What is there to say after that loss for Tennessee football against Georgia? The Vols had this one in the bag. Up 38-30, Georgia tied things up in remarkable fashion, with a 4th-down TD from Gunner Stockton to London Humphreys and the two-point conversion being successful.
Not to worry, as Tennessee got the ball back with more than two minutes to go and Joey Aguilar quickly drove the Vols down the field. However, head man Josh Heupel, who we love, was extra conservative with his play-calling.
Regardless, it looked like Max Gilbert was going to line up for a kick that he's probably made with his eyes closed in practice. Then, disaster arrived. Offensive lineman Shamurad Umarov was called for a false start, pushing Tennessee back five yards to the 25. It also moved the ball to the left hash and Heupel didn't run another play to get the ball back in the middle of the field. Gilbert pushed his kick and Tennessee lost in OT.
Tennessee football fall short again in 44-41 heartbreaker against Georgia
tennessee was going to run a play to get the ball in the middle for the field goal, got a false start and then just didn’t run the play and made him kick from near the left hash…
— Tej Seth (@tejfbanalytics) September 13, 2025
Josh Heupel was too conservative with the game on the line for Tennessee football
Again, we love Heupel and he put his team in a strong position to win this game. However, the way things ended in regulation was something you might see during amateur hour at a comedy club. It was just brutal to watch and mental mistakes like that should never happen when you're on the verge of beating an SEC rival. That's on the head coach.
This particular sequence is going to haunt Tennessee fans for the rest of the year. It was there for the taking. Georgia has won nine straight games over Tennessee and Heupel is now 0-5 going up against the Dawgs. What if the false start was never posted?
What if on 3rd-and-10, Heupel ran another run play and got the ball back into a better spot for Gilbert to make the walk-off kick? These are questions that countless people are going to be up late at night thinking about. Kudos to Georgia for making plays when needed, but this feels like a contest that Tennessee choked away.