The Tennessee Volunteers suffered their first loss of the year on Saturday, falling 19-14 to the Arkansas Razorbacks in Fayetteville.
The loss marked just the fifth time in 44 games under head coach Josh Heupel that the Volunteers scored 14 points or less.
Freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava struggled in the loss, going 17-for-29 for 158 passing yards and no touchdowns or interceptions. He was also sacked a season-high four times.
While the struggles and loss hurt in the moment, Iamaleava quickly pointed out Saturday night that there’s still plenty of time left in the season for Tennessee to accomplish its goals of winning the SEC and the College Football Playoff.
“Yeah, like [Coach Heupel] said we’ve still got everything ahead of us. We’ve still got all our goals ahead of us. We’ve got to use this as fuel to get us better for the rest of the season,” Iamaleava said during his postgame media availability.
Tennesseee will immediately have a bounce-back opportunity as the Volunteers host the Florida Gators next Saturday for their annual rivalry showdown. However, the rivalry has been unkind to the Vols of late, with the team going just 2-17 in their last 19 meetings against the Gators.
This year may prove different, though, as Florida has had no shortage of struggles so far en route to a 3-2 record under embattled head coach Billy Napier.
