Tennessee's defense scored a touchdown at Alabama on Saturday and as Daniel Bituli ran into the endzone, Rashaan Gaulden followed behind him with both hands held high, displaying an inappropriate gesture to Alabama fans in the stands.
After the game, he stood up at the coaches' press conference podium and apologized.
"I want to make an apology to the University of Tennessee and the University of Alabama for my gesture after the pick-six by Daniel Bituli," Gaulden said.
"That remark that I showed is very out of character. That's not how my parents raised me. That's not how a leader of the team should show emotions on the field and I really sincerely apologize to the student section of Alabama for disrespecting them."
Gaulden said the gesture came out of frustration during Tennessee's 45-7 loss and he immediately regretted it.
"I walked to the sidelines like, 'man, what am I doing?' Just a lot of frustration building up to that. I just know that's not how my parents raised me. They raised me to be grounded, humble and I just feel really bad for disrespecting them and the University of Tennessee and Alabama as well."
Tennessee head coach Butch Jones said that type of behavior is unacceptable in his program.
"That's something that will be dealt with internally in our football program," Jones said. "That's not who we are, that's not what we're about, but he knew that. We spoke about it and he feels awful about it and it's one of those things of just overall being a mature football team. That's something that we don't accept in this program and he understands that."
Gaulden is a redshirt junior defensive back from Spring Hill, Tennessee.