I honestly admire the stones of Penn State for saying, "Yes, we have an elite coach, but we think we can do better." Never gonna mock anyone for that mindset. But as someone who covered almost the exact same thing at Tennessee, I'll add this: Choose wisely. Few are many better than what you had.

Tennessee coach Josh Heupel: Third Saturday in October week. Special rivalry. Special game. That [Alabama] team is playing at a high level. Great test for our team.

Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel: Really didn't like the way we started [with the run defense] Saturday. Some bad fits and rotations, didn't have block destruction, weren't making plays. It did get better. Just needed to start a lot faster.

Tennessee coach Josh Heupel: Our receivers are playing at a high level right now.

Tennessee coach Josh Heupel on Vols' recent struggles on third down defensively: Thank you for pointing that out. We do need to be better there.

Kinda thought Bama would open as a 6.5- or 7.5-point favorite over Tennessee, but I was juuuuuust a bit off. It's Bama -8.5. Something in that range feels right, at least in Tuscaloosa at night.

It'll get lost in the shuffle with everyone discussing the officiating in the Auburn-Georgia game ... but ... after watching back parts of the Tennessee-Arkansas game, it was officiated every bit as badly as we thought it was in realtime. This is a million miles from acceptable.

COLUMN: Parity is the way of the SEC world right now. Accept that, adjust your reality and try to survive every Saturday. Style points are irrelevant. All wins are good wins. www.wbir.com/article/spor...

Farewell from General Neyland’s Big Ol’ Damn House of Football, where No. 12 Tennessee made it closer than necessary but did enough to beat Arkansas. Tons of coverage already on @wbir and the site and all the smart phone and TV apps. And much more coming all day Sunday.

A better team than the Chicago Cubs has eliminated the Chicago Cubs, fairly and squarely. Go get better in the offseason, Cubs. Get the starting pitchers healthy, and get better. I love you, and this wasn't a bad season. But you're not what you could be. Please go be that.

OMG. SEC, how in the hell do you think you'll get away with that? That is obscene.

Tennessee junior edge Joshua Josephs on Arkansas QB Taylen Green: He’s big, and he’s a strider. He’s more of a strider than a super quick guy. You can’t let him start striding.

Tennessee junior edge Joshua Josephs: I said the same thing after the first game that I’m saying now. We’re winning games, but there’s a standard for defense here, and we’re not meeting it.

Tennessee junior edge Joshua Josephs: I don’t care how many turnovers we forced, how many touchdowns we scored. We are not playing to the standard for our defense. We’re nowhere near our best. That’s too many yards, too many points.

Tennessee QB Joey Aguilar: I’m good. That ball basically went into my stomach, and that didn’t feel good. But I’m good.

Tennessee junior LB Arion Carter: Forcing all those turnovers is great, because this game is about production at the end of the day. But we have a lot of things we need to clean up on third down. That’s got to happen.

Tennessee junior LB Arion Carter after 34-31 win at Arkansas: Their quarterback is a really good player, but we didn’t play our best ball today. We have a lot of things to clean up.

Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel on freshman receiver Braylon Staley’s injury: He’s behind me dancing and celebrating in the locker room right now. I anticipate him being fine next week [at Alabama].

Tennessee coach Josh Heupel on the wild SEC parity this season: That’s what our game is now. This league is the top of the food chain, and everybody can go patch their rosters every offseason. There are no holes now. Guy goes down, everybody’s got another guy. Just how it is.

Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said DeSean Bishop’s injury definitely isn’t a long term concern.

Tennessee coach Josh Heupel on some calls that quite clearly were missed in tonight’s win over Arkansas: I can’t speak to the explanation [we were given]. I’ll let our fans watch that and judge for themselves.

Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel: One penalty to 10. That changed the way the game was played. One to 10. Guess we need to be a lot smarter.

Tennessee coach Josh Heupel: End of the day, it’s a good way to win. Lot of unknowns heading into this one, so we knew it would be tough. Fourth quarter, we obviously need to be better there. But we found a way. Love the competitive makeup of these guys.

A million things for Tennessee to improve after that sloppy performance, but an SEC win is an SEC win is an SEC win, and Taylen Green is a daggum dude. Enjoy the win. Clean up the performance. Look forward.

FINAL IN KNOXVILLE: Tennessee 34, Arkansas 31 Some postgame kerfuffling is being kerfuffled. Sort that out in a bit.

Arkansas calls a timeout. Not a Tennessee timeout, though. So Aguilar still sitting out one play, at least.

Aguilar rumbles for about 30 yards and gets beyond midfield, but he's shaken up. Maybe he fell on the ball and got winded there. Still haven't seen a replay. He's on his feet, but he's out for at least a play unless Vols call a timeout.

Touchdown, Arkansas. Vols dropped back on third-and-long. Which I liked. But with all those bodies, they still left a receiver open in the end zone. That should not be possible. Tennessee 34, Arkansas 31, 2:55/4thQ

Tipped ball falls to the ground. A pick there would have ended it.

Arkansas in the red zone. This game is a million miles from the finish line.

Arkansas gets a stop, and it'll get the ball with a little less than five minutes left. Tennessee 34, Arkansas 24

Looks like a shoulder injury for Braylon Staley. While blocking. He's got 109 yards on five catches tonight.

Tennessee freshman receiver Braylon Staley injured on a run play for Star Thomas. Candidly, I didn't see what happened there.

Tennessee won't have freshman linebacker Edwin Spillman for the first half next weekend at Alabama.

Tennessee LB Edwin Spillman flagged for late hit with targeting. They'll review the targeting, but either way it's a late hit. And one that's always gonna get called.

This will be a super interesting film study for Tennessee's defense. So many reps that are cheeks, but then four forced turnovers to change the game. You want havoc? That's some havoc.

Touchdown Tennessee Peyton Lewis 3-yard run Vols 34, Arkansas 17, 13:14/4thQ

That's ruled a fumble, and Tennessee recovery by freshman LB Jadon Perlotte. Replay sorting it out. And it's upheld. Either way, Joshua Joseph remains a menace.

Penalty flag on Arkansas? Penalty flag on Arkansas. Loud Bronx cheer from the Neyland faithful.

Touchdown Tennessee Peyton Lewis 2-yard run puts the Vols ahead of Arkansas by two scores Tennessee 27, Arkansas 17, 2:11/3rdQ

DeSean Bishop with another long run, but he's down in pain after what looked like a hip-drop tackle near the 5-yard line. Nasty stuff. There's a reason the NFL banned it.

Tennessee with a third-and-long stop. Arkansas putting the punt team on the field.

Tennessee flagged for snap infraction despite Arkansas being in the neutral zone on fourth-and-short. Josh Heupel is about to lose his mind.

Tennessee's players and sideline fuming at what they thought was DPI there. No call.

Arkansas keeps the offense on the field after the timeout, turning down chance to try game-tying field goal. Fourth-and-3 from the Tennessee 25-yard line. Tennessee stops it.

Arkansas keeps the offense on the field for fourth-and-2, but then calls a timeout. Not sure why you'd burn a precious second-half timeout in this spot. Don't get it.

No clue how that whole crew stared at that and didn't flag it. Yikes.

No DPI there?

Looks like Jordan Ross got an assist from Edrees Farooq on that forced fumble. Braylen Russell got absolutely crunched.

Arkansas' Braylen Russell takes a huge hit from Jordan Ross and fumbles in the red zone, and Tennessee recovers.