While everyone else was turning their clocks back on Saturday night, Josh Heupel was spinning his wristwatch forward. Tennessee’s football coach wasn’t rebelling against daylight savings time. Rather, he was in a rush to obsess over his team – again.
Following the victory over Kentucky, Heupel punctuated the opening thought of his Vol Network interview by saying, “In about 15 minutes, (it’s) how do we get better.”
To date, the Vols (7-1, 4-1 SEC) are good enough to make the initial 12-team college football playoff field. They were ranked seventh in the first reveal on Tuesday night. Their initial bracket placement has them playing a first-round home game versus Indiana.
The playoff field, bracket and seedings, of course, will remain fluid. Georgia was seeded second and UT plays the Bulldogs on Nov. 16 in Athens, Ga.
Regardless of Tuesday’s news, Heupel can’t tear his eyes or his thoughts away from the bigger picture. He has used some form of the hurry-up postgame assessment several times during the past month and likely will continue the practice with respect to the Vols’ ongoing quest for a tidier, more complete performance. The coach has his reasons.
A second-quarter touchdown against the Wildcats stands as the Vols’ lone points before halftime of the past four games. After amassing a plus-75 scoring margin in the opening quarter of the first four games, adding to a staple of the Heupel era, the Vols are minus-13 in the first 15 minutes of the last four.
These statistical trends have necessitated second-half rallies for the last three victories, which, in turn, has cultivated a survivor mentality regarding SEC play.
“Every week is its own season,” Heupel said. “Win, advance and push on to how you can get better.”
You can almost hear him snapping his fingers or see him twirling his coach’s whistle as this process plays out.
“I love our competitive maturity,” he said while reviewing the Kentucky game. “Our best is still out in front (of us). We’ve got to go chase it really hard and get there quick.”
With the importance of each game now magnified, the playoffs essentially begin with Saturday’s home game against Mississippi State. Although the Bulldogs are 2-7 and winless in five conference games, their pass-oriented, up-tempo offense will be considered an outsized threat.
However, Tennessee’s latest issue, which has surfaced during the past two games, cannot be easily eclipsed. Placekicker Max Gilbert, who has made 12 field goals this season and had just one miss (from 53 yards) in his first 12 attempts, suddenly has lost his accuracy, missing five of his last six attempts. During this span, he’s missed wide right three times and wide left twice. All three kicks the redshirt freshman missed last Saturday were within his range, as established by his long of 45 yards versus North Carolina State.
Gilbert’s struggles are magnified by Tennessee’s relative inconsistency in scoring touchdowns.
“If you have seen me kick, you would know I am probably not the guy to help him with the swing,” Heupel said on Monday. “It’s important for him – just like any other player – to have a great week of preparation. I just think from the first kick to the second kick (last Saturday), he kind of overcorrected and kind of did the same thing on the third one, too. Go find your groove, hit your sweet spot and go play ball.”
With another SEC game looming, a season might be depending on it.
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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.