{"id":448847,"date":"2026-09-26T23:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T23:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/448847\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T23:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T23:06:09","slug":"what-tennessee-footballs-loss-against-texas-means-for-the-volunteers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/448847\/","title":{"rendered":"What Tennessee Football&#8217;s Loss Against Texas Means for the Volunteers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"65\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college\/tennessee\/football\/tennessee-football-suffers-first-loss-of-the-2026-season-vs-texas-01m3fe4d93rz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tennessee Volunteers<\/a> have been defeated by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college\/tennessee\/football\/live-updates-tennessee-football-vs-texas-01m3ey1vvkgf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Texas Longhorns,<\/a> as this is the first and only loss that the Vols have suffered this season. This loss comes just one week after the Vols completed their non-conference play with a victory against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college\/tennessee\/football\/the-good-bad-and-ugly-from-tennessee-football-s-win-over-kennesaw-state-01m30nv63e7j\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kennesaw State Owls<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6a\">This game between the Longhorns and the Volunteers was one of the biggest games of the season thus far, and was a game that lived up to the hype in certain aspects. In fact, one of the best parts of this game was the fact that there were 16 sacks in this contest, which goes to show that both teams made it a point to get home in the backfield.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6f\">The Vols ended up losing this game by a score of 20-17, and while many may overreact to this loss, there is room to breathe if you are the Volunteers.<\/p>\n<p>What Does This Mean for Tennessee Football<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/01m3fx06n2h2xrqrqent.jpg\" alt=\"Josh Heupel\" title=\"Josh Heupel\" width=\"360\" height=\"203\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"6w\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sep 26, 2026; Knoxville, Tennessee, USA;  Tennessee Volunteers head coach Josh Heupel on the field during warmups before the game against the Texas Longhorns at Neyland Stadium.  Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"72\">Did Tennessee play the way that they needed to? No, but they still had some solid plays. Especially on the defensive side of the ball. This game showed that the Vols can still have one of their worst performances and keep a game close against a top-end team like Texas. While this is a game that many will look at as negative, and rightfully so, due to the fact that the Vols lost, this is also something Tennessee can learn from.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"77\">Their season is far from over, and if anything, this game showed that Tennessee can win any of the games that they have coming up on the schedule. The big thing worth noting is that it seems reasonable to believe Tennessee needs to either win out or, at most, lose one more game if they want to make a run for the college football playoffs.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7c\">Up next is a game against the Auburn Tigers inside Neyland Stadium. This game will be the Neyland Legacy Grey Uniform contest, which is a contest that the Vols will be expected to win, and will need to win. They can&#8217;t afford to let this game sit on their mind while trying to focus on Auburn.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7h\">The slate needs to be wiped clean, and the Vols should have a good chance of winning some big ball games.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7q\">Send your questions, comments, and hot takes to our email\u00a0tennesseeonsi@gmail.com\u00a0for the chance to be featured in an article!<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7v\">Follow Our Social Media Accounts<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"80\">\u2022 Follow Vols on SI on X (Click\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/VolsOnSI?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">HERE<\/a>)<br \/>\u2022 Follow Vols on SI on Facebook (Click\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/p\/VOLS-on-SI-61573321062451\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HERE<\/a>)<br \/>\u2022 Follow Vols on SI on Instagram (Click\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/vols_on_si\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HERE<\/a>)<br \/>\u2022 Subscribe to Vols on SI on YouTube (Click\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Vols_On_SI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HERE<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"85\">Sign up for our newsletter to have articles sent straight to your email daily\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college\/tennessee\/newsletter\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" preventdefault:click=\"\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\" on:click=\"q-Q5J6J56g.js#s_lDqay9E5m5g[0]\" q:id=\"8b\">Follow<\/a><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tennessee Volunteers have been defeated by the Texas Longhorns, as this is the first and only loss&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-448847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}