Notebook: Vols throw it all over Mizzou's patchwork secondary

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Missouri came into Saturday night’s home finale with the nation’s No. 6 pass defense. The Tigers had made a 109 spot jump in that category since last year, the biggest improvement in the country. Tennessee’s receivers made Saturday seem a whole lot like 2018 in a 24-20 Volunteer victory.

The Vols threw for 415 yards on Saturday night, all by Jarrett Guarantano, who had been benched and was making his first start since week four. Josh Palmer (6 for 124), Marquez Callaway (6 for 110) and Jauan Jennings (5 for 115) all topped the century mark for the Vols. Asked what went wrong, starting safety Tyree Gillespie wasn’t too interested in an in-depth breakdown.

“They were able to pass on us. Plain and simple,” Gillespie said. “We just weren’t executing plays that the coaches were asking us to.”

Missouri played without DeMarkus Acy, who suffered a hamstring injury in practice this week. Jarvis Ware, the other starting cornerback, went out after delivering a hit in the first quarter. Christian Holmes started in Acy’s place and Adam Sparks replaced Ware.

“I think that had a lot to do with it,” Odom said of the injuries. “But also some of the three deep zone stuff we did, we didn’t reroute underneath enough. We had free releases and just overlapped in the zone, the vacated area.

“You’ve got to get a reroute to try to help the guy in the vertical pass game. We lost one on one battles.”

It was a tough night for Holmes and Sparks, who combined for four pass interference penalties, plus a fifth that was declined when Callaway made a circus catch for a touchdown despite the interference.

“We just didn’t win our one on ones across the board,” linebacker Nick Bolton said.

The cornerbacks weren’t the only issue. Missouri’s two safeties, Joshuah Bledsoe and Gillespie, both whiffed on a 51-yard completion to Jennings in the first quarter. On Jennings’ touchdown, Bledsoe actually missed him twice with a Kobie Whiteside whiff in between. The Volunteers were able to victimize Missouri all night long in third and long situations and closed the game out with a completion on third and five to prevent the Tigers one last gasp drive on offense.

“It’s deflating,” Bolton said. “We’ve been good on third downs all year. We’ve just got to find a way to get off the field, on third and eight plus especially.”

“It’s just frustrating know that we’ve prepared for this,” safety Khalil Oliver said. “Coaches have drawn up the same play over and over again and we’re missing it. That’s on us. That’s on every single member of the secondary.”

Offensive coordinator Derek Dooley had an excellent view of Missouri’s first offensive touchdown in 12 quarters. The Tiger play caller was on the sidelines for this game instead of in a booth above the field.

“He told us he felt like he needed to be down there,” center Trystan Colon-Castillo said. “He wanted to be in the fight with us. He wanted us to feel his presence.”

Despite crossing the goal line for the first time in 33 drives—on a 7-yard pass to running back Tyler Badie—the Tiger offense still wasn’t able to do enough to break Mizzou’s now five-game losing streak.

“I view it as similar,” Badie said. “A loss is a loss regardless of how we play.”

“We scored more points, but we didn’t score enough to get the job done,” Bryant said. “We’ve just got to find ways to continue to get better and just get a W.”

Missouri has scored 20 points or fewer in all five losses. It is the first time since 1989, Bob Stull’s first year, that the Tigers have lost five straight and scored 20 or fewer in all five.

The Tigers’ last offensive drive ended in a punt with 3:33 to play. On third and three, the Tigers called a draw play for Bryant, which lost two yards. Odom said if Missouri had gained anything on that play, the plan was to go on fourth down and less than two. When the play lost two yards, Odom sent the punt team on the field and put the game in the hands of his defense.

“I thought we were going to be able to get the ball back,” Odom said. “Unfortunately the third down wasn’t successful enough to get us in that position.

Earlier this week, we asked Barry Odom and Jim Sterk if the Tigers’ coach would be returning for a fifth season on the sidelines. Saturday’s result will do nothing to quell the anger from fans and the desire for a new coach.

Sterk said earlier this week he looked forward to Missouri becoming bowl eligible for a third straight season. To do that, the Tigers will now have to beat Arkansas in Little Rock, and get a favorable ruling (or no ruling at all) from the NCAA on their appeal of sanctions enforced in April.

In a season of ever-changing expectations, the Tigers once again are forced to lower theirs and reset their goals. All that is left now is a sixth win that would allow them to be selected to a bowl game if the NCAA allows it.

“Six and six is nothing that you go ‘Oh we went six and six,’” Kobie Whiteside said. “But that’s our goal. We want to get bowl eligible. It’s not just for us, but for everybody else around us.”

“Keep swinging,” Oliver said. “There’s nothing else we can do. For a lot of us, this may be the last time we suit up and put a helmet on and you don’t want to leave anything out there.”

The Razorbacks lost their 18th consecutive SEC game on Saturday, 56-20 to LSU. It was their first game under interim coach Barry Lunney after Chad Morris was fired.

“We got one more left as a group,” Bryant said. “There was a lot of emotion in the locker room from everybody. Just one of those things. You come up short, but your play your butts off and you work hard in practice and for it to end like that, like I said, there were a lot of emotions. We just have to find ourselves and pick ourselves up.”

As mentioned, Acy did not play in the game due to a hamstring injury and Ware left due to a head/neck injury. Tight end Albert Okwuegbunam didn’t play due to a sprained shoulder and wide receiver Johnathon Johnson missed his third consecutive game with a sprained shoulder. Cornerback Adam Sparks left the game in the fourth quarter after a collision with Tyree Gillespie on a Tennessee completion, but returned. The Tigers have a short week to get healthy with the season finale on Friday afternoon.

Odom said he expected Okwuegbunam to play. While he took every snap, Bryant is clearly not himself at this point either. He pulled up on a couple of runs and was visibly limited.

“It’s late in the season so everybody’s pretty much beat up and sore,” Bryant said. “I think the biggest thing, I have to continue to do better when it gets late in the game, especially when its cold, just not allowing it to get stiff on me.”

“How healthy is he?” Odom asked. “I don’t know what a percentage is, but not very. But he’s such a competitor and he’s just battling. He knows how many snaps that he’s got left and he wants to take every one of them. I have a lot of respect for Kelly Bryant and some of the things that he’s battling through.”