It was another heartbreaker for Tennessee football. Lane Kiffin’s return to Rocky Top wasn’t the shootout everybody expected, but it had some wild moments, including a delay for more than 15 minutes because Vol fans were throwing debris onto the field out of anger over a bad call. Oh, and they had to put their backup quarterback in on the final three plays of the game.
A game that came down to the last second ended with Ole Miss holding on for a 31-26 win. Although the Vols fell to 4-3, they put up a fight, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. Numerous players stood out at different times and deserve a ton of credit.
As we get set to recognize the key Vols who did the most to win this game, we’ll credit big plays, but we will also credit consistency. Some guys who made big plays also made costly mistakes, so we had to leave them off. Others overachieved given what they were dealing with. Let’s look at who did that. These were Tennessee football’s top five players in the Vols’ loss to Ole Miss.
1 INT, 9 tackles (5 solo)
Alontae Taylor and Warren Burrell both got banged up during the game and had to play injured. As a result, Trevon Flowers had his hands full more than he usually does at free safety. Add in the fact that he was doing it against Ole Miss’ offense with Matt Corral at quarterback, and he may have had the toughest job on the day.
However, Flowers came through. He had a key interception in the fourth quarter with the Vols trailing 31-26, one that should have set them up for a go-ahead score. It was Corral’s first interception on the year, and while a pass rush and a deflection had a role in the pick, Flowers was still the one to come down with it.
That play alone puts him on this list, but Flowers also played well the whole night and was a huge reason Tennessee football slowed down Ole Miss’ passing attack. The rushing of Corral is a different story, but that’s not Flowers’ responsibility, so he still gets credit for this pick.