It's about time for Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel to have a meeting with defensive back Boo Carter in his office. Last season, Carter was beloved all over town, as he was a stud on defense and the youngster was as reliable as can be in the secondary.
Since then, however, things have changed in a big way for No. 23. There were transfer rumors multiple times during the offseason and he reportedly skipped team workouts and got into a heated argument with teammates. This led to Heupel making him earn his way back to being a full participant at practice.
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Carter didn't start the season-opener against Syracuse as part of his punishment, but he's obviously getting more and more time on the field as the campaign progresses. Against Kentucky, however, the Wildcats' second TD of the night was infuriating to watch, as people are convinced Carter gave up on the play when it looked like he could have prevented six from being put on the board:
Boo Carter stopped running, just quit pic.twitter.com/bHem43eSsf
— gmannVOLS (@gmannVOLS) October 26, 2025
Tennessee football fans are not happy with Boo Carter with his play vs. Kentucky
It was bad enough that Carter got burned on that route, but why in the world did he stop sprinting there at the end? A quick look on social media shows that plenty of Vols fans are NOT happy at all with his lack of effort. Can you blame them for that?
This is a must-win game for the Vols. There are no excuses for Tennessee going up against Kentucky in Lexington, as they entered kickoff as 7.5-point favorites. With a loss, the dream of reaching the College Football Playoff will come to an end.
Because of that, everyone needs to 100 percent be giving it their all. A loss would be catastrophic for the Vols and it's something Heupel wants to avoid at all costs. This is something that he needs to emphasize to Carter as soon as possible. If he keeps just going at half speed, then the Vols and Tim Banks will need to send him to the bench and keep him there.