It's over. Any hope of Tennessee football getting back to the College Football Playoff for the second straight season appears to have come to an end, as the No. 18 Oklahoma Sooners went into Knoxville and stunned the Vols with a 33-27 win.
SEC refs completely missed offsides on Oklahoma on wild TD vs Tennessee
Tennessee was far from its best in this one, which was shocking to see. There's going to be a lot of second-guessing from this loss and this includes some calls from head man Josh Heupel. One that has Tennessee fans scratching their heads came in a GIGANTIC situation.
The Vols were down 26-17 in the fourth quarter, facing 4th-and-1 and Heupel drew up a play to get the ball to... freshman tight end Jack Van Dorselaer? That's exactly what the call was and it was brutal from the start. Even Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit couldn't believe the decision:
Why on earth was that the call? Heupel got way too cute there with the game on the line
— All For Tennessee (@allfortennessee) November 2, 2025
"Funky formation throwing the ball to a guy who has barely been involved all season" Chris Fowler
Tennessee football had a night to forget against Oklahoma
Again, this was the call? Fowler was quick to call Heupel out by calling it a 'funky formation' and pointing out that the 6-5 tight end only had two grabs on the year. Herbie followed suit in questioning Heupel, making it clear he couldn't believe Heupel put the youngster in such a crucial spot.
Van Dorselaer didn't even have his head turned around in time to catch a ball from Aguilar that was right on the money. Had he come down with the ball, who knows what would have happened late in the action against Oklahoma. Now, we're all in 'what if' mode.
Tennessee got the ball back not long after following an interception by John Mateer, and Aguilar hit Mike Matthews for a TD with 1:56 on the clock to cut the deficit to two points. Unfortunately, there was no late miracle and OU made the needed plays late.
This loss is going to sting for a long time and while the missed 4th-down play wasn't the only reason Tennessee didn't come out on top, it was most definitely a sequence that Heupel is going to want back. It made no sense for this to be his best option to get a yard and it's going to be a major talking point in the season-changing loss to OU.