By Riley Haltom
Columbus, Ohio. – Tennessee fans flooded Ohio Stadium for the Vols’ college football playoff first-round matchup against the Ohio State Buckeyes. Those fans watched what was easily the worst Tennessee football performance all year in a 42-17 loss.
Ohio State jumped out to an early 21-0 lead over the Vols and the big orange were never able to recover as the Ohio State offense had their way the whole game. Here are my takeaways from a game that showed the difference between an elite program and one on the climb:
Tennessee Fans are the Greatest
In what was perhaps the only positive thing about the Vols in this game, the fans traveled exceptionally well. By my estimation, Ohio Stadium was about 35-40% orange, a remarkable percentage for a playoff game where they were not allotted many tickets. Additionally, the Vols fans were all over Columbus in the days leading up to the game and had several tailgates set up outside the stadium even in the frigid weather. Vols fans, as always, showed up and showed out. Too bad the football team couldn’t match them. Head coach Josh Heupel was thankful for the way the fans showed up.
“I wanna thank the fans. There was plenty of orange in the stands that made the trip. Disappointed for them, and for our team,” Heupel said. “Just didn’t do what you have to on the road against a really good football team.”
Offensive Line Struggles
The core of Tennessee’s offensive struggles was the offensive line. Part of the credit goes to the phenomenal play of the Buckeyes defense, making it difficult to find open receivers and even harder to have time to hit the receivers when they were open. But with a sleepy run game and pass protection that was serviceable at best and downright awful at worst, the offense was crippled constantly. The offensive line gave up five batted passes, six TFLs, four sacks, and a forced fumble. Just an atrocious performance up front. The sack numbers would have been higher were it not for the heroics of Nico Iamaleava.
Secondary Outmatched
For the first time this season, Tennessee’s secondary was completely outmatched. Rickey Gibson III and even the reliable Jermod McCoy looked lost, constantly chasing down the dynamic tandem of Emeka Egbuka and Jeremiah Smith. The freshman Smith and the senior Egbuka combined for 11 catches, 184 yards, and two touchdowns.
One bright spot was walk-on superstar Will Brooks, who nabbed his fourth interception of the year, this time a tip-drill catch in the endzone to keep the Buckeyes from going up 28-0. But that’s all the positives you got defensively.
Front Seven Embarrassed
Tennessee’s front seven got embarrassed through one specific outlet. Ohio State ran the ball at will and the running backs were even more dangerous through the air, a product of the linebackers being lost all game. Arion Carter, Edwin Spillman, and Jeremiah Telander just did not have the athleticism to keep up with TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins, who combined for 114 yards and four touchdowns on the ground and six catches for 63 yards receiving. The Vols struggled to get much penetration at all, only recording seven TFLs but no sacks.
Nico Iamaleava Shows Up
One more positive. Nico Iamaleava was pretty great. Doesn’t look like it in the box score, but outside of a few misses that were absolutely his fault, he was phenomenal. He made a ton of plays with his legs and was precise with his arm when he had the time in the pocket to make a play. Iamaleava just barely broke 100 yards passing, and added 16 rushes for 82 yards, not including sacks. Heupel was impressed with how the freshman played.
“Kids gonna lay it on the line and compete with everything he’s got,” Heupel said. “There were a lot of moving parts in our personnel around him. When you’re playing that position, you need 10 guys around you playing at a high level.”
Injury Bug Bites The Vols Hard
The Tennessee defense was never quite the same after it lost Keenan Pili early in the season. He was decidedly the impact player on the defense. For the offense, the impact player was clearly Dylan Sampson this season. Sampson got two rush attempts this game before leaving with injury. On top of that, at different points, their other two RBs, Peyton Lewis and DeSean Bishop got banged up. On top of that, WRs Squirrel White and Dont’e Thornton got banged up as well during this game. There’s no excuse for getting beat how the Vols did, but perhaps with Dylan Sampson healthy the Vols could have kept this one closer.
What’s Next?
The Vols are officially done for the season with this loss. Next up, the Vols will have to keep an eye on key recruits and watch out for potential transfer portal additions to improve the roster so that they can continue to compete in the future. There are plenty of questions to ask about people slated to return, between Heupel and Iamaleava, but I would be surprised to see any drastic changes.