KNOXVILLE — The Arkansas Razorbacks have endured second-half struggles for nearly a month.
Tennessee added to them Saturday inside Neyland Stadium.
After the two teams played to a 17-17 halftime tie, the No. 12 Volunteers scored the first 17 points of the second half and held on for a 34-31 triumph to improve to 5-1 overall and 2-1 in Southeastern Conference play. The Razorbacks (2-4, 0-2) have lost four consecutive games after feasting on Alabama A&M and Arkansas State to open the season, and they have been outscored 56-24 in the second half of their past four contests.
The outcome was more of the same for Arkansas despite the Sept. 28 removal of Sam Pittman as coach and the promotion of offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino to interim coach, though the Hogs did display more fight by scoring the final 14 points. A 12-yard touchdown pass from Taylen Green to Kam Shanks made it a 34-31 game with 2:55 remaining, but quarterback Joey Aguilar helped seal the victory for the Vols with a 28-yard run to open their final possession.
“Every week, we prepare for a four-quarter fight,” Tennessee fifth-year senior tight end Miles Kitselman said. “Obviously, you want to go out there and knock them out in the first round, but we prepare for a four-quarter fight. Arkansas is a great team with great players, and all the SEC teams are good.
“This one doesn’t necessarily feel any different. A win is a win, and we’re going to celebrate that and get back to work.”
All three of Tennessee’s SEC games this season have been one-possession contests, with two going into overtime. Vols fifth-year coach Josh Heupel improved to 9-2 in one-possession outcomes since the start of the 2022 season.
“Margins are small in this league,” Heupel said. “You’re playing like talent every single week, and a play here or a play there changes the way the game is played. For us tonight, we made it tougher than it needed to be at times, and that’s not taking anything away from them.
“When it’s a 10-to-1 penalty differential, you’re changing the way the game is played, too. We’ve got to play a lot smarter.”
Redshirt sophomore running back DeSean Bishop carried 14 times for 146 yards and a touchdown to produce Tennessee’s first 100-yard rushing performance since Dylan Sampson last November at Vanderbilt. Bishop injured his right knee on a 26-yard run to the Arkansas 7 late in the third quarter and was replaced by Peyton Lewis, who scored two plays later from the 2 to give Tennessee its first double-digit lead at 27-17.
When asked about Bishop’s health afterward, Heupel said, “I don’t think it’s a long-term deal here at all.”
Two plays into the fourth quarter, Vols edge rusher Joshua Josephs stripped Green, causing a fumble that linebacker Jadon Perlotte recovered at the Arkansas 19. Lewis would carry three of the next four plays, reaching the end zone from 3 yards out to make it 34-17 with 13:15 left.
The Vols were able to gain a measure of revenge from last October’s 19-14 loss in Fayetteville, and it was Tennessee’s first win over the Razorbacks since 2007, halting a streak of four straight series setbacks.
“Offensively, I like the way we started,” Petrino said. “They made some good adjustments in the third quarter that hurt us being able to continue to run the ball. I was probably too stubborn with it because I wanted to keep them on the sideline, but then we came out and started throwing it around, and I thought we did a good job of throwing and catching.
“We got hurt with some protections and negative plays, and obviously the turnovers ended up killing us.”
Arkansas opened the game by plowing through Tennessee’s defense, amassing 75 yards in nine plays and taking a 7-0 lead on a Green 11-yard keeper. The Razorbacks compiled 70 of those yards on eight rushing plays, averaging 8.75 yards per carry.
The Vols quickly responded with a seven-play, 75-yard drive that culminated with Bishop’s 17-yard touchdown run. Bishop had four carries for 42 yards on Tennessee’s opening possession.
Vols edge rusher Jordan Ross stripped Green on the Razorbacks’ second drive and returned the fumble 10 yards to the Arkansas 49, but the Vols went three-and-out. The third Arkansas possession resulted in a 11-play, 70-yard drive that ended with Scott Starzyk’s 28-yard field goal that gave the guests a 10-7 edge after the opening quarter.
Tennessee would pull into a 10-10 deadlock, but Arkansas answered with its third lengthy drive, as Mike Washington’s 1-yard run with 4:36 before halftime capped an 11-play, 75-yard series for a 17-10 advantage. The Vols sent seven defenders when Arkansas had third-and-9 at the Tennessee 37, but Green eluded the pressure and raced 22 yards down the left sideline to the 15.
Aguilar connected with Braylon Staley for 42 yards to the Arkansas 33 on the first play from scrimmage after Washington’s score, and that ignited a five-play, 75-yard drive that ended with an 8-yard scoring pass from Aguilar to Kitselman.
“The past two weeks were kind of like going up against four different defenses because we were not sure what we were going to get,” Aguilar said. “They came out in a certain defense and tried to switch it up in the second half, and we just stayed with our preparation and executed as an offense.”
Tennessee took its first lead at 20-17 with its first possession of the second half, when the Vols drove to the Arkansas 15 before backtracking with a personal foul penalty and settling on Max Gilbert’s 50-yard field goal.
“Ultimately we found a way to win at the end,” Heupel said, “but we made it close at the end as well.”
The Vols face longtime rival Alabama (5-1, 3-0) in Tuscaloosa next Saturday night (7:30 Eastern on ABC).
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.