Tennessee football lost its ninth consecutive game against Georgia yesterday in a wild, heartbreaking 44-41 overtime thriller. And while the Volunteers scored 40-plus points for the third consecutive week, head coach and offensive play caller Josh Heupel has not escaped criticism.
After a blistering start in which Tennessee jumped out to a 21-7 first-quarter lead, the Vols' offense went cold in the second quarter, allowing Georgia to pull within four by halftime. Tennessee, after nearly going the entire third quarter without a score as well, took a 28-27 lead on a 56-yard touchdown pass with seven seconds left in the period.
Tennessee, following a strip sack on Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton with 8:21 remaining, had a chance to go up two scores and potentially close out the rivalry win. However, the Volunteers' next possession, despite a successful 48-yard field goal by Max Gilbert, went only four yards and took just about 100 seconds off the game clock. The Bulldogs capitalized on this, driving 75 yards over four minutes to score a touchdown and convert a two-point try to tie the game with 2:32 left.
While the Vols did orchestrate a quick drive and get back to Georgia's 20-yard line, a false start backed them up to the 25, from where Gilbert pushed the 43-yard field goal wide right. In overtime, Tennessee threw two incompletions and rushed once for a single yard before Gilbert nailed a 42-yard field goal. Georgia responded with three runs, the final of which was a one-yard Josh McCray touchdown for the win.
Heupel, who is now 0-5 against Georgia as UT's head coach, explained the thought process behind his play calling on the Volunteers' penultimate drive in regulation.
“It’s a situation where they’re in the two-high bracket coverage. We obviously don’t pick up what we need to. We get behind the chains,” Heupel said [h/t On3's Barkley Truax. “And I was willing to be aggressive there if we got to a fourth down, too, had a little trap play. And end up losing inside on it. And we don’t pick it up and end up having to kick. And you got a chance to take it to full two possessions, for sure. But, first to second down, a little bit of how they were playing was why we were doing what we were doing, too.”
“Offensively, we weren’t able to pick up the yards we needed to sustain a drive and go score,” he added. “It’s not for lack of effort. Just didn’t make the plays at critical moments when we had to in this game. That being said, in the back and forth of the game, this group competed really hard.”
Tennessee dropped to 2-1 on the season and 0-1 in SEC play with Saturday's loss. A non-conference home game vs. UAB next week will be followed by a trip to Starkville to play at Mississippi State.
