Alabama football’s defensive MVP for the Tennessee game was a difficult choice. So much so that even the SEC didn’t want to make the call.

The conference named two Crimson Tide players as its co-defensive players of the week. Both edge-rusher Yhonzae Pierre and cornerback Zabien Brown split the honor following UA’s 37-20 win, the league announced on Monday.

Brown made the highlight play of the game at the very end of the first half. Tennessee was threatening to pull within a field goal, at Alabama’s one-yard line.

Volunteer quarterback Joey Aguilar telegraphed a throw to the sideline. Brown saw it coming, jumped the route and picked off the pass.

Brown then took it all the way back, avoiding the one man who could have possibly stopped him. The play gave the Crimson Tide a 16-point lead, which it never looked back from.

Up front, Pierre had an enormous game, getting after Aguilar. Before Saturday’s game, he had tallied one career sack, earlier this season.

Against the Volunteers, Pierre notched three, for a total of 31 yards. He finished the game with six total tackles, five of them solo.

“He’s been right there,” Kalen DeBoer said of Pierre after the game. “And I’m really pleased with the last couple weeks, what he’s done. He played a lot of snaps last week. I don’t know what his number was today. But with just the depth chart there and the guys that are out, we’re asking more out of him, and he’s rising to the occasion.

“He works hard in practice. He’s built his stamina up more to where he can compete for four quarters now. And that’s just really cool to see. It’s really him understanding that, man, any play, I can go win one-on-one, and making sure he’s lined up and does his assignment and just strains from start to finish in each and every play.”

Alabama is back in action on Saturday, facing South Carolina on the road. The game in Columbia is scheduled to kick off at 2:30 p.m. CT and will be aired on ABC.

An Alabama woman killed in a plane crash alongside her father and sister is being remembered as a dedicated flight instructor.

Lainey Anderson was a certified flight instructor at Sanders Flight Training Center in Jasper.

The crash happened while Anderson, her father, Huntsville pilot Mark Anderson and younger sister, Ellie, were en route to a family vacation.

Misty Anderson, the victims’ wife and mother and a Huntsville banker, was on a commercial flight to meet her family in Montana.

Lainey was a graduate of Auburn University professional flight program and a was a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority.

“Lainey was an exceptional and skilled aviator and a beloved flight instructor at our Jasper campus,” Sanders Aviation posted on Facebook. “She was dedicated to her craft and students.”

“Her Sanders family will remember her with love and admiration,” the post read. “God Bless you and keep you, Lainey.”

Ellie was a senior at Huntsville High School.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of a cherished member of the HHS Dance Team and a friend to many of our band and color guard students,” according to a social media post from Huntsville High School Band.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with her family, friends, teammates, and classmates during this difficult time.”

About 4:30 p.m. Friday, the Powell County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a possible downed aircraft.

The last known position was in the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana’s northern Powell County, said Sheriff Gavin Roselles, who is also the county’s coroner.

“Air resources were deployed from Malstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls and continued to search until around midnight.”

About 9 a.m. Saturday, Roselles said, a volunteer aircraft operating under the command of the Montana Department of Transportation Aeronautics Division, working off a weak ELT signal, located the twin-engine plane.

The scene was turned over to the U.S. Air Force which also had helicopters operating in the area, the sheriff said.

The plane was located in a remote, wooded area in Youngs Creek in the Bob Marshall Wilderness- North East of Seeley Lake.

Members of the Powell County Coroner’s Office, Missoula County Search and Rescue, the Seeley Lake Rural Fire Department with assistance from the Montana DNRC, arrived on scene around 4 p.m.

Anderson and his daughters were pronounced dead at the scene.

The sheriff’s office turned the investigation over to the FAA and NTSB.

After Alabama football finished beating Tennessee on Saturday, Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer fielded yet another question about his signature garment. Is he just wearing the black hoodie to humor fans, or is he actually superstitious about how much better his record with the Crimson Tide is when he wears it?

DeBoer, of course clad in the hoodie during his postgame press conference, laughed at the query.

“This isn’t new,” DeBoer said. “I’ve done this for years. But we’re gonna ride the momentum. I told the guys not to put any ashes, or get any ashes on it. Whatever works.”

A quick glance back through the internet archive shows DeBoer wearing a similar hoodie while the head coach at Washington and Fresno State. The current model remained undamaged from postgame victory cigars following the 37-20 win on Saturday.

Just as many things did at Alabama during Nick Saban’s tenure, from lucky pennies to Little Debbie cakes to Ferrari Wednesday, the fixation on DeBoer’s hoodie has exploded in recent weeks. It first attracted attention due to a viral social media post showing his Alabama record was markedly better when he wears the hoodie.

That mark moved to 14-2 on Saturday when the Tide avenged last year’s loss to the Volunteers.

Before Alabama’s win over Missouri last week, Tiger head coach Eli Drinkwitz jumped on the SEC’s weekly media teleconference to ask his Alabama counterpart if he planned on keeping up the tradition.

“Hey Kalen,” Drinkwitz began. “Are you gonna wear the black hoodie of death on the sideline this game, with us wearing black jerseys?”

DeBoer let Drinkwitz know that the hoodie would likely make the trip.

“Oh, coach Drink,” DeBoer said, pausing for a moment before continuing as Drinkwitz audibly laughed. “I gotta fit in somehow. More than likely. We’ll see what the forecast is. I kind of know, but yeah, I’m expecting that, so it’s kind of got its own life of its own right now.”

One of DeBoer’s hoodies from last season is currently on exhibit in the Paul W. Bryant Museum on campus in Tuscaloosa. The coach and his famous shirt will be back in action next week, when Alabama travels to South Carolina.