4. Kyle Phillips pick-six vs. Alabama
Okay, maybe this shouldn’t be so high. It’s a meaningless play in a 37-point loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide, clearly one that Vols fans would like to forget since it became their 12th straight loss to a team they used to consider a rival.
However, some plays are exciting enough to make the list on their own. And yes, although Tennessee football suffered another horrible loss to what may be the greatest team of all time, they did have this exciting play. It’s worth mentioning that if not for a couple of bad mistakes to end the first half and open the second half, this play could’ve made it a game.
Down 51-14 in the second half, the Vols were looking for any sort of spark. Nick Saban had pulled Tua Tagovailoa for the day and brought in Jalen Hurts to continue running up the score in mop-up duty, as he had been doing all season long.
However, Hurts made the one mistake the Tide had made all game. Jeremy Pruitt sent Baylen Buchanan on a blitz, and Buchanan batted a Hurts pass in the air at the line of scrimmage. That’s when Kyle Phillips came away with the ball.
Phillips carried people with him en route to the end zone and scored to register a 27-yard interception return for a touchdown. The play was at least an exciting score against Alabama, again, even if it was meaningless. It showed that Phillips was one of the guys who wouldn’t quit fighting no matter what happened. So the play deserved to be on this list in some spot.