Tennessee Trying to Put Oklahoma Loss in Rear View Mirror

Even though Tennessee blew their chance to land a truly, signature win against Oklahoma, head coach Butch Jones wants everyone to stay up-beat.

"As the caretaker of Tennessee football, I refuse to allow any negativity to creep in or around our football program. We have way too much positive going on."

Said quarterback Josh Dobbs,"Tough loss, which was a given. Just remember this feeling because we don’t want to have it again."

    Jones says Saturday’s loss shows a ton of progress compared to the Oklahoma game in 2014.

"A year ago we played this football team, and we were non-competitive. I believe we had minus 17 of 19 yards rushing into the third quarter."

    Disappointment is something every college football team must deal with at some point during the season.

Said Jones,"Everyone wants to push that red panic button across the country when something happens with their team. Winning in college football is hard. Half the teams lose every single week, so you have to keep things in perspective, and you just have to keep grinding. We will stick to those ingredients, and we’ll continue to work to be a better football team."

    For Tennessee, the bulk of the season still lies ahead of them.

Said defensive back Brian Randolph,"We still have all of our dreams in front of us. We can still win the East. Still win the SEC Championship. Still make it to the the playoffs."

Added Jones,"We will be in a lot of close games. There are going to be a lot of games that take on this personality in moving forward. We haven’t been competitive in the past, but we are competitive now."
  Tennessee hosts Western Carolina on Saturday night at seven. The Vols SEC opener on September 26th at Florida will be televised at 3:30pm on WDEF News 12.