Remember when the Josh Heupel era took off at Tennessee, and the Volunteers quickly became recognized as college football’s fastest-starting team?
This season’s Vols have flipped that script and are now resembling a second-half force. That was never more evident than in Saturday night’s 34-6 trampling of Kentucky in Neyland Stadium, when the Vols outscored the Wildcats 24-0 in the third and fourth quarters.
In its four Southeastern Conference home contests so far, Tennessee is outscoring foes 73-17 in the second half, and that includes a 59-7 margin the past three games against Auburn, Alabama and Kentucky.
“It’s a combination of a lot of things,” Heupel said after Tennessee improved to 7-2 overall and 4-2 in SEC play. “There were some subtle adjustments and a couple of things that we added for the second half. Then there was better execution, whether that was in the box or with the running backs seeing it and getting to the right spot.
“It’s a game of small margins. When it’s going well, it looks easy, and when it’s not, it’s usually not something extravagant. It’s everybody settling in and doing their job.”