Josh Heupel had every right to call out players for undisciplined play at South Carolina

You just had a feeling this was coming. Tennessee suffered an absolutely inexcusable loss to South Carolina in Week 8, falling to 6-2 on the season. To say the College Football Playoff dreams are on the respirator would be an understatement. Josh Heupel understandably is not happy right now. As a matter of fact, he is quite displeased with his Tennessee players.

While meeting with the media, Heupel did not hesitate in calling his guys out a bit. No, he did not throw anyone under the bus or anything, but he was pretty dang ticked off with the 12 penalties that were posted. It was undisciplined football, which just cannot happen when you are playing in a road SEC contest.

"Everybody's gotta take ownership of a lineman assignment, and it starts there," a displeased Heupel said after the final whistle. "Technique, a holding call out in the perimeter at the end. We knew that this crew called it tight out on the perimeter, too. It's on everybody to take ownership of it."

Tennessee blew a golden opportunity against South Carolina in the deflating loss

Can anyone blame Heupel for having that kind of a reaction? People can complain about the officials all they want to, but 12 penalties for 90 yards is always going to come back to bite you in the rear. It is exactly what happened in Columbia, with three touchdowns getting wiped off the board as well.

George MacIntyre ended up completing 16-of-23 pass attempts for 136 yards, but he had no touchdowns to his name. A perfect throw to Mike Matthews for a long score was negated due to a flag, while another score to Braylon Staley that was right on the money was taken off too, that time because of holding on David Sanders Jr.

Late in the action on 4th-and-1, the Vols went for it, but G-Mac messed up the call, and South Carolina got the ball back. Soon after that, LaNorris Sellers recorded some heroics to tie things up. Heupel confirmed that MacIntyre mixed up the play call on that particular turnover on downs.

It is those kinds of small mistakes that eventually help a team that is hanging around come out on top. There are not enough words to describe how disappointing of a loss this is for Tennessee. With a win, the Vols would have increased their chances of making the CFP, while also being a Top 10 team for the new AP Poll coming out on Sunday.

Instead, everyone is down in the dumps on the way back to Knoxville. Tennessee is now on a BYE before a huge showdown at Neyland Stadium against Kentucky. It will be a must-win game for this group, but if the sloppy play does not improve, Will Stein will make Heupel pay in the exact same way that Shane Beamer just did.

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