KNOXVILLE – Tennessee’s biggest stretch of football games is about to begin.
The Volunteers (2-5, 1-3 Southeastern Conference) are coming off a 35-13 loss to top-ranked Alabama last Saturday in Tuscaloosa, but they were able to gain some confidence with their performance.
For much of the game, the visiting Vols held strong against a program that now has beat them 13 consecutive times – most in lopsided fashion – with a strong defense and a solid rushing attack.
For the first time since 2015, Tennessee rushed for more than 100 yards against the Crimson Tide. The 114 yards last Saturday were only 13 fewer than the Vols had in the three previous meetings combined. And on the other side of the ball they had six tackles for loss, which was the most since 2016.
Last year the Vols were coming off a 30-24 victory over ranked Auburn when they faced Alabama. Like this group, that team had some momentum heading into the game but saw the Crimson Tide go up 28-0 in the first quarter on their way to a 58-21 win.
The margin of defeat went down substantially this year, but the Vols took no pride in that.
“It hurts, man,” safety Nigel Warrior said. “We practice our butts off. It hurts a lot, but it shows that the team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
“We have to come back harder; we do.”
Coach Jeremy Pruitt said after the game that he felt the Vols played better against the Tide than in the win over Mississippi State a week prior. Monday he said the team is learning.
“You look at this past week, Alabama’s really good, and sometimes based off their ability and the things that they’re doing they cause you to make mistakes and sometimes we make mistakes. The one thing we’ve got to do as a team is eliminate the self -inflicted wounds. We’ve got to eliminate our mistakes and make the other team always beat us,” Pruitt said. “Does that make sense?
Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt yells at the officials during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Alabama, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)“That’s something we’ve tried to focus on; that’s when we talk about playing clean. I mean it’s hard enough to guard these guys, but when you’re supposed to be playing cover-2 and the safety doesn’t get a half, they’re going to have success, because there’s lots of times you can do it exactly right and these guys make throws and catches and there’s not a whole lot you can do with it, and we had a couple of those in the game, and we’ve got to eliminate things like that.”
An early-season schedule that included lopsided losses to top-10 foes Florida, Georgia and Alabama has given the Vols plenty of chances to have their mistakes highlighted. But now comes the opportunities to show what they’ve learned against opponents that are perceived to be similar.
South Carolina comes to Knoxville this week and has a win over Georgia but a loss against Missouri. After facing Alabama-Birmingham on homecoming, the Vols play at Kentucky on Nov. 9 against a team that nearly beat Florida but otherwise has struggled (its only SEC win was against winless Arkansas) and at Missouri on Nov. 23. The Tigers just lost to Vanderbilt, which was winless in SEC play before that. Vanderbilt visits Tennessee on Nov. 30.
All winnable. All losable.
Win four of those games and the Vols are heading to their first bowl since 2016, which certainly would provide a level of feel-good for a program in dire need of it. To get there, they need to get those wins, which means they need to improve in certain areas to get there.
Senior center Brandon Kennedy, who played his first three seasons at Alabama, has seen what “good” looks like. He said Saturday night that he feels Tennessee is getting there.
“I feel like we executed some things well, other things not so well, and that kind of resulted in what the game was,” Kennedy said. “The biggest thing is the details. That and execution is the biggest thing. We didn’t execute and focus on the details, and that’s why we did what we did.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.