Josh Heupel admits regret over not taking timeout on Tennessee's final drive at Arkansas
Yes, Josh Heupel regrets the decision. On Tennessee’s final drive at Arkansas Saturday night, after Nico Iamaleava found Dont’e Thornton downfield for a 42-yard completion, the head coach should’ve taken one of the two timeouts the Vols had left.
Instead, Tennessee’s offense stayed in hurry-up mode and the clock kept running after the chains were reset at the Arkansas 25-yard line.
There were 35 seconds left when Thornton was tackled. There were just 17 seconds left after Iamaleava threw incomplete to Miles Kitselman on the following snap.
Heupel was asked during his weekly press conference if he regretted not using a timeout after the big play.
“In hindsight, yep, for sure,” Heupel said. “As I recognized that, we weren’t immediately ready. Thought about going to timeout then I thought we were ready to get the ball off in the next couple seconds … so yeah, absolutely.”
Game ended on Nico Iamaleava’s scramble out of bounds
On second-and-10 at the 25, after the incompletion to Kitselman, Dylan Sampson ran for five yards after catching a snap that Iamaleava bobbled.
Tennessee took a timeout with 13 seconds left, after the Sampson run up the middle, and another timeout with six seconds left, after Iamaleava threw incomplete over the middle to Chas Nimrod.
The game ended when Iamaleava was flushed out of the pocket and forced out of bounds on fourth-and-5 at the 20.
Arkansas scored the go-ahead touchdown with 1:17 left, when backup quarterback Malachi Singleton ran in from 11 yards out.
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Heupel said Saturday night that Tennessee’s defense allowed Arkansas to score the touchdown so the Vols could get the ball back and have a chance to answer.
Up Next: No. 8 Tennessee vs. Florida, Saturday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN
Heupel on Monday stressed the importance of learning from the mistakes made Saturday night and moving on quickly.
No. 8 Tennessee (4-1, 1-1 SEC) hosts Florida (3-2, 1-1) on Saturday night (7 Eastern Time, ESPN) at Neyland Stadium.
“Whether you win or lose,” Heupel said, “it’s important by the time you go out on the (practice) field with the guys that you flush it, you move on. And as competitors you’re only as good as your next one.
“Everybody in the building is disappointed with the outcome on Saturday night. You can’t do anything about that at this point other than take the lessons and push forward and continue to grow as a football team … no matter what happened the previous week, you got to move on.”
