Tennessee Vols, Josh Heupel ahead of schedule but let a big win get away
Objectively, there was plenty to like about this. The play-making. The effort. The resiliency. The refusal to quit, no matter the latest setback, no matter who was healthy, no matter what was happening at quarterback.
We learned some positive things Saturday about Josh Heupel’s Tennessee football program. Most notably, his players are bought in. They are giving their all for him, and largely because of that, this rebuild might be further along in Year 1 than could have been fairly expected. Good things, no doubt.
It’s just that those things were what made Saturday’s 41-34 loss to Pittsburgh so infuriating.
It felt like the Vols (1-1) had done enough – several times, in fact – to deserve this high-scoring, topsy-turvy game that was so pivotal for their season. They coulda, shoulda won. But they didn’t, and the Vols’ own mistakes were the reason. They lost this game more than the Panthers (2-0) won it.
Indeed, this was on Tennessee, and that made it more difficult to swallow. That also meant that – in the aftermath – we were about to learn something important about Heupel himself. How digestible would he try to make his first defeat for Vol Nation?
Would Heupel go Butch Jones and talk about bricks and life champions or some other nonsense? Would he mimic Jeremy Pruitt and drawl about closing gaps?
In other words, would Heupel try to dress up another Tennessee loss as a win?
Answer: No.
“We’ve got to grow up fast,” he said. “We’ve got good teams on this schedule. We’re capable of being a lot better than we are today. We’ve got to take ownership of that.”
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Heupel read that coverage correctly. Maybe this game works as a moral victory, given the circumstances. But Tennessee fans don’t want to hear that about losing at home to an upper-middle-class team from the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Pitt’s team is far more seasoned in its schemes, maybe even more talented in general. Give the Panthers and their gutsy quarterback Kenny Pickett due props.
But that’s not an acceptable excuse for how this played out.
Tennessee isn’t anywhere near the point where it can mess around and hope to beat a quality Power Five opponent.
And mess around is exactly what the Vols did a lot. We all saw the mistakes.
We saw, too, how the Vols were ready to play. Credit their new coaching staff for preparing them to come out on fire. They blocked a punt – as a result of what TV commentators said was a schematic flaw that UT’s coaches had noticed and mentioned to them ahead of time.
They were running Pittsburgh’s defense ragged with pace. They scored on three of their first four offensive possessions. Defensively, they held Pittsburgh to a three-and-out on its first three possessions.
They jumped all over the Panthers. And in years past when that happened at Neyland Stadium, that would guarantee a long day on that visiting sideline.
No more. These Vols couldn’t sustain it.
UT quarterback Joe Milton overthrew a bunch of passes, including an easy touchdown that would have changed the game. Tennessee somehow turned a second-and-goal at Pittsburgh’s 3-yard line into a third-and-37 at the Panthers’ 37. The ensuing field goal made it 13-7 and was a moment for the Panthers, who’d end up scoring on all five second-quarter possessions, a total of 27 points.
The Vols kept coming, though, turning this into a close, hard-fought game that was decided how close, hard-fought games often get decided – by which team makes the fewest mistakes.
Tennessee lost the turnover margin 3-0. Two fumbles and an interception, all of which seemed lethal at the time.
UT committed 13 penalties for 134 yards (compared to Pittsburgh’s nine for 76 yards).
UT allowed five sacks and ended up running only 66 plays to 82 for Pittsburgh, which enjoyed about 12 minutes more possession time and had just enough in the tank to hold off the Vols’ final late push.
“You add up all those little things,” Heupel said, “there’s a lot of opportunities to change the scoreboard on both sides, defensively, offensively and special teams. I’m disappointed that we didn’t take advantage of some of those opportunities.”
Call this what it was: A missed opportunity for Heupel.
It wasn’t an embarrassment. Far from it.
But his Vols should have won. And they didn’t.
That’s still not good enough.
A coach early in his tenure could have campaigned a little to try to spin such facts. Tennessee fans have heard that before, and I’d imagine they’d rather not hear it again. It was encouraging, I’d say, that Heupel didn’t try.
Reach Gentry Estes at [email protected] and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.
