Tennessee HC Josh Heupel threw some subtle shade during Vol Calls after UT was bamboozled yet again
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel threw some subtle shade at the clock operator from the Kentucky game during Vol Calls on Wednesday night. And despite the moans that we'll likely hear from opposing fan bases, Heupel was completely justified in his shade. Near the end of the first half of Tennessee's win against Kentucky, […]
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel threw some subtle shade at the clock operator from the Kentucky game during Vol Calls on Wednesday night.
And despite the moans that we'll likely hear from opposing fan bases, Heupel was completely justified in his shade.
Near the end of the first half of Tennessee's win against Kentucky, the Vols had to settle for a field goal instead of taking one last shot at the end zone due to a mistake by the clock operator and the officials.
Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton completed a pass to wide receiver Squirrel White which resulted in a first down. White was tackled in bounds with 10 seconds remaining. But since the play happened in the final two minutes of the first half, the clock should've been stopped immediately after White was tackled (since the play resulted in a first down). That immediate clock stoppage should've allowed for the Vols to use one of their two remaining timeouts to set up a quick play to the end zone.
The only problem was that instead of putting 10 seconds on the clock (White was clearly tackled with 10 seconds remaining), the clock operator only put seven seconds on the clock (because the clock wasn't immediately stopped as it should've been).
The clock operator initially let the clock run all the way down to six seconds, not stopping it until White stood up from the tackle. They put one additional second on the clock.
Heupel said after the game that he asked the officials to review it and the seven seconds is "what they came back with".
On Wednesday night during Vol Calls, Heupel suggested that he kicked the field goal instead of trying to run a quick play to the end zone because he didn't trust that there would be a second left based on what happened the play before.
“It looked like there was probably more time on the clock when he went than what wast left," said Heupel during Vol Calls. "Seven seconds?….Well, there certainly weren’t seven. And with seven seconds left with where we were at, just didn’t trust that the clock would have one second left on it, based on what had just happened. So we elected to kick it and took the three.”
There's no doubt that the Vols were the victims of some home field clock advantage on that play. But the officials — the same officials that didn't call a single live ball penalty on Kentucky despite several obvious holds — deciding to not review the play to add a few seconds to the clock is completely unacceptable.
At some point, there has to be some transparency with officials. It's getting to the point where it's comical how bad the Vols are getting screwed over in some of these situations. And you certainly can't blame Heupel for feeling frustrated.
Kentucky’s players made a big mistake before playing the Tennessee Vols last Saturday
All they did was fire up the Volunteers
