Tennessee football: Josh Heupel made Music City Bowl refs look even worse

Were the Purdue Boilermakers faking injuries to control Tennessee’s up-tempo scheme? That’s sure what Josh Heupel thought, but there was nothing he could do about it.

The Music City Bowl ended in painful fashion for the Vols, with Heupel’s team losing in overtime on a controversial call. While Tennessee initially looked to have scored on a fourth-down run, the play was not called a touchdown on the field.

Per replay review, the Tennessee player was never down, extending the ball past the pylon while on top of a Purdue player. Problem solved, right? Not so fast. The whistle blew early, thus canceling out any arm extension.

But that’s not all — with Tennessee outpacing Purdue from a plays perspective, the Boilermakers opted to try and slow the game down with a few “injuries”. The officials were flabberghasted and didn’t know how to respond.

Tennessee football: Josh Heupel says refs wanted rule change

Heupel sure didn’t do the officials any favors, revealing a conversation he had with the refs in the second half. Per Heupel, the refs wanted a rule changed that allowed Purdue to stop Tennessee in its tracks by taking a knee for an injury timeout.

At one point in the fourth quarter, Tennessee had more than a 30-play advantage over Purdue. While some of that was due to turnovers, the majority of the play edge was due to the Vols up-tempo scheme, which over time tired out the Purdue defense.

In the end, the Music City Bowl is nothing more than a mid-tier bowl game to end Tennessee’s season. But in front of mostly their home fans, it’s bound to leave a bad taste on Heupel’s mouth until next season.

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