Tennessee’s Daniel Hood (97) dives for yardage after intercepting a pass during the first quarter of Saturday’s 45-0 season-opening win over Austin Peay.KNOXVILLE — Daniel Hood and Mo Couch each made plays in Tennessee’s season-opening win against Austin Peay.
Along with Daniel McCullers, the Volunteers have a trio of senior defensive tackles, and they will need more production like that from the veterans.
“They’re critical, and we’ll go as well as they go,” coach Butch Jones said during his weekly news conference Monday. “I thought they were disruptive in the middle. They made some good plays. I think Mo Couch has to continue to progress with his conditioning levels and be able to give us valuable reps.
“We have some older players in that group that have played a lot of football, and we expect a lot from them and we demand a lot from them as well.”
Hood deflected and intercepted a pass in the first quarter and ended another possession with a tackle for loss on a screen pass. Couch, who missed spring practice recovering from shoulder surgery and was slowed by a calf injury during preseason practice, registered one of Tennessee’s two sacks in the game.