The stars were aligning for a disaster class. For years, Josh Heupel’s uptempo attack put the Kentucky defensive backs out on islands and wrecked the Wildcat defense. Three cornerbacks were sidelined before the game even started. Then J.Q. Hardaway started cramping, leaving only two healthy players at the position.

Despite the incredibly difficult circumstances, the defense held up their end of the bargain for most of the game, limiting the Vols to 21 points over the first three quarters of the football game and only one reception of 30 yards or more.

“Overall, considering the situation we were in with being extremely thin, I thought we held up okay,” Mark Stoops said after the loss.

“The inexperience showed late with not being tight enough on that third down there late. We have to tighten up there. Obviously, we had an inexperienced guy out there, but we have to coach him. We have to do a better job with that play. But overall, in a tough situation and being down a lot of guys, they fought pretty hard.”

Mark Stoops is referring to two third downs in the fourth quarter that Kentucky could not get off the field, ultimately leading to the game-clinching touchdown for the Vols with five minutes to play. A few drives before, there was one more third down that could have swung the game Kentucky’s way.

Addison Almost Made a Game-Changing Interception

True freshman Terhyon Nichols has logged legitimate reps all season, but tonight needed to play starter’s reps. He shared some of them with Nasir Addison, a true sophomore primarily used in special teams that was tasked to play 34 snaps at cornerback.

Neither looked like a fish out of water. Addison may have gotten away with a PI early in the game, but late in the game he damn near flipped the script. Pressure in the backfield forced Nico Iamaleava‘s third-down pass to sail way off-target. Addison was there and got two hands on the ball, but he couldn’t catch the interception. If it wasn’t a pick six, Kentucky would have started the ball inside the red zone down 14-10. Instead, the Wildcats threw an interception of their own on the ensuing possession.

Even though the game-changing play didn’t happen, there was plenty of good sprinkled in. Nichols had another impressive pass break-up and Addison only allowed two receptions on four targets.

“They’re some ballplayers, real life. They love the game of football, Nas and Rhy. Shout out to both of them, and JQ on the other side, handling his business,” Zion Childress said after the game. “We’re thin, but if we get prepared by the best, everybody’s going to be ready to play and when those guys’ names were called, they made plays.”