Tennessee fans were excited for the start of the Josh Heupel era on Rocky Top on Thursday night against Bowling Green.

Bowling Green was one of the worst teams on both offense and defense in the entire country in 2020, so fans were expecting the offense to light up the scoreboard. However, that didn’t exactly happen, as the Vols needed a late deep TD pass from QB Joe Milton III to go up 38-6.

The defense was arguably the better unit for the Vols on Thursday night, as Milton was a bit inconsistent. Late in the fourth quarter, he was 11-for-23 for 140 yards and 1 touchdown. But, before the aforementioned long pass to Cedric Tillman, Milton only had 100 passing yards and 0 touchdowns.

That led to many fans wondering the same thing — why not give backups Hendon Hooker and Harrison Bailey some playing time?

(Note: Hooker came into the game with 2:33 left, but the Vols were in clock-killing mode by that point. And, late in the drive, he fumbled the ball.)

https://twitter.com/CentrismIsCool/status/1433613077568753667

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Milton added great value as a rusher, running for 44 yards and 2 scores. But, with the game in hand in the fourth quarter, it was a bit strange to not give Hooker and Bailey some reps.

The important thing is that the Vols are 1-0 and, even if they didn’t cover the 37-point spread, they did some good things on both sides of the ball. We’ll see how they fare in Week 2 against Pitt.