LOST LEADS
Prior to Saturday’s 31-24 double-overtime loss to Oklahoma, Tennessee had blown a lead of 17 or more points only twice in program history. Here are the five largest leads the Volunteers have coughed up in a game they did not win.* 21 points vs. Maryland (1984 Sun Bowl): The Vols led 21-0 at halftime before the Terrapins scored 22 straight points in the third quarter and won on Rick Badjanek’s touchdown 1-yard touchdown run with 2:28 left.* 19 points at Auburn (1990): No. 5 Tennessee led 19-0 in the second quarter and 26-9 in the fourth against No. 3 Auburn until Stan White rallied the Tigers and threw the tying touchdown pass to Greg Taylor with 1:56 left in the 26-26 tie.* 17 points vs. Oklahoma (2015): The Sooners scored two touchdowns in the final 10 minutes after sputtering on offense all game and denied the Vols a key early-season win in two overtimes.* 16 points vs. UCLA (1985): Tony Robinson and Tim McGee led unranked Tennessee to a 26-10 fourth-quarter lead against the 10th-ranked Bruins, but backup quarterback David Norrie guided UCLA back with a pair of touchdown passes and two-point conversions in the 26-all tie.* 16 points at Florida (1995): No. 8 Tennessee led 30-14 late in the second quarter after Raymond Austin returned a fumble for a touchdown, but Danny Wuerffel tossed six touchdowns passes — four to Ike Hilliard — as the No. 4 Gators turned the game into a 62-37 rout.* Patrick Brown
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Sunday rewind: Oklahoma 31, Vols 24UT fans must wait again for statement win Vols lose 17-0 lead, fall 31-24 in OT to Oklahoma Wiedmer: A finish to drive UT fans crazy with hurt Early field goal instead of 1-yard TD haunts Vols 'Lack of execution' on offense dooms Vols Vols fall in double OT thriller, 31-24
KNOXVILLE - Tennessee learned a hard lesson about the importance of closing out football games on Saturday.
The Volunteers failed to capitalize on multiple opportunities to put Oklahoma away in the second half, and the Sooners made them pay by rallying to a 31-24 double-overtime win.
The inability to close the game out only made the fashion of the season's first loss harder to swallow for Tennessee.
"They made more plays than we did at the end of the day," Tennessee wide receiver Josh Smith said after the game. "Any loss like this is going to hurt. If it doesn't, you don't have a soul. This one dug deep, but I think this could honestly be a good thing in the long run. We can learn from it. That's going to boost us for the rest of the season. We know what this feels like, and we never want to feel it again.
"All along," the sophomore added, "I thought we had it."
With a 17-0 lead with 12:14 left in the second quarter, the Volunteers looked well on their way to a marquee early-season win against one of college football's best programs over the past 15 years. The Vols ran up 157 yards of offense building that lead, but it was the yard they chose not to go after that came back to haunt them.
After Todd Kelly's first-drive interception, Tennessee elected to kick a 19-yard field goal on fourth-and-goal at the 1.
"We're looking for points," Vols coach Butch Jones said. "We knew it was going to be this type of game. Football's a game of momentum, and you create your own momentum. You don't want all-or-nothing plays at the beginning of the game, and we just felt we needed to get on the board, get some confidence and get some points."
Tennessee managed just 97 yards of offense after quarterback Josh Dobbs ran for a 4-yard touchdown and the 17-0 lead, and 71 of those yards came on the first two plays of the second half - a 51-yard Jalen Hurd run and Smith's 20-yard catch.
A facemask penalty on Smith's catch set Tennessee up at Oklahoma's 24, but Hurd lost 6 yards on the ensuing first-down play. Tight end Alex Ellis let what surely would have been a touchdown pass go through his hands on the next play. That series ended when Aaron Medley missed a 48-yard field goal.
Wide receiver Josh Malone was flagged for a first-down false start on the next drive, and two possessions later, Von Pearson slipped and lost 3 yards on first down with Tennessee inside Oklahoma's 40. A play later, Dobbs was sacked on a cornerback blitz, one of more than a dozen dialed up by the Sooners on Saturday.
On the first play after Kelly's second interception gave the Vols possession at Oklahoma's 29, Hurd fumbled. Though he hustled to recover it, the 12-yard loss knocked Tennessee out of field-goal range.
"Guys definitely got frustrated," left tackle Kyler Kerbyson said. "You can't help but be frustrated. But the thing about it is you have to snap and clear, which is what we talk about, and not let the last drive affect the next one."
Tennessee's defense also failed to make some key plays.
On Oklahoma's second-quarter field-goal drive, linebacker Colton Jumper let Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield shake free from a certain sack, and Derek Barnett jumped offside on third down a couple of plays later with Oklahoma on the fringes of field-goal range.
Jumper was called for two third-down holding penalties on Oklahoma's first touchdown drive, but four Vols got a hand on Mayfield and couldn't bring him down on the second one. Mayfield escaped a sure sack from Barnett and hit Sterling Shepard for a key pass on the tying drive, too.
"We've just got to be disciplined in tough situations and close games," Barnett said. "If we do what we do, we'll win ballgames. But we're not going to win until we deserve it.
"It's a tough one. Every loss is a tough one, especially in a close game, a big game, but it's early in the season. This one game doesn't tell what our season holds. We can either be sad, or just bounce back Monday."
The bitterly disappointing night ended with the Vols slumping off their home field as the Sooners celebrated wildly.
"That was going through my head as I was walking off the field," Smith said. "There's no more awful feeling than that. This is our backyard, and you don't come in here and beat us and just party like that. That just hurts.
"Once again, we've got to learn from it. We know how we feel right now, and we can't feel it again. We've got to fix our mistakes and execute."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.