Tenn Points: Vols left a sliver of hope, and Georgia seized the moment
Tennessee fell to Georgia in heartbreaking fashion on Saturday, as the Bulldogs claimed a 44-41 overtime win, their ninth straight over the Vols.
Talk about deja vu. For a while, it seemed an awful lot like Tennessee’s 2022 win over Alabama, which the Vols won on a last-second field goal. But it wound up being a lot like Tennessee’s 2013 loss to Georgia at Neyland Stadium — which was also an overtime game, and one where a review on the goal line (Pig Howard’s fumble) played a key role in the outcome.
Here are 10 things that stood out today.
1.) You have to close them out
Let’s state one thing unequivocally on the front end: Josh Heupel has absolutely resurrected a Tennessee football program that had been listless for well over a decade. He was an unheralded hire who vaulted the Vols into playoff contention beginning in 2022, then took them to the playoffs in 2024. He’s beaten the program’s two biggest rivals, Alabama and Florida, two of the past three years. If athletics director Danny White doesn’t make what most considered a bargain bin hire with Heupel when he got to Knoxville, none of that happens — unless White got lucky and did something his four predecessors couldn’t do, which is hire the right coach.
I just want to say that before anyone says I’m down on Heupel.
My one gripe about Heupel, and I’ve griped this gripe for several seasons, is that he has a tendency to go into a shell with his offensive play calling at critical times in tight games. He plays not to lose instead of playing to win. I think it’s because he has a difficult time fully trusting his quarterbacks. Although he has loosened the reins with Joey Aguilar considerably, he still hasn’t fully shown trust in any quarterback he’s had at UT not named Hendon Hooker.
Tonight’s game hinged on several key moments. If Max Gilbert makes a 41-yard field goal — a distance he’s usually close to automatic from — the game is over. If a UGA receiver London Humphreys doesn’t make a really nice touchdown catch on 4th and 6, the game is over.
But I felt like the game was lost when Tennessee settled for a 48-yard field goal coming off a Georgia fumble late in the fourth quarter.
That moment was classic Heupel — at least in the sense of my major gripe about him. After a terrific start — more on that in a moment — Tennessee’s offense bogged down. Once the Vols got things back in gear midway through the third quarter, however, Georgia simply didn’t have an answer for Aguilar and the passing attack. Then Tennessee’s defense forces a turnover on the sack-fumble of Gunner Stockton, giving the offense the ball back inside the UGA 35-yard-line. At that point, it felt like Tennessee should’ve gone for the jugular. Instead, Heupel dialed up three straight running plays with his hottest back — Star Thomas — not in the game. It felt like after the false start penalty, Tennessee was playing for the field goal.
Here’s the thing: if it had been a six-point lead at that point, playing for the field goal would’ve been smart. It would’ve been a two-possession game, and the Vols’ chances of winning would’ve skyrocketed to greater than 95%. But it wasn’t a six-point lead. It was a five-point lead, and a field goal left it a one-possession game. Once Georgia scored the touchdown on fourth down, it made the two-point conversion look easy.
The gap between Tennessee and Georgia has narrowed considerably, but the Bulldogs still have a pretty considerable talent advantage, and they also have a coach who’s one of the best in the business. When you have a chance to steal one, you better go for the kill instead of allowing your opponent to get off the mat. Tennessee went conservative, allowed its opponent off the mat, and it cost the Vols the game.
2.) Tennessee’s hot-cold defense
Tennessee defensive coordinator Tim Banks is like a sweet-and-sour sucker. He seemed like a good hire when Heupel snatched him away from Penn State. His early defenses didn’t do well at Tennessee, and I wasn’t on the Tim Banks bandwagon. A halfway decent defense would’ve likely won the Vols a national title in 2022. But in 2023, the defense made major strides. Then Tennessee was close to elite on defense last season. I was suddenly very high on Tim Banks.
We’re only three games in, but this year’s defense is showing some major weaknesses. Georgia really exploited those weaknesses today. Stockton completed 23 of 31 passes for 304 yards, and UGA finished with 502 yards of total offense.
Obviously there are some caveats. Tennessee is dealing with some major injuries on the defensive side of the ball, including both starting cornerbacks. The Vols’ top-end on defense is pretty good, but there’s not a lot of experienced depth.
Still, Georgia entered the game having scored only 28 points against Austin Peay a week ago. The offense had been pretty stagnant the first two weeks of the season, and a lot of UGA fans were clamoring for Mike Bobo, their offensive coordinator, to be shown the door.
Coming into this game, if you’d told me that Tennessee would score 41 points against a really good Georgia defense, I would’ve thought the Vols would win the game easily. Even after some struggles at times against Syracuse and ETSU, I never would’ve imagined that Tennessee would give up 44 to Georgia.
Obviously it has to be pointed out that the defense rose up at times. Creating several stops in the late third and early fourth quarters were key.
3.) This Tennessee team might be different
The result of today’s game aside, it feels like this Tennessee team is a little different than past teams. For the past four years, Tennessee has started strong against Georgia, then folded. Last year, the Vols were up 10-0 before getting beat by multiple possessions.
