COLUMBUS, Ohio — Tennessee’s path to the College Football Playoff had been paved with cold-from-behind wins.
On Saturday night at Ohio Stadium, the Vols didn’t have another comeback effort in them.
TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM
Hindered by an uncharacteristic performance from its typically reliable defense and injuries, No. 9 Tennessee fell behind three scores in the first half against No. 8 Ohio State and didn’t have the offense to make up for it, leading to a 42-17 defeat that ended its season.
The Vols (10-3) had been plagued by slow starts through the first half of the season, more often than not able to find enough life to win.
They did it against Florida, Alabama and Vanderbilt in the triumph that clinched their first-ever playoff berth.
But that kind of start proved costly vs. the Buckeyes (11-2), who posted more than 430 yards of total offense and never came close to giving up their lead.
If there was any positive that could have been gleaned from Tennessee’s performance, it was quarterback Nico Iamaleava.
Iamaleava, at times during those stagnant starts looked very much like a freshman quarterback trying to find his footing as a now full-time starter.
In the second half of the season, though Iamaleava was more poised and the Vols’ began flourish on that side of the ball.
Tennessee didn’t flourish in many areas on Saturday. What small doses of momentum they found almost always involved Iamaleava.
He ran the ball 20 times for 47 yards, extending drive and rushing for both of the Vols’ only touchdowns.
Here is everything Iamaleava said about the performance.
On if he expected to run the ball 20 times
“I mean, 20 (carries). No, I did not expect to run that many times. Some shots that were there, and overall as a team we didn't just execute the whole game plan, so got to be better.”
On what disappointed him most about the performance
“Just started off slow. We were supposed to come in, had a great game plan to come in and fire first, and they hit us in the mouth first. We were just trying to recover that whole game. First half I thought we did a great job of that, and second half coming in I thought we could have played at a way higher level than we did.”
On what team can take away from loss
“I think just use it as motivation. We've been putting in work since January to get to this point, and it sucks to go out that way because that's not who we are. love this team. I love the team we have. Just the way tonight went was not the way we wanted it to go, and we'll use that as fuel and motivation during this off-season to really hit it.”
On what Tennessee needs to do to beat better teams on the road
“I think that all just comes to executing on the road. Like I said, our coaches gave us a great game plan, and us as players, as the team, we're the ones out there on the field playing, and we've just got to hold ourselves to a higher standard and execute at a higher level.”
On Dylan Sampson and Dont’e Thornton Jr. dealing with injuries, how it effected the game
“Shoot, at the end of the day, man, whoever is out there, whether it's a freshman or not, we've got to be able to execute the same way with those guys or not, and we didn't do a good job of that tonight.“
On the difference between running an offense at home and on the road
“I would just say there's a crowd noise that plays a factor in how we play. We can't play as fast as we want to without tempo, and that's really the biggest factor was crowd noise.”
On what personnel Tennessee can add to open up the offense
“Obviously in the off-season, me, Coach Joey, and Coach Heup are always have conversations about how we can excel this offense, and it'll be that in the off-season, too.”
On large contingent of Tennessee fans that were at Ohio Stadium
“I love it. Man, I was so happy to see all the orange in the stands. It sucks the performance we gave out for them, but I hope they get home safe, man. I really appreciate their support.”
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