There will be no convincing some that Tennessee’s 25-15 win over Oklahoma was gorgeous. Apparently, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
While some might say the Vols’ win over the Sooners was ugly because Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel didn’t throw the ball downfield as much as he should or score enough points for their liking, others see Heupel’s game management on Saturday in Norman as one of his best coached games as a Vol. Why? Well, he defied his natural instincts to be aggressive in the passing game and, instead, relied on an nasty defense and running the football in the second half. Count Tennessee center Cooper Mays among the latter in that debate.
“You’ve got to be able to win in different ways and got to be able to adapt and overcome,” Mays said of the victory over the Sooners. “Every game is going to be different. Some things are not going to work the same that they will the next week. All that matters is just finding the best way to win and how to play complementary football.”
The Vols certainly did that against the Sooners. Now, Tennessee is considered a true national championship contender and not just a team with an incredible offense, as was the case in 2022 when the Vols rose to No. 1 in the College Football Playoff rankings but didn’t make the postseason that matters. Now, the Vols are No. 5 in the AP Poll and receiving national attention from college football analysts far and wide. Mays tried not to pay attention, but that’s tough to do.
“Everybody sees it,” Mays said. “Everybody’s on their phone. So you’re going to naturally run into stuff, but we’ve definitely got a lot to work on, especially as an offense. I feel like the defense played pretty lights out, but there’s so much more that we can get done and accomplish and just stuff that we can get better on.
“We’ve got to get better each week. And then, hopefully, by the end of it all we’re still being talked about like that. But as far as right now, that doesn’t really matter.”
The Vols were thought to be playoff contenders back in 2022. That came just before a disastrous trip to South Carolina in which the Gamecocks upended the Vols 63-38 and they plummeted from playoff consideration. Mays said there are “lessons to be learned” from that 2022 run that came painfully close to, what was then, a four-team playoff.
“There’s definitely a good little bit of us that are still here from from that team,” Mays said. “…We’re trying to right those wrongs a little bit, I guess, or just really just be the best that we can be. Not really focused on that stuff, but, you’ve got to learn from history or it’s going to repeat itself.”
If the Vols prove to be true national championship contenders, there will be no debate among those that follow Tennessee football. The conversation over how the Vols won the Oklahoma game will be long lost with any sort of deep run into the current 12-team playoff. There isn’t a national championship that isn’t beautiful.
