Skip to main content
Tennessee
Join Now

'Not smart football': Josh Heupel reacts to roughing the passer penalty in loss to Vandy

IMG_3593by: Grant Ramey11/30/25GrantRamey

Josh Heupel described the roughing the passer penalty on Jalen McMurray late in the first half as “not smart football” after Tennessee Football’s 45-24 loss to Vanderbilt Saturday at Neyland Stadium.

McMurray was called for roughing on Vandy quarterback Diego Pavia after an incomplete pass on third-and-12 from the Tennessee 13-yard line, with the Vols leading 21-14 in the final minute of the first half.

The Commodores scored on the next play on a 6-yard touchdown pass to Tre Richardson, tying the game at 21-21 with 12 seconds left before halftime. Vandy outscored Tennessee 24-3 in the second half.

“End of the first half, got a stop, not smart football,” Heupel said, “give another set of downs and they get seven instead of kicking a field goal. It’s all those little things that add up to a result that you don’t like. And it looks like that on the scoreboard. This game, at this level, it’s small details.” 

Tennessee outscored 24-3 in second half

Heupel said he didn’t see the late hit live.

“(The officials) just said we hit him in the head,” he added.

Either way, the momentum carried over to the second half. 

Vanderbilt got the ball to start the third quarter and went on a marathon scoring drive that covered 75 yards in 11 plays, taking 6:35 off the clock. Sedrick Alexander ran 5 yards for the touchdown to put the ‘Dores up 28-21 after scoring 14 unanswered points. 

Tennessee couldn’t answer after getting ball back, going three-and-out after a 5-yard pass from Joey Aguilar to Ethan Davis, a 1-yard loss on a DeSean Bishop run up the middle and an Aguilar incomplete pass on third-and-6. 

After punting back to Vanderbilt, Pavia ran for 41 yards on first down then for 15 more yards three plays later. Tennessee’s defense got off the field on the drive, but not before Knoxville’s Brock Taylor kicked a 35-yard field goal to put Vandy up 31-21 with 2:12 left in the third quarter.

Tennessee slowed some of the Vanderbilt momentum with a 15-play, 68-yard drive when the Vols got the ball back, but Mike Matthews dropped what would have been a walk-in touchdown on third-and-goal at the Vandy 2. Max Gilbert kicked a 25-yard field goal to get it back to a one-score game at 31-24.

Vanderbilt finished with 582 yards of total offense

Vandy went back down the field and scored on a 24-yard Pavia touchdown run to get the lead back to 14 points. Sedrick Alexander ran for a 39-yard touchdown with 5:10 left, after Tennessee threw an 8-yard pass on fourth-and-14 at midfield. 

Vanderbilt finished with 582 total yards, with Pavia passing for 268 yards and a touchdown and running for 165 yards and a score.

“Extremely disappointing second half leads to an extremely disappointing ultimate result,” Heupel said to start his postgame press conference. “And coaches and players all play a part in it. So give (Vanderbilt) credit, but extremely disappointing in what we did in the second half.”