Tennessee football’s season came to an end on Saturday night in a 42-17 loss against Ohio State on Saturday night. It was the most points that any opponent has scored against Tennessee all season as the Buckeyes torched the Vols through the air.
Following the game, Tennessee defensive coordinator Tim Banks discussed Ohio State’s success through the air, struggles for the front four and much more. Here’s everything Banks said.
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On the pass defense’s issues
“Yeah, they’re a really good program, a lot of good players. They just really did a good job tonight. They didn’t do a ton of things that we necessarily hadn’t seen on tape. Our hats off to those guys, but they did a tremendous job tonight, and obviously it wasn’t our best showing.”
On the message to the team in the middle of the game
“Yeah, we’ve played a lot of good football around here, and we’ve beaten a lot of good teams. You’re going to see good skill week in and week out. I thought our guys competed all night and gave it their best effort. Just unfortunately we just came up a little bit short tonight.”
On not being able to get stops in the third quarter
“Yeah, it’s always difficult. We had a couple calls that didn’t quite go our way based on the situation. I mean, again, I don’t want to be a broken record, but you’ve just got to take your hat off to Ohio State. They did a tremendous job tonight.
Like I said, I have the utmost faith in our guys, and I’m very proud of what they’ve done to this point. It’s super disappointing. We only got a couple stops. To beat a team of that caliber, we obviously need to play our best game, and unfortunately we didn’t do that tonight.”
On Ohio State controlling the line of scrimmage
“Yeah, I think anytime — it goes hand in hand, your back and your front, different things you have to do coverage-wise to give a front the best chance to be successful and vice versa. We just weren’t able to find that combination tonight to give us a chance to play winning defense?”
On how much of Ohio State’s offensive success was about the Buckeyes compared to the Vols’ failures
“Yeah, I think the truth always lies somewhere in the middle. You’ve obviously got to be a defense that doesn’t beat themselves. Obviously we’re playing great talent. Obviously we’ll evaluate the tape a little bit closer to have a better answer, but I think overall there were some things that we’d like to do better, and unfortunately we didn’t.”
On losing a lot of veterans on the line of scrimmage
“Well, for me, I told those guys in the locker room, when a lot of guys decided to leave here when we took this job, those guys stayed. So I’ll forever be grateful for that. I love those guys. They gave us everything they had.
Then the class that came right after them, we were still building, and those guys came to be a part of it. We’re going to miss those guys. It’s going to be very hard to replace the leadership that those guys gave us, but we feel really good about some of the young guys that we’ve brought in and some of the guys that show some promise early in the year. The standard will be the standard. We’re excited about the youth that we have. Yep, we’ll miss the leadership, but we’ve definitely got some guys that are going to pick it up.”
