Tennessee joins the debate of which teams "deserve" to be in the College Football Playoff after laying an egg in its CFP debut. The 42-17 loss resulted from the Vols' inability to execute in every phase, level, and virtually every drive of the game.
After being called for a facemask penalty after stopping Ohio State on its opening drive, the Buckeyes were on offense, defense, and special teams. Tennessee fans showed up to Ohio Stadium in full force, but the team did not come through in The Shoe on Saturday night.
Nico Iamaleava did show up after a slow first quarter. He took some hits and scrambled while navigating a collapsing pocket all night. It's not the outcome that he or the fans were hoping for, but he has clearly shown improvement throughout the season, and he will be the guy for the next couple of years on Rocky Top.
Tennessee also had to lean on some guys that they haven't previously relied on to provide a lot of production this season. Dylan Sampson went down with a hamstring injury early in the game, Squirrel White and Dont'e Thornton also went down with first-half injuries on top of several receivers also entered the portal.
These injuries and transfers put Tennessee in a spot where they had to rely on younger guys or ride their starters until they couldn't.
That proved challenging against Ohio State's defense, and the Vols' defense simply couldn't keep up with Ohio State's offense. Will Howard played one of the best games in his career, if not the best game he has ever played.
Howard lit up the Vols' secondary, and the OSU receivers, littered with five stars, could not be stopped. He threw for 311 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception, while Tennessee finished the night with 256 total yards on offense.
Despite the disappointing result, Tennessee has their guy as the head coach and at quarterback. It may not seem or feel like that is the case right now but Tennessee wasn't anywhere close to sniffing a trip to the CFP before Heupel and has been in the conversation twice in the past three seasons.
While not as explosive as some were hoping, Nico won ten games in his freshman season and had the best freshman year as a quarterback in program history with 2,616 yards, 22 touchdowns, and five interceptions, including two rushing touchdowns against Ohio State.
With the season-ending loss, Josh Heupel will have to head into the offseason and evaluate where Tennessee went wrong throughout the game and the season to prepare to improve for the 2025 season.