former Tennessee Vols offensive lineman is reportedly entering the transfer portal again.

Zach Ragan