Vols defender comments on what went wrong against South Carolina and explains why it won't happen again
If not for one disastrous night in Columbia in November, the Tennessee Vols would be prepping for a College Football Playoff game this week. The Vols' shocking 63-38 loss to then-unranked South Carolina essentially eliminated the Vols from the playoff. Tennessee still landed in a great bowl game — the Orange Bowl against Clemson on […]
If not for one disastrous night in Columbia in November, the Tennessee Vols would be prepping for a College Football Playoff game this week.
The Vols' shocking 63-38 loss to then-unranked South Carolina essentially eliminated the Vols from the playoff.
Tennessee still landed in a great bowl game — the Orange Bowl against Clemson on December 30 in Miami — but the playoff was the goal and the Vols came up just short.
On Tuesday, Tennessee redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Bryson Eason was asked about the South Carolina game and what went wrong that night.
"That South Carolina game hurt a lot of the guys in the room," said Eason on Tuesday. "I know it hurt me. It motivated us a lot. It kinda messed up what we wanted to do, but it's all good. We just gotta keep pushing, keep moving forward and keep getting better."
When asked exactly what went wrong against the Gamecocks, Eason put the blame on his own position unit (the defensive line).
"To be honest, I don't have just a direct answer for that," said Eason. "I just feel like — I'm going to be put that on the D-line. We should've played a lot better. Rushed the quarterback more…impact the quarterback and mess him up. It was just one of those days for us."
Eason told reporters that Tennessee's preparation will prevent a repeat of the South Carolina game from happening in the future.
"With the way we prepare," said Eason in response to a question about the Vols can avoid another letdown. "Make sure that we prepare with 100 percent, dialed into every little thing the coaches are trying to do. We watch film, we study the opponent, and things like that to make sure that what happened at South Carolina doesn't happen again."
Because of all the success the Vols have had this season, it's easy to forget that this program is still in its infancy under Josh Heupel.
Everyone involved in the loss to the Gamecocks — from coaches, to players, to support staff — learned an important lesson that night in Columbia.
Those are lessons that programs going through a rebuild have to learn. And Tennessee learned that lesson the hard way.
But it sounds like it won't be an issue in the future. The Vols responded well the next week against a solid Vanderbilt team. And it certainly appears that Tennessee's players are committed to not letting another letdown happen on their watch.
