Tennessee quarterback Jarrett Guarantano, left, looks at the scoreboard late in the fourth quarter of the Vols’ 38-13 loss at Vanderbilt on Saturday.NASHVILLE – After Saturday’s 25-point loss to in-state rival Vanderbilt, everybody in the Tennessee football program was looking for answers.
The Volunteers entered November in need of three wins to achieve bowl eligibility, and with a schedule that seemed manageable enough to do so. The month started off fine, with a win over Charlotte on homecoming and an upset of then 12th-ranked Kentucky to improve the Vols to 5-5.
One win over either Missouri or Vanderbilt – both historically winnable games – would help the Vols return to a bowl after a one-year hiatus. Two losses later, by a combined 58 points, left a mix of frustration and bewilderment.
The Vols weren’t able to finish the drill, losing 38-13 for the Commodores’ fifth win over Tennessee in the past seven seasons. The Vols went 2-2 in a month they said they wanted to dominate.
“You can call it what you want, but we didn’t finish well in November in a long time,” Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt said. “This is the first year I’ve been here. In the first two weeks (of the month), we done a good job. We competed hard until we had some turnovers against Missouri, but today we didn’t execute very well defensively.”