Why did UT lose?

[Doberman]

Wasn’t smart bc over the course of a season they’re low percentage plays, right? So we should just play the high percentage plays regardless correct? Deep plays were open, they were there. Our fans want to rant without having any idea what the defense was in.

You going to be mad every time we take a shot downfield?

Nope, I dig the deep ball. Just not so much when you’ve got 2 plays left in the game, and need about 10 yards.

Cool story, though.

 

[midtnvol2]

Losers that run Nissan Stadium turf

The turf wasn’t responsible for the players not being ready to play. The turf didn’t mismanage the game. The turf didn’t make the horrible decisions to throw bombs at the end of the game to waste critical downs when all they needed was 20 yards. The turf didn’t refuse to take time outs and settle the offense down and re-focus them. They lost due to poor coaching, poor game management, and lack of execution.

 

[cyclevol]

Very well said. No matter how we got to that last 4th down in OT, the officials' call was still wrong, and ultimately was the final deciding factor for our offense.

Yeah, don't get the ifs and buts analogies. The game changes based on the score. The score determines the outcome. The game was tied and we had the guts to go for the win in the first OT. If we had kicked the field goal then if Purdue won with a TD then it would have been said we should have gone for the TD. The ruling was wrong. It was right there on replay. The explanation for the ruling was wrong. It was a home game basically, so who were the refs trying to please by screwing us? The only thing was that it would be nice to burn somebody else on the tight end td pass for a change. The problem with the hurry up offense just running the simplest play. A play that is best stopped by a Big Ten team because that's their game. The SEC stretches the field. Simply put the Big Ten plays between the hash marks and running plays into the line are what they are used to trying to stop. A time out and a real play would have been prudent in that situation. Trying to "catch" them off-guard by running at them was not the best idea in spite of many who say "if you can't gain one yard you don't deserve to win." I am tired of UT being the reason for rule book changes in the Music City Bowl. I'm all for never going back there. We draw well to anywhere. Nashville is full of transplants anyway.

 

[OrangeSquid]

THIS. We could have won this game in spite of everything had we just gotten 15 yards in the last series and Heupel calls 2 bombs. He's an idiot.

Exactly. This was the true cause of the loss, IMO. Two long bombs in a row when you only needed a few yards and had time outs to burn? Shockingly bad play calls in this situation.

I was also screaming at the TV, "We only need a first down and close enough for a FG!" After seeing that photo of Tillman with that Purdue drag chute hanging on him (Uncalled), that was a good play call and highly likely a TD.

 

[Redleg68]

A loser culture still exists here. The team doesn’t win when the big spotlight is on, even when the opponent is entirely beatable. Winners win. Losers lose.

You need to back up a few steps and quantify what you just said.

 

[Chad F]

You need to back up a few steps and quantify what you just said.

Culture manifests itself (especially) when things are going poorly or are really tight in a game. One single recurrence might be an aberration, but patterns develop over time to show either (A) a pattern of figuring out a way to win by making plays, avoiding mistakes, capitalizing on opportunities, being well prepared, bouncing back from in-game setbacks, etc. . . . or (B) coming up short by not doing those things listed above.

In previous years, coaches like Pruitt established a culture where we might have brief flashes (illusions) of progress but the true pattern was always (B). A strong culture is a belief system and shared mindset that enables individual and collective accountability, work ethic, discipline (on and off the field), and commitment to the common goal.

Coach Heupel is fighting to establish such a culture. It takes time because it must permeate down to the unspoken, taken-for-granted assumptions and beliefs of individuals. Once those are ingrained, they manifest collectively on the field. This is what Saban has established at Alabama more so than any advantage in “Xs and Os” coaching (although he does that well too).

Unfortunately, failure begets failure, and the toxic legacy of Pruitt, the fakery of Butch Jones, and the ineptness of Derek Dooley have left a mess to clean-up. Heupel and co. have to build up an organization that has been defined by incompetence, losing, toxicity, and unethical conduct (these last two under Pruitt). The foundation for Heupel is not strong, to say te least. He is building almost from scratch.

The Pitt loss can be explained away as an early game, but it was a clearly winnable contest that we squandered because we could not take advantage of opportunities (how many overthrown passes?) and could not make the plays at the crucial times. The Florida loss was, in my view, almost entirely the result of a lack of belief, a mental block - which is, in itself, a function of bad culture. Ole Miss was one that slipped away, at least in part, because of that lingering doubt in our ability to make the plays it takes to win when the pressure is on (and, yes, we were hampered by poor officiating).

