KNOXVILLE — Even 36 hours later, what happened still stung a couple of Tennessee’s top defensive players.
The Volunteers clearly are eager to redeem themselves.
In Saturday night’s loss to No. 4 Alabama, Tennessee’s SEC-best defense took a hit as the Crimson Tide turned third down into first down on 11 of 15 tries in what Vols coach Butch Jones dubbed the storyline of the game.
“We definitely didn’t like that at all,” linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin said Monday. “We pride ourselves on third downs and getting off the field. Overall as a defense, we didn’t do a good job.
“The secondary, the linebackers, the D-linemen, everybody — we just didn’t do a good job of containing the quarterback. We let him get out a little bit and make plays. We’ve got to stay on that a little bit more.”