Everything Josh Heupel and Nico Iamaleava said after Tennessee's loss to Arkansas

Tennessee football endured a crushing loss to the hands of Arkansas on Saturday night, losing 19-14 in a game where the offense was incapable of moving the football during most of the game. 

The Vols scored two touchdowns in the third quarter to start the second half, and it looked like they were about to open it up in Fayetteville until a roughing the kicker penalty gave the Arkansas offense new life and led to points, taking away all of the momentum the Vols had built up to that point. 

Josh Heupel and Nico Iamaleava answered questions from the media after the game and clearly looked defeated after a disappointing night on the offensive side of the ball. 

"At the end of the day, starting with me, it wasn't good enough tonight," Heupel said to open the post-game press conference. "Between all three phases, we have to find a way to be on the right side of the scoreboard."

Heupel addressed the slow start on offense. The Vols struggled to move the football in the first half due to conservative playcalling at times and self-inflicted wounds. 

"Early, we found a way to get ourselves behind the chains," Heupel said about the first-half offense. "You look at the first three drives; something there hurt us. Men downfield, false start, whatever it may have been. You do that and put their time of possession together and all of the sudden you look at the scoreboard the way it was at the ned of the first half."

"We have to play smarter, we have to play better up front, play better with our skill players out on the perimeter, and we have to play better at quarterback," he continued, "but again, it starts with me we all have to get better."

The Vols also struggled up front for the second straight game. Against Oklahoma, the Vols were down their top two tackles, but everyone was back and healthy for Arkansas, yet the o-line didn't hold up. 

"A conglomerate of multiple things, "Heupel said about the offensive line. "Some of it me, some of it our personnel not executing. It's a combination of all of that."

Heading down on the game's final drive, Tennessee needed a touchdown to win. The Vols made it down to Arkansas' end of the field and had a chance to pull off the miracle and find the end zone a time expires until Nico runs out of bounds with zeros on the game clock. 

"At the end of the day, in that scenario, you have to get the ball up and give one of your guys the opportunity to go make the play. Nico, just like me and just like our football team, wishes we would have played better. That situation you can't keep the ball in your hands you want to give somebody the opportunity to go make the play."

Arkansas' defense seemed to have Tennessee's number. Their different looks created pressure and forced Nico to get the ball out early or face a sack, which was effective all night. 

"[Arkansas gave us] a lot of different looks. That's what we get every week. We have to do a better job of adjusting to that. They went a lot of four down and three down, and yeah, we have to do a better job adjusting."

Nico and Heupel also called out the same mistakes that restricted the offense. Penalties killed drives before they got started, and it cost Tennessee on the scoreboard and in the record book. 

"We got to play cleaner. We started too many drives off with penalties. False starts, holding calls, any big play we had, it was a penalty, so we got to do a better job of playing clean."

Nico was asked about the final play. He said that as he looked downfield, everyone was covered, so he scrambled but couldn't get the ball out when he needed to in the final seconds of the game. 

"As I rolled out, I saw Tay getting open but if throw that it would get batted down right away, so I tried to let Chris Brazzell work a little bit. He was covered at the time, as soon as I was trying to let the ball go I felt it slipping in my hand. I have to do a better job of holding onto the ball."

Heupel ended his press conference by answering what his message to his team is, which revolves around not listening to the outside noise, answering to your teammates, and continuing to get better throughout the season. 

"When moments like this happen, the outside world's gonna have a narrative for you," Heupel said. "We talk about it when it's going good, and tonight it didn't go good. You gotta look at your teammates in the eye. Those are the opinions that matter. You gotta continue to pull the rope harder. We gotta continue to grow. Good teams get better throughout the course of the year. Still have a chance to be a really good football team."