The Purdue game is the second most egregious example of our culture producing a loss this season (UF was the worst). Just because Altontae was out, our entire defense suddenly forgot how to tackle? Why are we throwing deep when all we need is about 10 yards to make a very doable FG for the win? How many penalties did we commit to out ourselves in bad spots? Lots of other problems besides finding ourselves in a spot where really bad officiating could sway the outcome - and, yes, that missed PI near the end of regulation and the terrible “forward process” call were back-breakers.

Coach Heupel is contending with all of this. Positive culture change takes time, so it’s not surprising that we are still struggling at times. Heupel did more to fix the culture than I thought possible in one year, but there is still a ton of work to do, as evidenced by what I described above. He’s going to have to grow as a coach too - Personally, I’m glad he’ll do that growing here. But the UK and South Carolina games won’t be easier next season. The rest of the league isn’t sitting still.

The old saying in my line of work is that “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” It is equally true for our football program. Until that gets fixed, and there are some good signs that we are making progress, not much else will matter. Winning cultures find ways to overcome bad officiating. Winning cultures come back after setbacks. Losing cultures find ways to lose. Coach Heupel has more work to do in order to establish the culture he (and all of us) want with UT football.

 

[Arrested Devolopment]

Purdue isn’t really a winner even after many years with the same coach.

Fun fact: "perdu" means "lost" in French.

 

[Arrested Devolopment]

Culture manifests itself (especially) when things are going poorly or are really tight in a game. One single recurrence might be an aberration, but patterns develop over time to show either (A) a pattern of figuring out a way to win by making plays, avoiding mistakes, capitalizing on opportunities, being well prepared, bouncing back from in-game setbacks, etc. . . . or (B) coming up short by not doing those things listed above.

In previous years, coaches like Pruitt established a culture where we might have brief flashes (illusions) of progress but the true pattern was always (B). A strong culture is a belief system and shared mindset that enables individual and collective accountability, work ethic, discipline (on and off the field), and commitment to the common goal.

Coach Heupel is fighting to establish such a culture. It takes time because it must permeate down to the unspoken, taken-for-granted assumptions and beliefs of individuals. Once those are ingrained, they manifest collectively on the field. This is what Saban has established at Alabama more so than any advantage in “Xs and Os” coaching (although he does that well too).

Unfortunately, failure begets failure, and the toxic legacy of Pruitt, the fakery of Butch Jones, and the ineptness of Derek Dooley have left a mess to clean-up. Heupel and co. have to build up an organization that has been defined by incompetence, losing, toxicity, and unethical conduct (these last two under Pruitt). The foundation for Heupel is not strong, to say te least. He is building almost from scratch.

The Pitt loss can be explained away as an early game, but it was a clearly winnable contest that we squandered because we could not take advantage of opportunities (how many overthrown passes?) and could not make the plays at the crucial times. The Florida loss was, in my view, almost entirely the result of a lack of belief, a mental block - which is, in itself, a function of bad culture. Ole Miss was one that slipped away, at least in part, because of that lingering doubt in our ability to make the plays it takes to win when the pressure is on (and, yes, we were hampered by poor officiating).

The Purdue game is the second most egregious example of our culture producing a loss this season (UF was the worst). Just because Altontae was out, our entire defense suddenly forgot how to tackle? Why are we throwing deep when all we need is about 10 yards to make a very doable FG for the win? How many penalties did we commit to out ourselves in bad spots? Lots of other problems besides finding ourselves in a spot where really bad officiating could sway the outcome - and, yes, that missed PI near the end of regulation and the terrible “forward process” call were back-breakers.

Coach Heupel is contending with all of this. Positive culture change takes time, so it’s not surprising that we are still struggling at times. Heupel did more to fix the culture than I thought possible in one year, but there is still a ton of work to do, as evidenced by what I described above. He’s going to have to grow as a coach too - Personally, I’m glad he’ll do that growing here. But the UK and South Carolina games won’t be easier next season. The rest of the league isn’t sitting still.

