Tennessee football’s 34-20 loss at Alabama all but ended its goal of winning the SEC East in the conference’s final year with divisions. That combined with the circumstances of the loss— blowing a 13-point halftime lead— sets Tennessee up for a possible let down game.
While the Vols’ championship aspirations are very unlikely, there’s still a lot to play for and Saturday’s matchup at Kentucky is no easy task.
“As we move on, I sense the player disappointment this morning, at the same time when we walked out of the team meeting room, I got to cut it clean and gotta take the lessons moving forward, but we gotta go,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said on Monday.
While the disappointment might have lingered, Tennessee’s veterans have by no means given up on the season and are excited for the next opportunity to get back on the field.
“Just eager to get back on the field,” running back Dylan Sampson said Tuesday. “After games like that I think everybody just wants to put the cleats back on and go out there and let it off. That’s a hard loss so we’re all just eager to get back on the field.”
“I think we’re ready to go out there again and show what we can do,” linebacker Aaron Beasley said. “Last week didn’t go the way we wanted to so I feel real eager to get back out there and play some ball.”
Sampson and Beasley are two of Tennessee’s leaders and they’ve lost no motivation or passion after last week’s rivalry loss at Alabama.
Tennessee played one of its best halves of the season in the opening 30 minutes, building a 20-7 halftime advantage before coming out flat and putting up little resistance as Alabama outscored the Vols 27-0 in the second half.
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Having the golden opportunity to earn Tennessee’s first win in Tuscaloosa since 2003 and not capitalizing on it made the defeat sting anymore, but the Vols’ leaders said all the right things about it on Tuesday.
“We have no choice but to (flip the page),” Sampson said. “You let it hurt on Sunday, watch the film on Monday and then you got to clear it. That’s what everybody on our team is forcing everybody else to do. That’s why you put your trust in your brother to hold each other accountable. We don’t have any other choice but to wipe it clean and go out and focus on the next game which is Kentucky.”
“That’s what we preach all the time,” Beasley said. “Next play, snap clear and in this case it’s next game. We have to focus on what’s next. Coming up at Kentucky. I feel like it’s uber important that we do that. Forget about what happened last week and focus on how we can get better this week.”
In each of Tennessee’s losses this season, they’ve been unable to snap-and-clear when things went wrong on the road. At Florida, a poor second quarter cratered Tennessee’s chances. At Alabama, it was a disastrous first 22 minutes of the second half.
Responding in a game and in a week between games are two different challenges, but the Vols must do what they didn’t do on the field last week by overcoming adversity.
While Tennessee is desperate entering the matchup, so is Kentucky. The Wildcats (5-2, 2-2 SEC) won their first five games of the season before dropping consecutive games against Georgia and Missouri before last week’s open date. Kentucky is well rested and just as hungry as Tennessee ahead of the rivalry game.
“Our mindset is ready to go,” Sampson said. “At the end of the day we got to get a win. Somehow, someway we have to pull out a win. That’s what we’re going to do.”
