'You got to get the ball up': What Josh Heupel said about Tennessee's final play in loss at Arkansas
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Josh Heupel said Tennessee’s defense let Arkansas score the go-ahead touchdown with one minute, 17 seconds left in the fourth quarter Saturday night to give the Vols a chance to win the game on the following possession.
Arkansas backup quarterback Malachi Singleton ran for an 11-yard touchdown on the first play after a timeout to put the Razorbacks up for good in the 19-14 stunner against the fourth-ranked Vols.
“Yeah, at the very end of it, just with the clock timeout situations that we had,” Heupel said during his postgame press conference, “trying to give ourselves a chance to go answer.”
Tennessee (4-1, 1-1 SEC) had two timeouts left when Singleton scored. The Vols used their first timeout on the opening possession of the second half.
The Arkansas game-winning drive went 59 yards in just four plays, with Singleton throwing for 13 yards on first down and Braylen Russell running for 24 yards on second down. Russell rush for 11 yards on the next snap, getting the Hogs down to the 11 before they took a timeout.
Singleton scored on the following play.
‘That situation, you can’t keep the ball in your hands’
Tennessee got the ball at the 25 after the ensuing kickoff. Nico Iamaleava threw incomplete on first down, ran for eight yards on third down and threw a 42-yard pass to Dont’e Thornton on third-and-2.
Dylan Sampson ran for five yards after he caught a bobbled snap on second down, after an Iamaleava incompletion on first-and-10 at the Arkansas 25. He threw incomplete to Chas Nimrod on third-and-five.
On fourth-and-five with six seconds left, Iamaleava was flushed left out of the pocket and was ran out of bounds at the 16-yard line as time expired.
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Heupel said the final play was “a full concept read” for Iamaleava.
“He ended up scrambling off of it,” Heupel said. “End of the day, in that scenario, you got to get the ball up and give one of your guys an opportunity to go make a play. Nico, just like me, and just like our football team, wishes that we had played better.
“That situation, you can’t keep the ball in your hands. You want to give somebody an opportunity to go make a play.”
Up Next: Tennessee vs. Florida, Saturday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN
Iamaleava completed 16 of 28 passes for 156 yards. The Vols rushed 36 times for 176 yards, with Sampson going for 140 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries.
Tennessee trailed 3-0 at halftime after gaining just 76 total yards in the first half. The Vols went on a 75-yard scoring drive to start the second half, sparked by a 53-yard Sampson run. They went 60 yards on six plays for another Sampson touchdown after forcing an Arkansas three-and-out.
From there, the Vols ended the game with four straight punts and turnover on downs when time expired.
“(Iamaleava is) disappointed with it,” Heupel said, “but he’s got to come back and bounce back from it. He’s played way too good not to respond the right way. And I know he will.”