The old saying in my line of work is that “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” It is equally true for our football program. Until that gets fixed, and there are some good signs that we are making progress, not much else will matter. Winning cultures find ways to overcome bad officiating. Winning cultures come back after setbacks. Losing cultures find ways to lose. Coach Heupel has more work to do in order to establish the culture he (and all of us) want with UT football.

Or maybe we lost against Perdue because we were missing some key pass defenders? I'm going with that.

 

[Iam4utalways]

Bad luck is what got us. Being on offense 1st in OT in a back and forth game was poor luck.

I liked the calls to go for the TD twice before the end of regulation and on 4th down in OT.

You win some. You lose some.

Sure their were plenty of bad calls by the officials. Nothing new there. The timing of the bad calls and no calls is why they impacted the game so dramatically.

 

[Redleg68]

Culture manifests itself (especially) when things are going poorly or are really tight in a game. One single recurrence might be an aberration, but patterns develop over time to show either (A) a pattern of figuring out a way to win by making plays, avoiding mistakes, capitalizing on opportunities, being well prepared, bouncing back from in-game setbacks, etc. . . . or (B) coming up short by not doing those things listed above.

In previous years, coaches like Pruitt established a culture where we might have brief flashes (illusions) of progress but the true pattern was always (B). A strong culture is a belief system and shared mindset that enables individual and collective accountability, work ethic, discipline (on and off the field), and commitment to the common goal.

Coach Heupel is fighting to establish such a culture. It takes time because it must permeate down to the unspoken, taken-for-granted assumptions and beliefs of individuals. Once those are ingrained, they manifest collectively on the field. This is what Saban has established at Alabama more so than any advantage in “Xs and Os” coaching (although he does that well too).

Unfortunately, failure begets failure, and the toxic legacy of Pruitt, the fakery of Butch Jones, and the ineptness of Derek Dooley have left a mess to clean-up. Heupel and co. have to build up an organization that has been defined by incompetence, losing, toxicity, and unethical conduct (these last two under Pruitt). The foundation for Heupel is not strong, to say te least. He is building almost from scratch.

The Pitt loss can be explained away as an early game, but it was a clearly winnable contest that we squandered because we could not take advantage of opportunities (how many overthrown passes?) and could not make the plays at the crucial times. The Florida loss was, in my view, almost entirely the result of a lack of belief, a mental block - which is, in itself, a function of bad culture. Ole Miss was one that slipped away, at least in part, because of that lingering doubt in our ability to make the plays it takes to win when the pressure is on (and, yes, we were hampered by poor officiating).

The Purdue game is the second most egregious example of our culture producing a loss this season (UF was the worst). Just because Altontae was out, our entire defense suddenly forgot how to tackle? Why are we throwing deep when all we need is about 10 yards to make a very doable FG for the win? How many penalties did we commit to out ourselves in bad spots? Lots of other problems besides finding ourselves in a spot where really bad officiating could sway the outcome - and, yes, that missed PI near the end of regulation and the terrible “forward process” call were back-breakers.

Coach Heupel is contending with all of this. Positive culture change takes time, so it’s not surprising that we are still struggling at times. Heupel did more to fix the culture than I thought possible in one year, but there is still a ton of work to do, as evidenced by what I described above. He’s going to have to grow as a coach too - Personally, I’m glad he’ll do that growing here. But the UK and South Carolina games won’t be easier next season. The rest of the league isn’t sitting still.

The old saying in my line of work is that “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” It is equally true for our football program. Until that gets fixed, and there are some good signs that we are making progress, not much else will matter. Winning cultures find ways to overcome bad officiating. Winning cultures come back after setbacks. Losing cultures find ways to lose. Coach Heupel has more work to do in order to establish the culture he (and all of us) want with UT football.

Ask and yea shall receive Here is what I have seen. It has been years since I have seen a Tennessee team with this much dog in them. Was the culture of the past broken? YES. I think that Heupel has either fixed that or has us well on the way to the right culture. This team had every excuse to curl up and go away with the transfers and other noise around the program--but they did not!! This is a credit to the coaching staff. There is still a lot of work to do on improving depth and talent, but with the dog that I have seen in them, I believe that is not that far away. Heupel has that locker room. I don't care what your talent level or previous won/loss record is, if that locker room festers you have got a losing situation---look at Florida this year. The biggest culture problem left to fix is getting Florida the hell out of our head. Have a great day.

