Tennessee football committed a season-high three turnovers to suffer a 33-27 loss to Oklahoma on Nov. 1 and drop out of the College Football Playoff race.

The 14th-ranked Vols (6-3, 3-3 SEC) squandered early scoring chances and gave No. 18 Oklahoma (7-2, 3-2) ample opportunities to steal the game.

UT quarterback Joey Aguilar tossed two interceptions, and his fumble was returned for a touchdown. Meanwhile, Oklahoma kicker Tate Sandell made all four field goal attempts from 40 yards, 51 yards and twice from 55 yards.

The loss especially stung for UT coach Josh Heupel, who led Oklahoma to the 2000 national title as a Heisman Trophy runner-up quarterback. His team’s third loss of the season puts a second straight playoff bid out of reach.

Tennessee heads into an off week before hosting New Mexico State on Nov. 15 (4:15 p.m., SEC Network) at Neyland Stadium. Before turning toward that break, here are five takeaways from this loss to Oklahoma.

Tennessee never recovered from mistake-filled first half

Tennessee outgained Oklahoma 255 yards to 99 yards in the first half. And it had 17 first downs to Oklahoma’s five first downs. Yet, the Vols trailed 16-10 on the scoreboard at halftime.

Several unforced errors by UT led to that discrepancy, including two interceptions, a missed field goal and a fumble returned by Oklahoma for a touchdown.

In a game that felt like UT led by multiple scores, it instead trailed at halftime.

Oklahoma’s record-long fumble return started the mistakes

On a strange play, Oklahoma tied the game 7-7 on defensive end R Mason Thomas’ 71-yard fumble return for a TD. Linebacker Owen Heinecke came on a free rush off the edge. It appeared that freshman right tackle David Sanders was unsure of his assignment, and he whiffed trying to block Heinecke.

Heinecke hit Aguilar and forced the fumble, which Thomas scooped. Tight end Miles Kitselman failed to tackle Thomas, who suffered an injury and limped down the sideline for the TD. It was the longest fumble return in Oklahoma history.

In the second quarter, Aguilar tossed two interceptions. Both were returned 37 yards and set up Oklahoma field goals.

Josh Heupel has losing record vs. Top 25 opponents

Heupel’s record dropped to 11-12 against ranked opponents at Tennessee, including a 4-5 mark at home. Against Top 25 teams, he is 3-0 at neutral site games and 4-7 on the road.

The Vols fell out of playoff contention because they lost to all three ranked opponents they faced this season: Georgia, Alabama and Oklahoma.

Joey Aguilar committed three costly turnovers

Aguilar was 29-of-45 passing for 393 yards, three TDs and two interceptions in an up-and-down performance, and he lost a fumble that was returned for a touchdown.

Nevertheless, Aguilar hit some notable benchmarks in his career and UT history.

Aguilar became the fifth UT quarterback to record at least four 300-yard passing games in a season. He joined Peyton Manning, Tyler Bray, Hendon Hooker and Andy Kelly. Manning holds the school record with 10 300-yard passing games in the 1997 season, when he was the Heisman Trophy runner-up.

Aguilar also moved into 11th place on UT’s single-season list for TD passes with his 21st. Manning holds the school record with 36 TD passes in 1997.

And Aguilar has passed for at least 200 yards in all 33 starts of his Division I career, including nine at UT and 24 at Appalachian State. That’s the longest active streak in FBS.

Neyland Stadium crowd witnessed rare home loss

It was Tennessee’s first home loss to a team other than Georgia in the past four seasons.

In that way, Heupel’s teams seemed almost invincible at Neyland Stadium. But a sellout crowd witnessed this frustrating rare loss.

Heupel fell to 28-6 at Neyland Stadium during his tenure, which began in 2021. He’s had only three losses in the past 28 home games, losing to Georgia in 2023 and 2025 and to Oklahoma in this one.

Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.

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Josh Elander is hiring Chuck Jeroloman from Florida to his first Tennessee baseball staff, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

The source requested anonymity because Jeroloman’s hire has not been made public.

Jeroloman has spent the past six seasons at Florida and was most recently serving as the interim head coach with coach Kevin O’Sullivan on administrative leave due to personal matters. He was promoted to associate head coach on O’Sullivan’s staff after the 2024 season.

Jeroloman and Elander have a longstanding relationships as Jeroloman was a volunteer assistant coach at TCU in 2012, Elander’s junior season with the Horned Frogs.

Elander was named the head coach on Oct. 25 following coach  Tony Vitello’s Oct. 22 exit to manage the San Francisco Giants after eight seasons at Tennessee. If Elander keeps the rest of the staff, Jeroloman completes the assistant coach lineup alongside pitching coach Frank Anderson and assistant coach Ross Kivett.

It is like Jeroloman will assume associate head coach duties, which Elander held. Kivett could slide into the recruiting coordinator role that Elander also held.

Jeroloman’s addition gives Tennessee a heralded hitting coach and top-tier recruiter in the SEC join Elander’s staff.

He spent two seasons as an assistant coach at South Florida and four at Jacksonville before he was hired at Florida. He coached MLB first-round draft picks in Jac Caglianone and Wyatt Langford at Florida. Both reached the major leagues within a year of being drafted.

Jeroloman started his college coaching career at TCU from 2012-13 as a volunteer assistant.

He played shortstop for Auburn from 2002-04 and was drafted by the Boston Red Sox. He hit 12 homers and had 91 RBIs in three seasons.

Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on X @ByMikeWilson. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.