Tennessee football: Why Vols’ chippiness with Akron was ironic

Despite winning 63-6, Tennessee football didn’t escape unscathed against the Akron Zips. The Vols were locked in a chippy performance all night, one that saw Jabari Small, Cedric Tillman and Tyler Baron all go down in the first half. Tillman didn’t hold back his feelings Sunday on Twitter.

To be fair, Vol Twitter was accusing Akron of playing dirty throughout the game, just as Tillman did the next day. The thought was that they kept hitting low on purpose, and there’s some validity to it as well if you look at this tackle on Hendon Hooker during the option play touchdown run by Dylan Sampson in the first half.

Josh Heupel referred to the game as one of the “chippiest” that he has. been a part of since joining the Vols a year ago, and that’s saying something. Of course, this all culminated with Jimmy Calloway lashing out in the second half and throwing multiple punches.

The cruel irony of all this for Tennessee football is why the Vols decided to play Akron in the first place. Remember, the Army Black Knights were their initial foe, but with that game stuck between the Pittsburgh Panthers and the SEC opener against the Florida Gators, the Vols rightly made the decision to get rid of it.

Rocky Top nixed that game and replaced Army with Akron because of Army’s system. As typical of the service academies, they run a very disciplined triple-option offense, one extremely hard to prepare for, particularly when it’s between two other huge games.

Also, those offenses make defenses who haven’t prepared for them prone to injury. All you have to do is go back to 2006 to see that. The Vols beat the top 10 Cal Golden Bears 35-18 to open the season. They had Florida in Week 3.

Between those two games, though, they had a home matchup with the Air Force Falcons. Tennessee football squeaked by, but not without cost, as star defensive tackle Justin Harrell suffered a season-ending injury in that game, and star cornerback Inky Johnson suffered a career-ending injury that permanently damaged his right arm.

Well, the Vols replaced Army with a team that may not run an offense making them more vulnerable to injury but certainly appeared to play defensively in a way that made them more vulnerable. How bad the injuries to Tillman and Small are remain unclear, but this could be a game that proved costly.

If either is hurt for Florida, Tennessee football will be in trouble. That would mean what they tried to avoid with Army came true with the opponent they replaced Army with. Whether that’s because of how Akron played or just bad luck is up for debate.