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    • Poor decision making by Heupel, Nico doom Vols
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    Poor decision making by Heupel, Nico doom Vols

    Vaseline Posted on

    History called for Tennessee football on Saturday. The message: “Same old Vols.”

    That’s probably what many UT fans thought when unranked Arkansas defeated the No. 1 high-flying offense. 4 Vols reduced to rubble in a 19-14 win at Reynolds Razorbacks Stadium.

    Those fans have seen it all before. Just when they thought the Vols were soaring to great heights, UT came crashing down at the most unlikely moment.

    You saw it two years ago, when the Vols were still in the running for the College Football Playoff. A mediocre South Carolina team overwhelmed them in Columbia by an outrageous 63-38 count.

    You saw it again in Fayetteville, where the Razorbacks have now won four of their past five games against the Vols.

    Those wins included a 28-24 rout of the then third-ranked Vols, who were going for back-to-back national championships before faltering to Arkansas in November 1999. Then, in 2011, the Razorbacks handed the Vols one of their worst defeats – 49-7 under coach Bobby Petrino.

    On Saturday, Petrino handed the reins to beleaguered Arkansas coach Sam Pittman, who started the season in the proverbial hot seat. But Arkansas’ defense unleashed the most devastating blows to Tennessee’s championship hopes.

    And Tennessee’s famed play-calling coach Josh Heupel couldn’t do anything about it. Quarterback Nico Iamaleava was also unable to play a role, who strangely enough went out of bounds on the last play of the game.

    The Vols faced a fourth-and-5 at the Arkansas 20-yard line with six seconds left to play. Iamaleava rolled to the right and just kept rolling – just out of bounds. The mistake was inexcusable. A high school quarterback should have known his only option was to throw to the end zone.

    His last-second decision was indicative of Tennessee’s offensive decision-making for much of the game.

    Heupel’s attack has never performed as clumsily as in the first half. The Vols managed just four first downs and 76 yards.

    The offensive line was helpless against the Arkansas defensive front in that half. It couldn’t protect Iamaleava, who was sacked three times, and couldn’t create running lanes for Dylan Sampson, who averaged 112.3 yards rushing in the first four games.

    Those four games contributed to the sheer magnitude of the upset. The Vols, who were favored by 13.5 points, never trailed in the first third of the season, outscoring opponents by a combined score of 216-28.

    UT’s offense couldn’t have looked worse if the Razorbacks had messaged their play calls before each snap and then pointed to the intended destination.

    The second half didn’t bring more of the same. Suddenly, Tennessee played the role of its favorite, scoring two rushing touchdowns behind improved blocking and Sampson’s running.

    Later you could summarize UT’s rise in two words: false hope.

    Just as Tennessee had stolen the momentum and seemingly taken control of the game, Arkansas struck back for a touchdown and a field goal. Then it delivered a knockout in the final minutes, despite the loss of starting quarterback Taylen Green and the injury to Ja’Quinden Jackson.

    Don’t pay attention to the progression. Backup quarterback Malachi Singleton and backup running back Braylen Russell spearheaded the game-winning drive.

    While the outcome was stunning, the lack of offense wasn’t a one-off. The Vols didn’t rack up the yardage or points in their last outing, a 25-15 win over Oklahoma.

    POLLEN: Tennessee football rankings: How far will Vols fall into the top 25 after Arkansas loss?

    But I attributed that to conservative play-calling, which made sense because UT’s offensive line was hampered by a few key injuries and the Sooners weren’t much of an offensive threat.

    The foul against Arkansas was not intentional. It was a colossal failure against a defense that gave up three touchdown passes to UAB and more than 300 yards to Oklahoma State.

    That offensive struggle started with Heupel and ended with Iamaleava running out of bounds and falling into defeat.

    John Adams is a senior columnist. He can be reached at 865-342-6284 or [email protected]. Follow him on: twitter.com/johnadamskns.

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