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Tennessee football: Coaching, effort not to blame in Vols loss to LSU

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 18: Head coach Ed Orgeron of the LSU Tigers shakes hands with interim head coach Brady Hoke of the Tennessee Volunteers after the game at Neyland Stadium on November 18, 2017 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 18: Head coach Ed Orgeron of the LSU Tigers shakes hands with interim head coach Brady Hoke of the Tennessee Volunteers after the game at Neyland Stadium on November 18, 2017 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /
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Tennessee football’s 30-10 loss to the LSU Tigers was another embarrassment. But the coaching and effort on the Volunteers can’t be blamed.

It’s been a miserable season for Tennessee football. On Saturday, the Vols lost their seventh SEC game of the year to fall to 0-7 and assure they wouldn’t make a bowl game. Combining that with the decision to fire Butch Jones before the season ended, and by every metric this year has been horrendous.

But on Saturday night, as they suffered a blowout loss at home, nobody could really blame the coaching or effort.

Amidst everything that happened, the players showed up and displayed a ton of excitement at kickoff. Even the fans made their way to the stadium to cheer on their team in a lost season.

Everybody was pumped and ready to go. And the defense set the tone with a tough effort to open things up.

Meanwhile, the new head coach, Brady Hoke, showed lots of guts, going for it on a fourth and one early in the first and second halves and trying to trick passes.

All of this kept Tennessee football in the game early, and they were only down 17-10 at halftime. If not for two fumbled punts by Marquez Callaway, the Vols would have gone into halftime up 10-3.

In fact, 17 of LSU’s points came only after the Vols spotted them the ball in the red zone. Another touchdown came after a failed fourth-and-one attempt by Jarrett Guarantano in the second half. But again, you can’t blame Hoke for that.

By the way, those fumbled punts in the first halfweren’t for lack of focus. Callaway was dealing with serious wind that he wasn’t used to dealing with. It was not okay, and they are mistakes you can’t make, but it wasn’t due to lack of focus or effort.

Sure, the second half was a disaster. But the mistakes in the first half set the tone for that, and Guarantano fought to get the Vols into LSU territory a few times in the second half.

Remember, Tennessee is playing with a makeshift offensive line decimated by injuries, so it’s hard to expect too much out of their offense against this LSU defense. That’s the reason that fourth down attempt failed in the second half.

Meanwhile, the Vols’ defense did everything it could to win, only legitimately allowing 13 points on the night. Tennessee actually out-gained LSU on the ground and held the ball longer.

But the loss came down to those three plays: a failed sneak and two fumbled punts. None of those were due to lack of focus or poor effort. So despite a bad loss, fans should give the team credit for not quitting on the season.

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