Tennessee football Smokey points: Top five Vols in 35-13 Alabama loss

Lots of players fought hard for Tennessee football against the Alabama Crimson Tide. These were the five best Volunteers performers.

Three bad calls and a goal line fumble turned this game from what could have been a lead for Tennessee football into a 35-13 Alabama Crimson Tide win. But the fact of the matter is the Vols fought their guts out in this game.

Nick Saban had an extremely hard time adjusting to Tua Tagovailoa being knocked out, and a very solid game plan by Jeremy Pruitt kept this thing interesting until midway through the fourth quarter. And this was a one-possession lead for the Tide with less than five minutes to go in the third quarter.

So against the No. 1 team in the nation, Tennessee football gave it all they had. And while there were numerous critical mistakes in the game by a few individuals, others played their hearts out all day and did everything they could to win.

As we get set to dish out our Smokey points for Saturday’s loss, we’re going to be naming some players who were part of the key mistakes. But they made up for their mistakes by fighting hard and making lots of key plays as well.

The top three players on this list are actually pretty obvious, and we probably could have named up to 10 people in this game. Jeremy Pruitt had lots of kids step up, and we narrowed it down to five not just because of the players who stood out but also analyzing what they overcame.

Pruitt just might have a team after all. With no more top 10 teams on the schedule and their toughest opponent left coming off a loss to the Vanderbilt Commodores, could a turnaround be on the horizon? It absolutely could if the same players continue to develop.

Who stood out the most Saturday? Which players deserve the largest amount of praise? Let’s take a look here. These are Tennessee football’s top performers in the Vols’ 35-13 loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide.