Josh Heupel rightfully put Faizon Brandon and Tennessee's OL on blast after Texas loss

Unfortunately, this loss is going to hurt for a little while. No. 14 Tennessee (for now) had a golden opportunity to take down No. 1 Texas in Week 4, but a heartbreaking 20-17 loss was posted. While Jim Knowles had his defense ready to rock in this one, the offense looked sluggish from start to finish, which head man Josh Heupel clearly was not happy about.

In his postgame presser, Heupel started things off by showing the fanbase love for making the environment in Knoxville so special, but he then quickly shifted gears and put some of his players on blast. More specifically, he called out Faizon Brandon and the offensive line a bit, but no one should be mad at him for that.

"Loved the effort and how we played defensively, and a lot of our special teams," Heupel said. "Offensively, just not anywhere close to being good enough to beat a team like this. Everybody will have a hand in it when we go back Monday with the tape with the guys, but up front (offensive line), not good enough. The quarterback (Brandon), not good enough. Everybody's got a hand in it, and ultimately we've got to be better."

Josh Heupel had every right to call out his Tennessee players following the loss to Texas

Normally, some people might be a bit upset with Heupel calling out his guys like this, but what we saw against Texas on offense is not going to cut it with SEC play here. With the offensive line in particular, it's time to have a serious conversation about position coach Glen Elarbee.

It's totally understandable to have some struggles against a pass-rushing unit that features Colin Simmons, but to give up five sacks alone to the future first-round pick is inexcusable. No, sorry, it's enough to have people pull their hair out. On the afternoon, the Longhorns posted 10 sacks, which is the second most they've posted in a single game in program history.

Steve Sarkisian should probably send Elarbee some cigars and a nice bottle of wine to thank him for not having the Texas offensive line ready for war. This was a major wake-up call that Tennessee's offensive line simply was not ready for SEC play, and that begins with what Elarbee is doing, or not doing, in practices.

Meanwhile, with Brandon, it's certainly tough to be upset at an 18-year-old kid who just played in his first conference game - against the No. 1 team in the nation. Regardless, he simply did not live up to the 5-star hype, missing multiple throws and not seeing some easy routes that were right in front of him for chunk gains.

On the day, the freshman completed only 17 passes for 145 yards and a touchdown, which was never going to be enough to shock the Longhorns. With that said, maybe if the offensive line gave him enough time to scan the field, maybe we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. Brandon would likely be the first to admit his play wasn't good enough either, as the youngster has a lot to clean up before facing Auburn on the road in Week 5. The same can most certainly be said about the offensive line as well.

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