Josh Heupel details Vols' offensive tempo ahead of Florida game

Tennessee will look to rebound from its first loss of the season on Saturday against Florida. Arkansas defeated the Vols, 19-14, last week.

Tennessee’s offense recorded 332 yards against the Razorbacks (158 passing, 174 rushing). The Vols also totaled 24:31 in time of possession.

Prior to facing Arkansas, the Vols played at Oklahoma (W, 25-15) in back-to back road games. Tennessee totaled 345 yards (194 passing, 151 rushing) and 35:41 time of possession against the Sooners.

Tennessee also totaled 10 penalties for 82 yards and two turnovers at Oklahoma, while committing 10 penalties (60 yards) and zero turnovers at Arkansas.

Fourth-year head coach Josh Heupel discussed what is preventing the Vols’ offense from getting tempo and the areas of struggles on offense recently.

“This past week, offensively, you look at the football game and there were so many self-inflicted wounds: pre-snap penalties, playing penalties, missed communication,” Heupel said. “At times, you aren’t playing on tempo. In the course of drives when we’ve wanted to play with tempo, we’ve been able to do it and play efficiently. There was Dylan Sampson’s big run and multiple instances of it. At the end of the day, you have to play smart and effective football.

“The prior week, I certainly slowed things down in the second half and played a different style because of the flow of the football game. I try to play all three phases together. For us, we have to do the ordinary things at a really high level. Last week, we didn’t do that very well. The game before that, we did a lot of things really well.”