KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Vols were flagged for 13 penalties for 93 yards in Saturday's 35-13 loss to Alabama. Tennessee averaged five penalties per game in its first six games before Saturday.
Eight of those 13 penalties occurred in the red zone (or red area), inside the 20-yard line.
"I fully support (SEC Coordinator of Football Officials) Steve Shaw and everything that goes about the SEC with our officials, it's a tough job. It's a very tough job. Things happen very fast. There's probably three or four things that happened in the game that I'm complaining to the officials about and I was wrong. When I watched the tape they were right and I was wrong," Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt said during his Monday press conference.
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"Now, there's probably three or four other things that happened in the game that I don't agree with and there's nothing that Steve could tell me or anybody else could tell me that I would agree with what happened in the game, whether it was a flag on us or not a flag on us," Pruitt said.
One call in particular seemed to have a major impact on the game. Tennessee trailed by eight points and had Alabama facing a third-and-ten at its own 24-yard line. Vols outside linebacker Darrell Taylor hit Crimson Tide QB Mac Jones as he threw causing an incompletion but Taylor was flagged for unnecessary roughness, apparently for pushing down on Jones as Taylor got up off of him, giving Alabama a first down. The Tide scored a touchdown later in the drive to extend its lead to 15 points.
"The call on Darrell Taylor was absolutely not a penalty. It's not a penalty. Would it change the game? I don't know. I know they would've punted instead of going on and scoring that possession. Could they have scored the next possession? Sure," Pruitt said.
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"We make mistakes as coaches and they're going to make mistakes as officials, players make mistakes, we all do, nobody's perfect but there's a few critical plays in that game and I'm not saying it would've changed the outcome of the game and there was probably some against us too but unfortunately, we're all held accountable and from an accountability standpoint, it's tough. What's the repercussions here?"
Pruitt was yelling at the refs all night in Tuscaloosa and it wasn't just penalties against Tennessee that he was unhappy with but also calls he felt should've been made against Alabama.
"Was there a couple things in there that I felt like they took shots at our quarterback? Absolutely. Their kids are playing hard just like our kids but we had a couple targeting calls the last two weeks and the definition of targeting, the officials in the game they throw one (a flag) but it gets overturned in Birmingham or the replay booth or whatever. Just the consistency there, it's a tough deal for everybody involved and the accountability's even tougher," Pruitt said.
Vols freshman quarterback Brian Maurer left the game with an apparent concussion after taking a hit in the first quarter. Flags were thrown for targeting on the play but the call was overturned after replay.
Tennessee starting linebacker Henry To'o To'o had to sit out the first half of the Alabama game after he was ejected for targeting in the second half of last week's win over Mississippi State. Vols linebacker Daniel Bituli was ejected from the Alabama game in the second quarter for targeting after he hit receiver Jerry Jeudy with the crown of his helmet as he was going to the ground.
"I think it is targeting. He hit the guy with the crown of his helmet, I don't know where he hit him at but it doesn't matter. I really don't know what I could tell Daniel what to do different because the guy's six inches off the ground and it's hard to go from here to there without hitting him there. It is what it is. But there's also rules to it that in my opinion there was probably a couple other targetings in the game that weren't called and that's what I don't understand," Pruitt said.
"The inconsistencies, the accountability, repercussion of what really goes into it, it's a tough deal but everybody's doing their best to try to make our game the best it possibly can be."
Tennessee's defense held Alabama to season lows in points, passing yards, and total yards but the Tide were without star quarterback Tua Tagovailoa for the entire second half.
"We're moving on, there's nothing we can do about last week, we had 60 minutes to do that. As coaches, as players, we all contributed in the loss. I thought our players played extremely hard," Pruitt said.
The Vols will now host South Carolina at Neyland Stadium at 4 p.m. on Saturday and must win four of their final five games to earn a bowl game.