KNOXVILLE - It might be considered fitting that heavy rain will be in the forecast when Tennessee hosts Arkansas tonight.
The September sadness both football teams experienced from five combined losses put a damper on what was supposed to be a clash of two of the Southeastern Conference's up-and-coming programs.
Instead this has become a desperation game, a crossroads early in the season for the Volunteers (2-2, 0-1) and Razorbacks (1-3, 0-1) ahead of a tough October slate.
"They're basically in the same situation as we are," Tennessee coach Butch Jones said. "They've had some gut-wrenching losses where they could've won the football game. It's a play here, it's a play there.
"I consider every game a must-win. When you're in this conference and you're competing, every game is a must-win. That's the approach that we take."
Both the Vols and Hogs approached 2015 with higher hopes and elevated expectations after strong finishes to last season. Arkansas snapped a 17-game SEC losing streak by shutting out LSU and followed that with wins against Ole Miss and Texas. Tennessee rallied to knock off South Carolina and beat Iowa for the program's first bowl win in seven years.
Both Arkansas and Tennessee began the season ranked.
Their time in the polls lasted two weeks. Tennessee coughed up a 14-point lead at home and lost in double overtime to Oklahoma. Arkansas, for whatever reason, elected to threw 53 passes in a 16-12 loss to Toledo.
The Razorbacks followed the loss to the Rockets by falling at home to Texas Tech. Shortly after the Vols blew a 13-point lead in the final 10 minutes and lost at Florida last Saturday, Arkansas let a late 21-13 lead against Texas A&M slip in an eventual overtime loss.
"Butch is probably going through a lot of the same things we are," Arkansas coach Bret Bielema said. "We both need a win."
The problem for both teams has been winning close games. In the tenures of their third-year coaches, Tennessee is 2-5 in games decided by four or fewer points and Arkansas has lost all nine of its games decided by one score.
"I wouldn't say it shakes our confidence," Vols left tackle Kyler Kerbyson said. "It was definitely a letdown this week and against Oklahoma that we lost it at the end, but it just makes you work harder, because you never want that to happen again. You never want to feel that feeling again, so it really makes you work harder and say, 'I'm not going to let that happen again.'
"I've been in some tight games since I've been here, and it really is a hard feeling. You don't want to lose the game like that. You don't want to have it just slip right out of your hands."
Losing to Florida made for a tumultuous week in Knoxville. Jones has been second-guessed and criticized for his coaching decisions. Things probably haven't been much different in Fayetteville for Bielema.
"I don't really hear much of the noise outside of the program," Tennessee cornerback Cameron Sutton. "We're going to be at home this weekend (with) another opportunity to show who we are as a football team. We know our fan base is going to be there to support us through thick and thin.
"We're still going to come with the same mentality and same approach: Prepare well and be ready to go Saturday, control the things we can control throughout the course of the game and hopefully come out with a win."
Tennessee quickly moved on to Arkansas on Monday while fans and media rehashed and revisited what went wrong in Gainesville.
"I know we're going to bounce back," safety Brian Randolph said. "Everyone loves to play football. Everyone's hungry just to get out there and get a win and try to forget last week. I think we're going to have a good response.
"We've just got to recognize that it's all about us. No one knows what we go through. No one knows the hard work that we put in. We can't get down on ourselves and we can't let other people make us get down. We've got to keep the spirits up in the locker room and just keep on working."
Tennessee, thanks to a friendlier situation in the SEC East standings, may have more at stake tonight than Arkansas.
With a win and victories by Alabama at Georgia and Ole Miss at Florida, the Vols could find themselves right back in the divisional race with Georgia coming to Knoxville next week.
Tonight, in a game with two desperate teams that have struggled in crunch time, anything could happen.
"The season's not over," Kerbyson said. "We only have one SEC loss, so there's still a chance for us to be able to get to Atlanta and get into a really good bowl game. That's what we're working toward."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.