Michael Allen 
Nico Iamaleava looks into the camera and celebrates after his touchdown in the 2nd quarter of the 42-17 loss against Ohio State Saturday night
Tennessee’s road woes continued in the trip to Columbus Saturday night as the Buckeyes dominate the Vols 42-17 in a game that was just as lopsided as the score indicates. While this may just be one game, what does this mean for the future of the Vols team and staff as a whole?
Tennessee won against Oklahoma this year in a road game at night making it the first game (not at Vanderbilt) that Heupel has won on the road at night since taking the job at Tennessee. That game was thought to be the turning point in the Vols’ struggles on the road at night going forward. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Tennessee proceeded to lose to an average at best Arkansas team, Georgia, and now Ohio State on the road, at night, in a hostile environment. It’s no secret that it’s hard to win on the road, especially in the SEC, but to struggle the way that Tennessee has in those games leads to a question: what needs to be done to fix it? The answer could be as simple as the mindset going into it. It could also be a lot more difficult than that. That answer is up to Heupel and his staff.
Play calling has to change as well. There have been way too many instances since Alex Golesh left after the 2022 season that play calling has been very vanilla compared to the high-flying offense that was so exciting to watch in the 2021-2022 seasons. Last season seemed to be to help Joe Milton, who didn’t seem to be as comfortable with the tempo as Hendon Hooker was. This season, Nico has seemed to do very well with tempo, but we haven’t seen much tempo this season, and when we have it seems like the same few plays have been run with just a few different route concepts in each of those plays. So what is the solution to this play calling problem? Is it the actual play calling, or is it a change in the play caller himself? Does Josh Heupel need to be the only one calling plays, or does he need to hire a new Offensive Coordinator?
The offensive line is a big question mark moving into next season as well. With Cooper Mayes, Javontez Spraggins, Andrej Karic, and John Campbell Jr all moving on next season, there is a lot of need on the front line. The biggest role that needs to be filled is center. Cooper Mayes has been the anchor of this team since Josh Heupel arrived, and his been a big reason that this team has had the amount of success it has to this point. Where does Tennessee go from here? Is it William Satterwhite, or somebody out of the portal? Offensive tackle has been a big issue this season and last season for the offensive line. Lance Heard is the only returner on the line, and he had his struggles for a good portion of the season. Getting David Sanders in the recruiting cycle is big, but any freshman on the offensive line is going to have his struggles during the season. Who is going to fill those guard roles as well? Is it someone already on the roster, or will it be someone out of the transfer portal? Is the offensive linemen being developed the way that they need to be? So far under Josh Heupel there has not been a single offensive lineman that has been recruited to Tennessee that has started a game on the offensive line.
Lots of holes need to be filled on this roster. There are a lot of talented young players on this roster. The question is this: can they step in and fill the roles needed, or will this staff have to go hit the transfer portal harder than they’ve hit it since Heupel’s first season on Rocky Top. Ultimately, Tennessee making the College Football Playoff is a great thing, and should not be understated, but just making it is not enough. Tennessee has to take the next step towards winning it, or there will start to be some questions being asked about this program.
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