I’m still enjoying the Josh Heupel era of Tennessee football. He’s stabilized the program, and we have won more than we lost. All that said, it’s basically the end of year 3 now, we’re going to lose to Georgia, we’re going to finish 8-4 and there are some serious red flags and trends emerging that I think warrant some real concern and aren’t overreactions.
1) Josh Heupel is now 1-10 when trailing at half. Clear evidence that he is terrible at making halftime adjustments. He gets his ass kicked in basically every 2nd half he plays against a team with a pulse. I don’t even know how you improve that in Year 6 as a head coach.
2) Josh Heupel is now 3-7 on the road against teams not named Vandy or Kentucky. Not only do we lose games, we look like trash on the road, lifeless, and like a team with no real plan. You can’t win championships being that bad on the road. Relatively, we have now pissed down our leg twice against two mediocre football teams in South Carolina and Missouri in back to back years in games with a lot on the line.
3) Our defense continues to be terrible. Outside of the defensive line, not a single unit on the defense has improved in 3 years. Heads need to roll. 350 scrimmage yards for their RB. Just awful. Can’t tackle. Can’t cover.
4) Undisciplined. Yes, the other teams should also be called for flags, but we do commit a lot of dumb and poorly timed penalties. And I’m not talking about this game as the prime example, it’s been all year.
I’m not calling for Heupel’s head. Far from it. But it’s hard to feel really good about this program right now when all of those points I just listed are glaring issues and pervasive in the program. I mean 1-10 when trailing…..that’s not good coaching.
