The Tennessee Vols had an opportunity to take a stronghold on the SEC on Saturday night after a loss by Alabama to Vanderbilt earlier in the day.
Instead, the Vols lost an ugly game to Arkansas, falling 19-14 to the Razorbacks in Fayetteville.
Tennessee is fortunate that the SEC is still wide open, and they can quickly regroup and achieve all of their goals, but they'll need to have some tough discussions as a team to make those goals happen.
Specifically, they need to address what happened on Saturday night and fix it. Otherwise, the College Football Playoff won't be in their future.
The Vols lost to an Arkansas team that played hard, but not exceptional. The Razorbacks left the door open for Tennessee to win the game on multiple occasions. But the Vols looked like they had no interest in winning the game. Dumb penalties plagued Tennessee all night (10 penalties for 60 yards). The offensive line didn't protect well. And the offensive game plan, in general, looked chaotic. In fact, it felt like Tennessee was just winging it offensively.
Defensively, Tennessee played well enough to win the game. But there were plenty of missed assignments, some sloppy tackling, and some miscommunications that led to positive yardage for the Razorbacks.
Essentially, Tennessee played and coached its worst game of the season while looking unmotivated at times.
Arkansas, meanwhile, played inspired. They played hard. And they ultimately made the plays they had to make to win the game.
So why did the game play out this way on Saturday night for the Volunteers?
It seems pretty obvious -- Tennessee bought into their own hype.
The Vols fell victim to a classic trap game. Tennessee won an emotional game against Oklahoma to end September, they got a week off, and they heard all about how they're a lock to make the playoff and maybe even host a playoff game. Combine that with a couple of big rivalry games coming up (Florida next week followed by Alabama) and you have all the ingredients for a letdown game.
Unfortunately, it seems like this is happening at least once a year for Josh Heupel-coached teams.
And it's completely inexcusable.
Heupel and his team spent all offseason, and the first month of the 2024 season, talking about being elite competitors every single day. They talked about a 1-0 mindset and staying focused on each week's opponent. And that's not what happened against Arkansas. The Vols had their chances. They even responded well to start the second half by quickly taking a 14-3 lead over the Razorbacks. But then it felt like Tennessee took their foot off the gas. It was as if they thought they survived the Razorbacks' best shot.
If the Vols are going to get over the hump, they can't have weeks where they look undisciplined and get out-competed.
Not all is lost for the Vols. They're still a talented team with good coaches and players that have a high care factor. One loss won't define Tennessee in 2024.
But if they have another night like they had against Arkansas, they might have to kiss their playoff hopes goodbye. There's no changing the loss now. And pointing fingers won't erase the loss from the record books. It's up to Tennessee's players and coaches to turn this loss into a positive. And they'll get a big chance to quickly flip the narrative next Saturday in Knoxville in what amounts to a must-win game against the Florida Gators.
It wasn't good enough against Arkansas. But the Vols can still be good enough moving forward.
Related: Peyton Manning reveals the detail that he had to have when he walked out in full Vols uniform at Morgan Wallen's concert
Local News
