Tennessee will not be able to fix the second half of its spiraling football season if the Volunteers can’t fix the second half of games.
After its lone open date, Tennessee traveled to Arkansas as a slight favorite for Saturday night’s game. The Vols looked the part in building a 13-0 halftime lead, but that advantage was abruptly wiped out by a 24-0 Razorbacks surge during the third quarter in an eventual 24-13 defeat.
It was the fourth consecutive loss for the Vols, who have been outscored 61-7 during the third quarter of these setbacks.
“We need to come out (in the second half) with more fire,” Tennessee sophomore linebacker Henry To’o To’o said late Saturday night on a Zoom call. “You’ve got to be able to sustain it for four quarters. Football is not a half, and football is not three quarters. It’s four quarters and 60 minutes, so we’ve got to be able to sustain for all 60 minutes – play football like we did in the first half and carry it on for the entire game.”
Tennessee’s third-quarter troubles began at Georgia on Oct. 10, when the Bulldogs erased a 21-17 halftime deficit and wound up demolishing the Vols 44-21. A disastrous first half against Kentucky was not a total loss when Tennessee pulled within 17-7 just before the break, but a 10-0 third quarter by the Wildcats enabled them to race away with a 34-7 surprise rout.