Dan Fleser
With the Arkansas football fans rushing past them toward the field, Tennessee’s football team members and staff trudged in the other direction on to their locker room. One group was headed for a celebration. The other was bound for a reckoning.
In the aftermath of the fourth-ranked Vols’ 19-14 upset loss to the Razorbacks, linebacker Keenan Pili saw the passage and this moment in UT’s season as a crossroads.
“Is the loss going to break us apart or are we going to come back strong,” he said, posing the rhetorical question while addressing the media afterward. “So, I think as a brotherhood, we’ve got to look ourselves in the mirror.”
Later, during an interview with the Vol Network, Pili doubled down on the sentiment, saying: “This is make or break. Are we going to draw closer or are we going to tear apart? We’ve got to come together.”
The loss negated what has been Tennessee’s greatest strength to date, namely its defense. The unit held up valiantly for three-plus quarters against the Razorbacks only to be overcome in the end by a backup quarterback and reserve running back on the game’s decisive scoring drive. As good as the defenders were, Arkansas’ were better.
“The defense ended up keeping us in it and then, in the end, won the game for us,” said Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman, as the joyous celebration swirled about him.
His conclusion underscored UT’s great weakness: its offense. The Vols were shut out in the first half for the first time since 2019 and finished with the fewest points since managing just 10 against Georgia last November. The only semblance of a bright spot was running back Dylan Sampson, who rushed for 140 yards and two touchdowns. Fifty-three of those yards came on one play
It should be noted that the Razorbacks defenders weren’t of Georgia quality. They had allowed UAB to throw three touchdown passes earlier this season and surrendered more than 300 passing yards to Oklahoma State.
Moreover, the Vols weren’t playing conservatively as they did in managing a lead at Oklahoma two weeks ago. They simply couldn’t make enough plays, couldn’t execute what coach Josh Heupel described as “doing some ordinary things at a high level.”
Their problems began at the point of attack with five penalties whistled against the offensive line. Quarterback Nico Iamaleava was sacked four times. Their issues ended with Iamaleava unable to pull the trigger on a fourth-down pass to Chris Brazzell II and running out of bounds instead to conclude UT’s final possession.
“As soon as I was trying to let the ball go, I felt it slipping out of my hands,” Iamaleava said. “I’ve got to do a better job of handling the ball.”
As for doing better, the job begins with Heupel. Offense is his coaching strength. Therefore, Tennessee cannot allow it to be a weakness.
“We weren’t good enough (Saturday) as a football team,” Heupel said. “That starts with me, our coaches. We played hard, didn’t play smart. We’ve got to play smart football.”
The players, in turn, should concern themselves with not only pulling together but being more diligent as a group. Sampson speculated that some of the seeds for Saturday’s loss might have been sowed during the off week.
“I kind of feel like we took the bye week for granted,” he said. “You can’t just flip on a switch, you know. Moving forward, you’ve got to (have) attention to detail in every rep you do.”
Sampson’s perspective was influenced by the other upsets that occurred on Saturday, especially Vanderbilt’s shocker versus No. 1 Alabama. That result and UT’s loss marked the first time in SEC history that top five teams were beaten by unranked opponents. Small wonder then that Sampson referred to the league as being “different this year.”
The Vols can’t afford to suffer any more reminders.
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Dan Fleser is a 1980 graduate of the University of Missouri, who has covered University of Tennessee athletics since 1988. He is a member of the Tennessee Sportswriters, U.S Basketball Writers and Greater Knoxville Sports Halls of Fame. He can be reached at danfleser3@gmail.com.