Just in: The Tennessee head coach has just received sad, disappointing news while…

Just in: The Tennessee head coach has just received sad, disappointing news while…

Missouri’s Columbia: Throughout the six-minute postgame press conference that Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel held on Saturday night following the Vols’ defeat to Missouri, he used the same phrase:

Let down.

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In a small, claustrophobic media room, Heupel gave his immediate reactions to the Tennessee press and used the phrase five times during his press conference.

When discussing the Vols’ performance and Tennessee’s reaction when the game began to slip away from them, the third-year Tennessee coach kept referring back to that line.

Give Missouri some credit. They performed admirably,” Heupel remarked on Saturday night. “Man, I’m so disappointed in our football team’s performance. disapproved of how we concluded the game. We didn’t play well enough or smart enough in the first half of the football game to win. And the difference was noticeable in the line of scrimmage. declared at the beginning of the week that it would be a crucial period in the football match. They succeeded in running the football. We didn’t.

For almost the whole game, Tennessee’s offense struggled mightily against the Missouri defense as it searched for answers. With just 83 yards gained on the ground between Jaylen Wright, Joe Milton, Jabari Small, and Dylan Sampson, the Missouri defense completely destroyed the Vols’ potent run game. After the game, Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz hinted that his team’s defense had given Tennessee’s offense a huge boot.

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Heupel went on, “Offensively, we didn’t have the efficiency that you need to go and score points.” “Well, that’s disappointing.”

Over their last four games, Tennessee has averaged 33 points per game, including a massive 59 points last weekend in Knoxville. However, Tennessee’s self-inflicted injuries and incapacity to execute when it mattered most resulted in a “disappointing” performance on Saturday afternoon.

Heupel expressed his disappointment with the offensive performance. “Their defense personnel structure was a little different from what we had anticipated. In the first drive, I didn’t think we responded or reacted well. reacted to it and made some minor adjustments in the first part. I’m just incredibly let down.

In this game, Tennessee had everything to lose. Tennessee had not yet faced the Bulldogs, and Missouri had already suffered a loss to Georgia. The Tigers and Vols entered the game with respective 7-2 and 3-2 SEC records. Tennessee could have qualified to play for the SEC East against Georgia in Knoxville the following week if they had defeated Missouri. The Georgia-Ole Miss game is scheduled to take place on Saturday, and Tennessee’s opponent would have been Georgia.

Tennessee had a chance to settle scores on its end but was unable to do so, regardless of the outcome of the Georgia-Ole Miss game later in the day.

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Joe Milton described Tennessee’s performance after the game as “shooting ourselves in the foot, pretty much the same time that happened in the Florida game.” “Every self-inflicted injury, including holding, false starts, and other situations that can kill motivation, is exactly what occurred.”

Heupel had a similar perspective on the game.

“If you look offensively at the first half, aside from the drive at the start of the second quarter, there are big penalties that put you in a first- or second-and-20 situation,” Heupel remarked. Additionally, there were numerous mistakes made on that side of the 50-yard line. difficult to overcome. Very disappointing, that is.

Not good for Tennessee? Indeed. However, the Vols’ regular-season schedule still has two games left. Tennessee will try to make up for their errors before playing host to Georgia this Saturday in Knoxville at 3:30 p.m. ET.

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Click this link to view Josh Heupel’s entire Saturday night press conference in Columbia.

What caused our pass rush to abruptly end? RB and receiver number seven for Missouri is excellent; we improved his appearance significantly. Why did Tenn defend? Players were way above my head and could not tackle him. How in the heck do their relievers run to fill that gap? TN was one of them.

To prevent that 7 from beating me, I would have stacked the line of scrimmage. Entering this game, Tennessee ranked 13th nationally against the run. Offense stood on SL for too long without really getting rhythm.

Could someone please explain why we are having such trouble getting off the field on third down? There was actually an issue. I had a better idea to spy on that quarterback right away. Ignore that game and get ready for a bad day. Georgia, perhaps our DC has an alternative plan. Take them out with a blitz. You enjoy outcomes.