You can’t overstate how bad a 38-30 loss to a Sun Belt team that went 2-10 last year is. Tennessee football was horrible in every aspect of the game, and there are very few positives to come out of the Vols’ loss.
However, not everybody is at fault for what happened. Plenty of players on Rocky Top did their part, even if they did not have help elsewhere. Football is the ultimate team sport, so some players can look superb in a hideous loss.
That was the case on Saturday. Quite a few Tennessee football players stepped up, many of whom showed dramatic improvement over last year, and it still couldn’t stop them from trailing 38-23 late in the fourth quarter.