CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Remember where you were the last time Tennessee’s defense allowed a touchdown?
Chances are, it involved Thanksgiving leftovers.
The Volunteers, who have been touted for their offensive excitement and productivity since Josh Heupel took over in 2021, are at three games and counting without yielding a defensive touchdown. They ended last season with a 35-0 skunking of Iowa in the Citrus Bowl and have started this year with a 69-3 downing of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Saturday night’s 51-10 rout of North Carolina State in the Duke’s Mayo Classic.
“It starts with defending the run game and being violent and disruptive up front,” Heupel said late Saturday night, “and then it’s applying pressure to the quarterback and being really sound in our coverage. I really like the growth that we’ve had in the early part of the season, and I like our personnel.
“There are some things that we need to continue to get better at, but they’ve got great energy and camaraderie. They care about each other. We’ve got depth. We’ve just got to keep going.”