Alabama looked like the number one team in the nation, like it has all season, while jumping out to a 21-0 lead in the first seven minutes of a 58-21 win over Tennessee.
The win extends the Crimson Tide's streak over the Vols to 12 games, the longest in the history of the series. The 58 points scored by Alabama are the most Tennessee has ever allowed in Neyland Stadium.
Alabama is Alabama, but first-year Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt, who spent the last two seasons as the Tide's defensive coordinator, wasn't happy with the way some of his Vols approached the game.
"I think we learned a lot about our football team today. There are some guys we had on our team that this game was way too big for them, and I think everyone was able to see that," Pruitt said during his post-game press conference.
"Going into it, we knew that we would have to play a perfect game to have a chance to beat them, but what I wanted to see was I wanted to see our guys compete and play hard and keep improving. There’s a lot of guys on our team who did. The unfortunate part is if you have some guys who don’t, it really doesn’t show up in the game."
Alabama out-gained the Vols 217-6 in total yards in the first quarter while jumping out to a 28-0 lead. Pruitt thought Tennessee didn't have enough players that wanted to do things the right way and he had no problem going into specifics on what he means by that.
“When you’ve got guys man-to-man when they run down the field, and you don’t even guard them," Pruitt said. "When you can’t keep your poise enough to look to the sideline and get the defensive call, that’s pretty elementary. You call a corner blitz, and we tippy-toe in there and nobody blocks us, and they throw a 50-yard touchdown. I bet you when they (the Alabama coaches) call a corner blitz, I bet you their corner didn’t tippy-toe up in there.”
Pruitt made sure to mention several times that there are players in the program that are trying to do everything asked of them and are working hard to do things the right way, but he needs more of them. He told his players he needs their help recruiting guys who want to do things the right way.
Tennessee has only four seniors contributing significantly and is the only team in the country that hasn't had a senior start on offense. Pruitt mentioned the four seniors stat when asked how quickly the program can get to a point where it can compete with Alabama. He said they'll have an opportunity to trade those four for 25 in this year's recruiting class.
