Tennessee Vols quarterback Joe Milton made some comments after UT's 34-20 loss to Alabama on Saturday that illustrate the biggest issue for the Volunteers this season.
For whatever reason, the Vols are having a hard time putting together a complete 60 minute effort. And based on Milton's comments after the loss to Bama, it's because all 11 players on the field aren't doing their job for a full 60 minutes.
“We just wasn’t assignment-sound, certain guys wasn’t doing their job, taking turns," said Milton.
"I’ll take full responsibility for that, just because I’m the quarterback, but also I lead this team," added Milton. "It’s my team. So being able to take full responsibility in that and having guys assignment sound for the next game is going to be very important.”
Throughout the postgame press conference, Milton continued to harp on players needing to do their job at a high level.
"Just got to do your assignment," explained Milton. "You’ve got to do your job at a high level. That’s all we’ve been preaching all week. Just do your job at a high level. And we stopped doing our job at a high level, so therefore we got the result that we didn’t want."
“I mean, guys just wasn’t playing at a high level. And as a team you’ve got to take full responsibility of that," added Milton. "You’ve got to play as one team and one assignment. We’ve got to play on assignment. We’ve got to play accordingly. You’ve got to be able to communicate and be able to process it. Nothing changed from the first quarter to the second quarter. Just got to be able to go no matter what.”
It seems clear that not everyone is doing their job on every play. And it's tough to win a game in Tuscaloosa or Gainesville -- even when Alabama and Florida aren't at their best -- if all 11 aren't doing their job on every single play.
Of course, that's a tough thing for any team to accomplish. It's easier said than done to keep the intensity for every play of a physical road game. But it's what elite teams find a way to do.
It feels like the Vols might be a victim of their own success from last season. Tennessee made it look easy last year. And it feels like some players -- to be clear, I don't think this is a team wide issue or an indictment of any players on the Vols' roster -- entered the 2023 season thinking it would be just as easy as it was last season.
But the reason it looked easy for the Vols last season is because they put it together for a full 60 minutes in every game except the South Carolina game (the Georgia loss was simply a loss on the road to the eventual national champions...it happens).
It's especially important to keep the intensity and play every play like it's the last play of the game on the road. And Tennessee, again, based on Milton's comments, didn't do that on Saturday night. When you combine that aspect of the game with the incredibly poor officiating, you have the recipe for a loss.
Tennessee showed in the first half what they can be when they're at their best. When everyone is doing their job, and that includes the play-calling (which was abysmal in the second half), then the Vols can compete with anyone. But when they let their guard down (which linebacker Elijah Herring suggested the Vols did in the second half), then they can lose to anyone in the SEC. That's college football in a nutshell.
UT's players need to dig deep down the stretch. They can still end the season as a 10 or 11 win team. The talent is there. But if they want to reach double digit wins, they can't have another second half like they had against Alabama. Everyone on the roster, from the coaching staff to the third stringers, has to find a way to carry the fight for 60 minutes in every game remaining on the schedule this season.
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