By Riley Haltom
In a night of upsets around college football, the fourth-ranked Tennessee Volunteers were no exception, as they were upset by the unranked Arkansas Razorbacks, 19-14, in Fayetteville on Saturday. Here are my takeaways from the loss.
Defense Still Strong
To start with the positives, the Tennessee defense continued their string of strong performances. They got some help from an injury to Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green, who to that point had been racking up the yardage on the Vols. However, despite the Razorbacks running up 431 yards, the defense gave up only 19 points. In the first half, Arkansas scored the only points of the half on their first drive with a field goal.
Offensive Line Struggles, Sampson Shines
The offensive line for Tennessee was dominated all game. Nico Iamaleava could not get into a rhythm in the first half, and Dylan Sampson was getting very little room to run. The second half saw a bit of improvement in both pass protection and run blocking, and Dylan Sampson seized the opportunity. He finished the game with 22 carries for 138 yards and two touchdowns, both in the second half, and both being four-yard scores. The Tennessee offense committed 10 penalties for 60 yards, with a majority of the penalties coming from the offensive line.
Josh Heupel on the Road
Josh Heupel is now 7-8 in road games during his tenure at Tennessee. Heupel has struggled to get consistent production from his offense on the road, and that was evident against the Razorbacks, with Nico Iamaleava going 17/29 but for only 158 yards and no touchdowns. Some of the blame lies with the offensive line, some lies with Iamaleava himself (missed wide-open receivers several times), and some lies with the conservative playcalling of Heupel. In several instances in the game, the Vols ran the ball up the middle on second or third and long. That’s not a formula to win the game against an Arkansas defensive front that dominated all game.
What’s Next?
The Vols come back to Neyland Stadium for a four-game home stretch, starting with the rival Florida Gators coming to town. The Vols will likely still be ranked, maybe even in the top 15, but will have a tough test to defend the ranking at home against DJ Lagway and the Gators who are coming off a 24-13 win over the UCF Knights, Josh Heupel’s former team. Kickoff is set for 7:00 next Saturday.