It looked like the same thing was going to happen this year after Georgia reeled off 20 consecutive points to build a 27-21 lead. One commentator said — maybe only half-jokingly — that it felt like Kirby Smart is allowing Tennessee to score more points each year before kicking his team into gear to make the heartbreak stronger for UT fans.
But then something happened that hasn’t happened for Tennessee against Georgia the last few years: the Vols picked themselves up off the mat and made it a battle to the end. Tennessee didn’t win the game … but it should have won the game.
4.) Joey Aguilar was exceptional
This loss was not on quarterback Joey Aguilar. Not even close.
Aguilar did have two interceptions. However, he finished 24 of 36 for 371 yards and four touchdowns, and at least half of his incompletions were dropped balls. Yes, some of those throws were a bit off the money, but each of them hit his receivers in the hands and should’ve been caught.
Really, Aguilar only had three or four bad throws, and only one bad decision — which was the first interception. His second interception was the result of receiver Braylon Staley slipping on what would’ve probably otherwise been a third down conversion. The first interception, if we’re being fair, should’ve been a defensive pass interference call against Georgia, especially given how tight the officials were calling penalties against the secondary. You aren’t gonna get that call in that situation very often, and it was still a poor decision to throw into double coverage (and an under-thrown ball to boot) but it was absolutely a pass interference against UGA’s cornerback.
Aguilar finished the first quarter 14 of 14 for more than 200 yards and two touchdowns and a QB rating of nearly 280 — against the best defense in the SEC. Those are exceptional numbers, and it was the best start for a Tennessee quarterback in a long time. In fact, I’m not sure it’s hyperbole to say it’s the best start to a game a Tennessee quarterback has ever had.
Ignore the trolls who have already started bashing Aguilar on social media. Joey Aguilar is going to be just fine. Picking him up in the portal was a huge win for Heupel and the Vols, and he continues to make throws that no Tennessee quarterback since Hooker has been able to make. The same deep balls that both Joe Milton and Nico Iamaleava consistently overthrew are almost always right on the money … or, at least, a little under-thrown in a way that allows receivers to adjust and come down with the football.
5.) Brazzell dazzle
Tennessee has been looking for another Jalin Hyatt ever since Hyatt left the program for the NFL after the 2022 season. They’ve found it in Chris Brazzell, who had six receptions for 177 yards and three touchdowns today. In fact, Brazzell’s performance was the best for a Tennessee receiver since Hyatt’s incredible five-touchdown effort in the win over Alabama in 2022. This junior is absolutely a star in the making. It’s going to be fun to watch him the rest of the way this season, and hopefully he’ll still be around to be the top target for prized recruit Faizon Brandon next year.
6.) The offensive line was pretty good
Aguilar was sacked only once, and wasn’t hurried often today. That’s a pretty good effort against one of the nation’s elite defenses. It was a bit disappointing that Tennessee’s talented running backs didn’t have more room to run, but the pass protection was strong.
The O-line had graded out as one of the best in the SEC through the first two games of the season, with a score of 86. If they continue to play this way the rest of the way, it’ll be a successful season for Tennessee.
7.) Big game for #7
For the most part, Tennessee’s linebackers had a terrible game. Arion Carter was an exception, though. The junior finished with a team-high 13 tackles, including the sack and the forced fumble that should’ve sealed the game for the Vols.
8.) Picking on the freshman
With Tennessee down its starting cornerbacks, Mike Bobo and his Georgia offense made it a point to pick on Tennessee freshman Ty Redmond. That was good coaching. They went Redmond’s direction over and over, and it paid off — including with the fourth down touchdown that tied the game late, which found Redmond in man coverage against Humphreys.
Redmond didn’t play awful, and he did have his first career interception on Ryan Puglisi’s Hail Mary at the end of the first half. But, clearly, Georgia was able to use that situation to its advantage.
9.) Struggling on the edge
One thing Banks’ defenses have done pretty well is make tackles in space, particularly out on the edge — something Tennessee defenses didn’t do very well for about a decade prior to his arrival.
That wasn’t necessarily the case today. Georgia used the wide receiver screens and swing passes very effectively, and Tennessee’s defenders struggled to make stops.
10.) Where to go from here?
It still feels like Tennessee is a legitimate playoff contender. The defense probably isn’t as good as we’d hoped coming into the season, but the passing game is absolutely better than we’d hoped, and the run game is at least as good as we’d hoped. This is a good team that will get better if it can get healthy (including cornerback Jermod McCoy and offensive lineman David Sanders … in fact, I would go so far as to say that Tennessee would’ve won today if McCoy had been able to play; he’s that good).
Still, the SEC is a grind, and Tennessee has to go to Florida and to Alabama. Winning one of those games will be a must to get a playoff berth. Depending on how things go elsewhere, things that aren’t in the Vols’ control, winning both might be a necessity. There are also games at Mississippi State and Kentucky, and a home game against an Oklahoma team that is much-improved from a year ago … not to mention a home game against Vanderbilt, which looks very good.
All that to say, you can be a really good team in the SEC and not make the playoffs. But today’s outcome does not change the fact that this should be a fun team to watch the rest of the season.