KNOXVILLE – By no stretch was Tennessee’s defense spectacular Saturday against Kentucky.
What the Volunteers lacked in quality, though, they made up for with timeliness.
Tennessee’s defense came up with four crucial red-zone stops, including a fumble forced inside the 5-yard line by reserve safety Stephen Griffin, in Saturday’s 49-36 shootout win against the Wildcats.
“That’s a prideful group,” Vols coach Butch Jones said of his defense under first-year coordinator Bob Shoop. “We have to get that corrected with the rush yards and the big plays that we gave up in the run game. From the sideline, I think a lot of them were misfits. We missed too many tackles.
“We’ll go back to work, but it’s resolve and resiliency. We rallied to make them kick field goals as opposed to (scoring) touchdowns. That gave us an opportunity.”