 

[Winchester73]

Did Whitehead get any carries in this game ? I would think he could have been a good option near the goal line?

 

[rocketskates]

Two big reasons imo…

1. When we were up 21-7 with the ball we squandered that opportunity. When you are up by a few scores you keep pounding the other team into submission like we did against Mizzou and South Carolina.

2. The final drive was completely mismanaged. Run slants and sideline passes and get into range for an easy McGrath game winning FG. Yes, the refs blew the missed holding/PI on Tillman. But we still had a chance to put it away.

Don’t get me started on officiating, but you just execute in one of the above scenarios and the refs don’t matter. In any case, the future is bright. Very happy with this season overall.

 

[Tnphil]

Culture manifests itself (especially) when things are going poorly or are really tight in a game. One single recurrence might be an aberration, but patterns develop over time to show either (A) a pattern of figuring out a way to win by making plays, avoiding mistakes, capitalizing on opportunities, being well prepared, bouncing back from in-game setbacks, etc. . . . or (B) coming up short by not doing those things listed above.

In previous years, coaches like Pruitt established a culture where we might have brief flashes (illusions) of progress but the true pattern was always (B). A strong culture is a belief system and shared mindset that enables individual and collective accountability, work ethic, discipline (on and off the field), and commitment to the common goal.

Coach Heupel is fighting to establish such a culture. It takes time because it must permeate down to the unspoken, taken-for-granted assumptions and beliefs of individuals. Once those are ingrained, they manifest collectively on the field. This is what Saban has established at Alabama more so than any advantage in “Xs and Os” coaching (although he does that well too).

Unfortunately, failure begets failure, and the toxic legacy of Pruitt, the fakery of Butch Jones, and the ineptness of Derek Dooley have left a mess to clean-up. Heupel and co. have to build up an organization that has been defined by incompetence, losing, toxicity, and unethical conduct (these last two under Pruitt). The foundation for Heupel is not strong, to say te least. He is building almost from scratch.

The Pitt loss can be explained away as an early game, but it was a clearly winnable contest that we squandered because we could not take advantage of opportunities (how many overthrown passes?) and could not make the plays at the crucial times. The Florida loss was, in my view, almost entirely the result of a lack of belief, a mental block - which is, in itself, a function of bad culture. Ole Miss was one that slipped away, at least in part, because of that lingering doubt in our ability to make the plays it takes to win when the pressure is on (and, yes, we were hampered by poor officiating).

The Purdue game is the second most egregious example of our culture producing a loss this season (UF was the worst). Just because Altontae was out, our entire defense suddenly forgot how to tackle? Why are we throwing deep when all we need is about 10 yards to make a very doable FG for the win? How many penalties did we commit to out ourselves in bad spots? Lots of other problems besides finding ourselves in a spot where really bad officiating could sway the outcome - and, yes, that missed PI near the end of regulation and the terrible “forward process” call were back-breakers.

Coach Heupel is contending with all of this. Positive culture change takes time, so it’s not surprising that we are still struggling at times. Heupel did more to fix the culture than I thought possible in one year, but there is still a ton of work to do, as evidenced by what I described above. He’s going to have to grow as a coach too - Personally, I’m glad he’ll do that growing here. But the UK and South Carolina games won’t be easier next season. The rest of the league is change n’t sitting still.

The old saying in my line of work is that “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” It is equally true for our football program. Until that gets fixed, and there are some good signs that we are making progress, not much else will matter. Winning cultures find ways to overcome bad officiating. Winning cultures come back after setbacks. Losing cultures find ways to lose. Coach Heupel has more work to do in order to establish the culture he (and all of us) want with UT football.

Good post....

For the most part for decades in close ballgames folks new Vandy would find a way to lose in the end and did....we UT have been there for a long while now....No matter the talent...no matter the coach at Florida they mentally know they are going to win and we mentally have lost before they tee the ball up....Until we change those things we will be a so so program battling to be a Mizzou...KY.....Miss st....south carolina...Ark type program.

 

[VolRage]

Play calling - wasn’t great
Referees - yeah, they sucked. It was mostly one sided.
Porous defense - 100%
Music City Bowl bad mojo - That’s BS other than the field absolutely sucked.

Defense cost us the game. With the starters we had out and the lack of quality depth. Almost no one that started for our D this year would’ve been in our 2 deep during the 90’s and that’s the Gods honest truth.