Josh Heupel proud of how Tennessee handled ‘uncertainty’ in Arkansas game
By Mark Kern
Published:
Josh Heupel and the Tennessee Volunteers got a 34-31 victory against Arkansas, but it wasn’t without some adversity.
The Volunteers took a commanding 34-17 lead early in the fourth quarter, but the Razorbacks were able to get back in the game with two impressive scoring drives. However, Tennessee was able to eventually run the time out by getting a late first down.
Heupel knew it would be a good challenge for the Volunteers, as there was a lot of uncertainty with Arkansas after firing Sam Pittman last week and making Bobby Petrino the interim coach.
“A lot of unknowns offensively coming into it,” Josh Heupel said. “Different defensive structures came up during the game. They handled it in a good way. We weren’t clean throughout the course of the game. Defensively, second half we played really well until the end. We just got figure out how to put it all together for 60 minutes and we have a chance to be a really good team.”
The Razorbacks have been competitive in every game except their loss to Notre Dame. Of their four losses, three of them are by six points or less. Combine that with the fact that Heupel and his staff couldn’t have known exactly what Arkansas would do with the staff changes, and this had the makings of a ‘trap game’.
For Heupel and his team, the team will need to fix those correctable things fast, as they travel to Tuscaloosa in a rematch of last season’s thrilling 24-17 victory by the Volunteers.
