Tennessee fans thought they were about to snap Georgia’s nine-game stranglehold. They felt this was finally the night they re-write history. Josh Heupel must have been ready to get his first dub against Kirby Smart. But guess what? Football gods had some other plans in Knoxville. Instead, 102,000 throats went from roars to silence. Vols Nation is now left with two things: heartbreak and one wild ray of hope. Josh Heupel may have snagged a different kind of W. The attention of the No. 1 recruit in the country.

Georgia-Tennessee game are the reason people fall in love with college football. Former Sun Belt QB Joey Aguilar cooked the Dawgs’ secondary for 371 yards and four TDs, with wideout Chris Brazzell II ran for 177 yards and 3 tuddies. Neyland was rocking, Georgia was wobbly, and for a moment it felt like the dynasty was about to crack. Then Gunner Stockton turned ice cold, hitting 304 through the air along with a rushing score. London Humphreys’ 28-yard strike tied it late. In OT, Nate Frazier knifed through and Josh McCray finished it off. Just like that, Kirby Smart cracked nine straight wins over Tennessee and 5 straight wins over Josh Heupel.

And while the scoreboard mocked the Vols, the sidelines had something else going on. Kennedy Brown, the 6’4, 280-pound monster OT from Kingwood, Texas, the No. 1 overall player in the 2027 class, was at Neyland with his family. Tennessee insiders swear the visit went about as good as it could’ve. On3’s Josh Newberg teed up the question to insider Matt Ray, who didn’t hesitate to elaborate further.

“It was a good trip for Kennedy Brown. He had family along with him. They were really taking everything in. Watching them in pregame, I think you could tell they were a little bit surprised at the size of Neyland Stadium,” Ray said, adding that Brown’s trip was a way of returning the love Heupel’s staff had shown. “He wanted to kind of repay that. He felt like Tennessee’s shown him a lot of attention and he wanted to do the same.”

That’s no small thing. This 6’4 OT is already holding over 40 Division I offers. Bama, Georgia, Texas, Michigan, Clemson. They all want him. Tennessee’s in a race nobody thinks they can win. But Brown’s not visiting everybody. He’s trimmed his list of fall stops down to four: Texas, Clemson, Notre Dame, and Tennessee. That’s it. And the Vols got the first swing.

His family loved the atmosphere. Neyland’s size and rowdy-crowd left an impression. Texas is still the clear frontrunner to land him. But Tennessee will not go down without a fight. If only they had that mentality at the end of the actual game being played.

Josh Heupel explains his controversial game-changing call

Here’s the part Vols fans can’t shake. Tennessee had the win lined up. Max Gilbert trotted out for a game-winner as time bled out. Neyland was ready to explode. Then? False start. Five yards back, left hash. Gilbert missed, wide left. That moment represented a momentum shift from which the Vols could never recover.

So the media asked as to why didn’t Heupel run another play? Why not center it up and get Gilbert a cleaner look? Insider Wes Rucker put Heupel’s words on X: “Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said that false start penalty definitely changed the plan at the end of regulation. Didn’t want a holding call or another false start push it back even more. Decided to go ahead and kick it.”

Safe? Yeah. Smart? Not really. That’s the problem. You can’t coach scared in games like this. If you’re worried about penalties, then why even risk running plays before the false start? Either trust your kicker early or trust your offense to get him a better spot. Instead, Heupel played the middle, and Tennessee paid the price for that. Gilbert redeemed himself in OT, but the damage was done. Tennessee’s offense stalled and Georgia slammed the door. Heupel’s decision got burned into the highlight reel for all the wrong reasons.