Dan Fleser: Vols Trying To Avoid Repeat Of 2016 Fiasco At Vandy

  • Friday, November 25, 2022
Dan Fleser
Dan Fleser

This Tennessee football team has been good about moving the program forward this season, beating such troublesome rivals as Florida and Alabama and restoring a sense of relevance.

Yet these Vols haven’t gotten past some of UT’s past. Not yet anyway.

The regular season finale at Vanderbilt on Saturday night in Nashville recalls an ominous scenario from the 2016 season. Those Vols had beaten both Florida and Georgia and were moving in the right direction before losing three consecutive games. A loss at South Carolina capped the streak, ending any remaining chance at winning the SEC East.

A possible Sugar Bowl bid still was possible before the final game at Vanderbilt but a 45-34 road loss to the Commodores erased that opportunity as well. Vanderbilt instead gained a sixth victory and a bowl bid.

The grim chapter of Vols’ history has been recalled and written about this week because of the obvious similarities between then and now. Tennessee’s 63-38 loss at South Carolina last Saturday eliminated any remaining chance of making the national championship playoff. Yet the No. 10 Vols (9-2, 5-2 SEC) still are in the running for a New Year’s 6 bowl bid.

But Tennessee must first beat Vanderbilt. The Commodores (5-6, 2-5) have won two consecutive conference games and are a victory away from being bowl eligible in Coach Clark Lea’s second season.

Since he is UT’s coach, not a historian, Josh Heupel’s thoughts have been trained exclusively on the present. When the team began in earnest on Monday to pick up the pieces from last Saturday’s loss, his marching orders were specific.

“This week is all about this week,” he said. “That’s it. Let’s go finish this off the right way. We have an opportunity to finish with 10 regular season wins, which has not been done here in a long time, and put us in the best possible bowl situation we can be in. This football team has come a long way. It’s grown. It’s competed. It’s all about this week.”

For the record, the Vols haven’t won 10 games in a regular season since 2003. Heupel issued the aforementioned directive in response to a question about possibly evaluating quarterback Joe Milton III for the future as well as this week.

Milton will be stepping in for starter Hendon Hooker, who suffered a season-ending knee injury last Saturday. The Vols have said all the right things this week about their belief and confidence in Milton. Center Cooper Mays described Milton as being “extremely ready.”

“Just the growth that I’ve seen from him this whole year, growing and learning under (Hooker), Coach Heupel and Coach (Joey) Halzle,” Mays said, “I think everybody has a lot of faith in him.”

Milton has appeared in seven games and thrown 33 passes, completing 23 (69.7 completion percentage) for 573 yards, six touchdowns and no interceptions.

His performance in directing UT’s potent offense will be measured against the play of Vanderbilt QB Michael Wright, who has regained his starting spot and played a big role in the Commodores’ past two victories, accounting for five touchdowns. Wright has three rushes of 40 or more yards this season and has completed two passes of at least 70 yards. He’s the type of quarterback that could create problems for UT’s vulnerable defense.

In 2016, Commodores quarterback Kyle Schurmur threw for a career-high 416 yards and two touchdowns. UT’s Joshua Dobbs also was brilliant (31-for-34, 340 yards, two TDs) but his third-quarter fumble caused by Vanderbilt linebacker Zach Cunningham helped set up the Commodores’ go-ahead score.

More history to get past.

* * *

Dan Fleser is a 1980 graduate of the University of Missouri, who has covered University of Tennessee athletics since 1988. He is a 2022 inductee to the Tennessee Sportswriters Hall of Fame. He can be reached at danfleser3@gmail.com.

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