Following Florida’s 38-14 win over Tennessee on Saturday, Gators coach Dan Mullen gave the Vols’ first-year head coach Josh Heupel a polite, yet meaningless pat on the back for his team’s effort in defeat.

“That was a different-looking team than I saw last year, to be honest with you,” Mullen said. “How they played, the intensity, the toughness, the physicalness they played with, you know, I give them some credit. I think they’re a much-improved football team.”

[Cue the famous Jennifer Lawrence smirking ‘Ok’ GIF]

Less than 48 hours later, Mullen essentially rendered his comments moot when he admitted the Gators sat several key players against Tennessee, including playmaking quarterback Anthony Richardson and star defensive back Kaiir Elam, because they’d need them more to beat Kentucky this weekend.

Mullen has let out a lot of hot air for several seasons now, and Saturday night was merely the latest burp. Just a couple of years ago, UF’s coach complemented another first-year Vols head coach after badly beating Tennessee and Jeremy Pruitt in his first showdown against UF.

So, it’s fine to ignore whatever shade Mullen might’ve tossed Heupel’s way. It’s not important, anyways. What’s actually relevant right now is that Year 1 for Heupel, like Pruitt, has thus far started off badly.

Differently, but still bad.

Tennessee has some talent on the roster, and Heupel and his new staff have proven capable of designing some schemes that challenge opponents. Yet through 4 games, the chain in the link between those two truths has been broken way too often — mostly due to self-inflicted miscues and lots of foot-shooting.

This team is simply undisciplined in too many facets of the game.

Let’s get this out of the way first: The Vols’ quarterback quandary isn’t going away. Hendon Hooker looks like the best option of the bunch, but that’s not saying a whole lot. Hooker is also banged up right now, so Joe Milton could resume his QB1 responsibilities this weekend in a tossup matchup at Missouri.

But with winnable games against the Tigers and South Carolina Gamecocks upcoming the next 2 weekends, Tennessee must find a way to eliminate all its missed opportunities and costly mistakes that have derailed them throughout the first 4 weeks, particularly against Pitt and UF.

On Saturday, the Vols were up 14-10 over the Gators only to see the lead slip away due to poor play. Then on their opening possession of the 3rd quarter, they marched it down the field and faced a 4th-and-5 from UF’s 30-yard line. Rather than kick a long field goal, Heupel reached into his bag and dialed up a touchdown play.

It was well-designed and executed perfectly by the offensive line and Hooker. Wideout Jimmy Calloway streaked wide open on a shallow crossing route with only green grass in front of him. But the ball was dropped before the sophomore could think about walking into the end zone. Just 8 plays later, UT was down 17 — instead of 3 — following a Gators scoring drive.

The aforementioned example has been the most consistent theme surrounding Tennessee’s team all season: Self-inflicted mistakes at the most inopportune times.

Perhaps Mullen is right and the Vols are playing with more intensity and effort compared to the final days of Pruitt, but they’re inarguably a more undisciplined and sloppy team at the start of Heupel’s tenure.

To whit: The Vols committed 10 more penalties Saturday night. On the season, they rank No. 112 nationally in flags per game (nearly 8) and No. 119 in penalty yardage each week.

— The worst flag of Saturday evening? Tennessee took a delay of game penalty on 4th-and-2 because the offense wasn’t ready, forcing a punt rather than a potential conversion. That’s inexcusable.

— The Vols have 15 drops this season, per SEC Statcast, including 5 against UF.

— Heupel has had several issues with clock management this season, including the end of the 1st half at UF. The Vols went into halftime with a timeout in their pocket after rushing an incomplete pass rather than stopping the clock, ultimately having to settle for a 47-yard field goal that was missed.

— There’s also been a flurry of bad snaps and way too many missed tackles in the secondary — both of which were readily present in the loss to UF.

These are all self-included issues that can — and must be — corrected if the Vols want any hope of going bowling in 2021. This team is already operating within an extremely thin margin of error, and a lack of discipline proved to be the difference in a narrow defeat vs. Pitt and a potential scare of a Top 10 team.

So can the the Vols eliminate enough misuses to beat the Tigers and Gamecocks the next two weekends?

They’ll need to.