Paul Finebaum not hitting the panic button on Josh Heupel despite Tennessee struggles

The water is rising in Tennessee but Paul Finebaum isn’t adding to the flood. During an appearance on “McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning,” Finebaum evaluated UT head coach Josh Heupel’s position with the program amid the team’s disappointing season.

“I’m probably not going to hit the panic button on Heupel,” Finebaum said. “He’s caught, a little bit like Nick Saban, between quarterbacks. What I don’t understand is this, what everyone saw in in Joe Milton, and I’ll put myself in that group, that led us to believe that this Tennessee team had a chance for greatness because against average or better opposition they have been pretty suboptimal.”

Tennessee delivered another suboptimal performance this weekend in its 34-20 loss to Alabama. In the defeat, Joe Milton was fantastic in the first half, carrying Tennessee to a 20-7 halftime lead. Nonetheless, Tennessee’s offense sputtered in the final two quarters.

The team’s inconsistency has become an all-too-common theme this season. In Week 2, the Volunteers only put up 16 points against Florida. Just two weeks later, the team rattled off 477 yards and 41 points in a triumph over South Carolina.

Tennessee loses focus

After the team’s loss against the Crimson Tide, Milton discussed Tennessee’s sluggish second half.

“You just gotta keep going,” Milton said. “You gotta play the next play, you know? That’s offense and how we operate. You gotta be able to play the next play no matter where the momentum is. You gotta be able to play the next play and play assignment sound.

“You just gotta do your assignment. You gotta do your job at a high level. That’s all we’ve been preaching all week. Just do your job at a high level. And we stopped doing our job at a high level, so therefore we got a result that we didn’t want. But we got a result that we (deserved) because we didn’t play at a high level.”

Josh Heupel searches for answers

Milton certainly isn’t alone in his frustration. In his debut campaign as Tennessee’s head coach, Heupel boosted the Volunteers to a respectable 7-6 record. Last season, he turned up the heat, leading the Vols to an 11-2 record while fostering the No. 1 offense in the country.

With two losses on their record already and at least two more ranked opponents ahead, Heupel and Co. are looking for answers.

“Credit to Alabama, in particular in the second half. They played extremely well. Second half, we just weren’t good enough — from me to our coaches to our players,” Heupel said. “Got to be able to play for 60 minutes against a good football team and on the road, so extremely disappointed with the outcome.

“I told the guys in the locker room, they compete, man. They do. We don’t play smart enough at times. But they compete, and I’ll go with these guys anywhere.”