ESPN lays out Tennessee's possible paths to the College Football Playoff after the loss at Arkansas
Tennessee Football went to Arkansas with a 79% chance to make the 12-team College Football Playoff, according to ESPN analytics. That number dropped to 47.7% in ESPN’s Football Power Index after the 19-14 loss to the Razorbacks in Fayetteville.
The Vols (4-1, 1-1 SEC) now return home for four games over five weeks at Neyland Stadium, hosting Florida, Alabama, Kentucky and Mississippi State before going to Georgia on November 16.
“Heup said it,” Nico Iamaleava said Saturday night, referencing Tennessee coach Josh Heupel. “We’ve still got everything ahead of us, still got all our goals ahead of us.
“We’ve got to use this as fuel to get us better for the rest of the season.”
ESPN’s Heather Dinich wrote Sunday that Tennessee has a few options ahead if the Vols are going to be a playoff team in December: Win the SEC title, finish the regular season 11-1 and lose in the SEC Championship Game or split with Alabama and Georgia and finish 10-2.
“And hope that your résumé trumps other at-large contenders,” Dinich wrote. “If Tennessee can beat Bama or Georgia — and that team goes on to win the SEC — the Vols would have a huge edge over the other contenders in the debate.”
Tennessee wasn’t alone in its misery Saturday night. Four teams ranked in the top 11 of last week’s Associated Press Top 25 also lost: No. 1 Alabama lost 40-35 at Vanderbilt, No. 9 Missouri lost 41-10 at No. 25 Texas A&M, No. 10 Michigan lost 27-17 at Washington and No. 11 USC lost 24-17 at USC.
The only remaining undefeated SEC team is Texas, which comes off an open date with games against Oklahoma and Georgia and goes to Arkansas and Texas A&M in November.
“In this league,” Heupel said during his postgame press conference, “you better come to play really good football, play smart football every single Saturday. Separation in this league is really tight.
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“We got to get better. We come back in, we got to get better and get ready to roll next week. We haven’t been at home in a while. Look forward to seeing our fans. We got to go play really good football to give ourselves a chance to go win.”
Tennessee’s offense was grounded in the loss at Arkansas.
Iamaleava complete 16 of 28 passes for 156 yards, with no touchdowns and no interceptions, and the Vols were shutout in the first half with just 76 total yards.
Dylan Sampson ran 22 times for 140 yards and two touchdowns, with the two scores coming on back-to-back drives to start the second half to build a 14-3 lead.
Outside of the two touchdown drives, Tennessee punted seven times and turned the ball over on downs twice, including Iamaleava running out of bounds as time expired on fourth-and-5 from the Arkansas 20.
The Vols punted on four straight possessions before the final drive.
“Man, pretty simple,” Heupel said. “When moments like this happen, the outside world’s going to have a narrative for you. We talk about it when it’s going good, and tonight it didn’t go good. You got to look at your teammates in the eye. Those are the opinions that matter.
“You got to continue to pull the rope harder. We got to continue to grow. Good teams get better throughout the course of the year. Still have a chance to be a really good football team.”
