'No comment': Josh Heupel makes feelings known on officiating after Tennessee's loss at Georgia
Josh Heupel opted not to comment when asked about some officiating decisions during his postgame press conference after Tennessee’s 31-17 loss at Georgia Saturday night at Sanford Stadium. Instead, he turned his microphone around and asked a reporter to speak up.
“Can you repeat that?” Heupel asked.
The first question was bout a facemask called on Rickey Gibson III, one that extended Georgia’s go-ahead touchdown drive after the Bulldogs were facing second-and-24 at the Georgia 15-yard line.
Georgia’s Nitro Tuggle lost his helmet on the play, but replay didn’t show Gibson with his hand on Tuggle’s facemask.
Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel was asked about the face mask and 12 men on the field penalties….⤵️⤵️⤵️ pic.twitter.com/Z8ShM218kH
— Austin Price (@AustinPriceless) November 17, 2024
Heupel during his postgame press conference was asked how big that call was at that moment in the game.
“Pretty big,” he said.
But that’s all he said.
Later in the drive officials reviewed a play showing Tennessee had 12 men on the field, with Jaxson Moi failing to get off the sideline before Georgia snapped the ball. Instead of third-and-7 at the Tennessee 20 after an incomplete throw to the end zone, Georgia got five yards and a second-and-2 at the Tennessee 15.
Beck ran 10 yards for a touchdown three plays later to put Georgia up for good, 24-17, with 5:32 left in the third quarter, capping a 12-play, 87-yard touchdown drive that took 7:22 off the clock.
Josh Heupel: “You want to ask about the 12 men on the field?”
A follow up question was asked about the facemask later in Heupel’s press conference.
“When we watched the replay,” the reporter asked, “like I mentioned, it looked like …”
“Yeah, what did it look like?” Heupel said.
“It looked like the back of the helmet popped off,” the reporter continued. “We didn’t see a hand on the facemask. What was the explanation?”
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That’s when Heupel turned his microphone around to face the reporter.
“Can you repeat that?” Heupel asked.
“It looked like his helmet popped up,” the reporter repeated, “but there wasn’t a hand on the facemask. Did they give you an explanation of why it was called?”
“Next question,” Heupel said.
Heupel wasn’t done there.
“You want to ask about the 12 men on the field?” Heupel asked.
Tennessee was penalized nine times for 70 yards in the loss. Georgia was called for seven fouls for 59 yards.
The Vols jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, but Georgia answered with touchdown drives that covered 92, 87, 84, 75 and 57 yards while outscoring Tennessee 31-7 over the 45 minutes.
“Give credit to Georgia,” Heupel said. “They did what they had to do in the second half … loved the effort that we played with. Played physical. Just didn’t do enough, coaches and players together, to get on the right side of the scoreboard in the second half, obviously. But there are things in the first half, too, just being better at some of the things that you need to against a good team to win the football game.
“Too many big plays defensively were given up. Offensively, some assignment stuff in critical situations that change the way the game is played.”
