Tennessee football fell to the Alabama Crimson Tide for the 11th straight time Saturday. Here are five takeaways from the Volunteers’ loss.
To nobody’s surprise, Tennessee football fell to 3-4 on the season after a blowout loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide. It was the Vols’ 11th straight loss in the series, and it managed to be just as ugly as last year’s loss.
Despite only being down 7-0 after the first, the Vols could not get anything going. Their only touchdown was a pick-six by Daniel Bituli when Alabama was in the red zone and starting its backups.
But for the most part, the Tide, toyed with the Vols. And there wasn’t much good to say about it. Here are five takeaways from Tennessee football’s loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide.
1. Offense remains atrocious.
Tennessee’s only offensive touchdown was waved off after it was determined that John Kelly didn’t reach the end zone. Right after that, Jarrett Guarantano threw an interception. So the Vols have now gone three full games without an offensive touchdown and 14 full quarters overall. That has to be some kind of record. Either way, it leads to our next point.
2. Butch Jones is done.
There is literally nothing he could do to save himself now. We’ve been saying he needs to be fired, but after the loss to Alabama, it doesn’t matter if he wins the final five games by 100 points each. Tennessee football blew two games to Florida and South Carolina due to bad coaching. It got blown out in the only other two games that could have helped it salvage the season. So it’s over for him. John Currie has no excuse to keep him now.
3. Defensive back seven does have playmakers.
Don’t blame the back seven on defense for giving up 45 points. They did everything they could. Rashaan Gaulden was all over the field. Meanwhile, Nigel Warrior made some key tackles. And as we already mentioned, Daniel Bituli had a pick-six. So Tennessee football’s back seven was solid enough in the game. They just had help nowhere else, including up front. That leads to our next point.
4. Defensive line is filled with underachievers.
Tennessee football’s defensive line has two five-stars lining up on one side playing every snap in Jonathan Kongbo and Kahlil McKenzie. Add in the veteran leadership of Kendal Vickers and the five-star talent of Kyle Phillips along with backup tackles Quart’e Sapp and Alexis Johnson, both of whom are four-stars, and the Vols have more than enough horses to even compete with Alabama’s elite offensive line. Instead, they gave up another 272 yards rushing. McKenzie can’t get any pressure in the middle, and Kongbo made numerous penalties that cost the Vols. Both of them have been busts. And the suspension of Darrell Taylor was beyond evident as a result.
5. Don’t blame Jarrett Guarantano!
As we keep saying, the Tennessee football offense is atrocious. And Jarrett Guarantano as the quarterback bears some responsibility. But he’s a redshirt freshman who had his first two starts against two of the most elite defenses in all of college football. Meanwhile, he had terrible, predictable play-calling. And he had a team with incredibly low morale that has quit on the year. So we acknowledge he’s been bad. But it’s due to circumstances that precede him becoming the starter.