Tennessee finished off the 2021 season with a disappointing 48-45 overtime loss to Purdue in the Music City Bowl. We review the loss with The Day After.

HOT

Cedric Tillman — Tillman finished off an incredible season with a 7 catch, 150 yard, 3 touchdown performance. Tillman set a school bowl record for touchdown catches, a school record for consecutive games with a touchdown catch and he finished the year with 1081 yards.

Jeremy Banks — Banks tied a school bowl record with 20 tackles. He also had 2.5 tackles for loss including a sack, and 2 PBU’s. Banks did drop an interception. He finished the year with 128 tackles and he led the team in TFL’s.

NOT

The secondary — Warren Burrell obviously struggled and was picked on repeatedly. But so were the Vol safeties and D’Shawn Rucker. Tennessee greatly missed Alontae Taylor as they gave up 534 yards through the air and 5 touchdown passes. They did record two interceptions, but it was a rough night for the secondary.

End of regulation and overtime play calling — With :44 seconds left to play in regulation, Tennessee had the ball at their own 40 yard line with 3 times outs and they ran the ball on the first two plays of he down. Costing them several seconds. Then with the ball at the Purdue 42 yard line and 3 time outs and needing 10-15 yards to get into real field goal range, Tennessee threw two take off routes down the sideline and never looked at the middle of the field. Now in fairness to Heupel, Velus Jones was open but was the ball was over thrown and Cedric Tillman was held. Still it was an odd sequence of plays.

In overtime with 1st and goal at the 2 yard line, Tennessee tried to throw the ball and Hooker was sacked for an 8 yard loss setting up 2nd and goal at the ten.

4th and short — Tennessee’s offense was 0-2 in converting 4th and one. One of the offense’s focal points this off-season has to be improving in short yardage situations offensively.

Officiating — The Vols did plenty to got themselves the game, but they didn’t get any help from the ACC officiating crew. It was the same crew that butchered the Miami-Duke game several years ago where Miami lateraled the ball on the kickoff return for the win but clearly was down. That crew had a tough night in Nashville as they were inconsistent in several areas.

No call on Cedric Tillman — Looking to get into field goal range and win the game, Cedric Tillman was clearly grabbed on 3rd and 3. The penalty would have put the Vols in better field goal range, as well as given them another snap to get into better range. I didn’t think Heupel managed the start of the series very well, but the obvious no call on the Tillman grab is hard to over look.

Quick whistle in over time — Jaylen Wright wasn’t down but the officials ruled his forward progress had stopped on fourth down in overtime meaning Tennessee came up empty on their possession leaving Purdue to only need a field goal to win the game. In slow motion it looks you could make the case his progress was stopped. At real time speed it’s hard to say. The issue is there’s real inconsistency with that rule and it has bit Tennessee badly twice this year. The other head scratcher in that set of downs as the decision to throw it on 1st and goal at the 2. Hooker was sacked for an 8 yard loss.

Failed 4th and 1 to start the 4th quarter — With game tied at 31, Tennessee faced 4th and 1 at the Purdue 24. Heupel option not to kicked the field goal and the offense was stuffed on a Hooker run and the scored tied at 31.

Strip of Hooker in the second quarter — The DNA of Josh Heupel is clear. He’s aggressive. Heupel called timeouts while Purdue was in the redzone to save time to steal points at the end of he half. It worked brilliantly against Kentucky. It didn’t against the Boilermakers as Hooker was stripped as he was trying to throw and Purdue recovered the fumble in Tennessee territory that they turned a touchdown and a half time lead.

11— Number of pass plays of over 20 yards given up by the Vol defense. Coming into the bowl game, the Vols had given up 41 in 12 games in the regular season. Purdue averaged 20.5 yards a completion. An ugly afternoon for the Vol secondary.

0 points - 60 yards — Tennessee’s offensive production in the second quarter. The Vol offense has had second quarter woes most of the second converting just over 25% of their third downs and getting out scored. Thursday’s second quarter was the worst of he year for the Vols.

504— Number of points scored by the offense in 2021. A school record. Tennessee scored 190 points in the first quarter this year. The Vols averaged 6.5 yards per play this season.

128 — Penalty yards for the Vols in the loss as they were flagged 14 times. In the Vols 7 wins they were flagged 28 times. In their 6 losses, they were flagged 61 times.

Quarterback Hendon Hooker called his game average and I would agree. He missed some shot throws and wasn’t as accurate as he has been. He still was the Vols best offensive player making third and fourth down conversions with his feet and he threw for 378 yards and 5 touchdowns taking him over 30 for the year.

How much can this program grow in year two? How may guys can make a jump like Theo Jackson and Cedric Tillman?

This program made huge strides in year one. But frankly getting guys to have fun and play hard aren’t easy but they can create big jumps. The challenge now is to make strides to go from being bowl eligible and a feel good story to having a chance to catch those in front of you.