Tennessee football: Poor officiating doesn’t overshadow Vols mistakes at Alabama

SEC referees looked horrible in Tennessee football’s 35-13 loss at the Alabama Crimson Tide. But the officiating didn’t overshadow the Volunteers’ mistakes.

It is more than fair for Tennessee football fans to criticize the officials in the Vols’ loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa Saturday night. After all, even national media members like Joel Klatt and Dan Wolken were critical. Klatt literally called for the ejection of the officials for making a specific call.

But the fact of the matter is that can’t overshadow the mistakes that were made by this team. And we have to call those out as well, as the mistakes had as much to do with them not being able to hand into the fourth quarter as anything.

Let’s just go back to the second drive. Jauan Jennings dropped a perfect pass from Brian Maurer to him, and it bounced off of his hands only to be intercepted. Now, it didn’t make a difference in the long run, as Nigel Warrior intercepted a pass on the subsequent drive and returned it 59 yards to set up Tennessee football’s first touchdown drive.

More mistakes came, though. On the wildcat play that drew the inadvertent whistle from the officials when UT was down 14-7, which everybody rightly criticized, we can’t ignore what happened after that. The Vols still had a 1st and goal from the five-yard line. But Darnell Wright committed a false start, and he then committed a holding penalty.

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So yes, the whistle on the wildcat play was bad. But if UT’s entire ability to score on Alabama’s defense on first down from the five-yard line was dependent on a successful wildcat formation to trick them, then they have even bigger problems. Wright’s two penalties were a larger reason for them having to settle for a field goal on that drive than the whistle.

Then there’s the big mistake later in the game. Tennessee football moved inside the five-yard line again, down 28-13 with a chance to cut it to one score in the fourth quarter. Jim Chaney called three predictable running plays to get down to the one-yard line.

On 4th and goal, Jarrett Guarantano fumbled the ball in an attempt to go over the line on a quarterback sneak. Earlier in the game, Brian Maurer scored a touchdown going low and to his left on a sneak. Guarantano’s fumble was recovered by Trevon Diggs and returned 100 yards for a touchdown. So 28-20 became 35-13.

Sorry, but the officials didn’t force Chaney to call three straight predictable running plays. And they weren’t responsible for Guarantano’s fumble that was returned for a touchdown. That falls squarely on the men in orange.

If you take away the penalties by Wright, and if the Vols score right there with a properly executed play, they are only down 28-24 late in the fourth instead of 35-13. And the fact of the matter is the officials had almost nothing to do with that swing.

As a result, for as bad as the officiating was, Tennessee football made key mistakes that were worse. And that’s been an issue for this young team for a while. So Jeremy Pruitt and his staff need to focus on correcting those issues. Such mistakes are why they’re 2-5 and not 4-3 or potentially even better. These issues are improving, but they precede officiating problems.