Texas left Neyland Stadium with a 20-17 win on Saturday. Tennessee made it close late, but the Volunteers couldn’t deliver on their last drive of the game. With the result, Tennessee still has not beaten Texas in a regular-season game. Josh Heupel’s postgame remarks made clear that the matchup was not that easy.
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The Tennessee head coach did not put the loss on one player, but pointed to two units in particular.
“Offensively, just not anywhere close to being good enough to beat a team like this. Everybody will have a hand in it when we go back on Monday with the tape, with the guys. Up front, not good enough. Quarterback, not good enough. Everybody’s got a hand in it. Ultimately, we’ve got to be better.” Heupel specifically pointed toward the play up front and quarterback performance.
“I do love how the team continued to fight, played to the last play. We didn’t play smart enough, but I’ll take the effort of playing the next play until the clock hits zero.”
Heading into the Week 4 game, Tennessee had given up just three sacks in its first three games. The Longhorns registered 10 sacks. Texas edge rusher Colin Simmons did most of the damage, recording five sacks and tying Texas’s single-game record. Those negative plays wiped out first downs and left Tennessee in long-yardage spots. The run game never settled either, finishing near two yards per carry.
Freshman Faizon Brandon was sacked again and again. He left in the second quarter with an apparent shoulder injury, was checked by medical staff, and returned. Heupel said Brandon’s eyes and decisions were late. He missed chances to get rid of it and also scrambled into sacks instead of throwing the ball away.
On the final drive, Heupel said the quarterback “can’t take a sack.” Brandon still finished without an interception and also hit Mike Matthews for the late touchdown that made it 20-17.
The defense is why that score stayed within reach. Heupel said the line of scrimmage “controlled the game” and “bottled up their run game for the most part.”
Kayin Lee intercepted Arch Manning, and Tennessee won the turnover battle. That was not enough once Texas found running room in the fourth quarter.
The Longhorns’ 60-yard drive decided the game. Raleek Brown’s 4-yard touchdown made it 20-10 with 5:41 left. Tennessee had pressured Manning earlier. On that drive, the rush did not finish the play.
Special teams had already given Tennessee its first touchdown. Qua Moss returned a punt 57 yards to tie the game at 10-10 with 11:14 left in the third quarter. Texas answered with Gianni Spetic’s 44-yard field goal for a 13-10 lead, then Brown’s second rushing score.
Brandon found Matthews with 1:22 left. Tennessee recovered the onside kick. The last pass was batted away in the end zone. The scramble sack on that series, the head coach said, could not happen.
Heupel also owned the late second-quarter fourth-and-7 from the Texas 34. He said it was his call, and he trusted Cooper Ranvier and the look. Tennessee is now 3-1 after its first SEC loss of the year. An offense that entered the game averaging 47.7 points and 510 yards finished with 17.