You don’t lose to Kentucky.
That was the message from senior cornerback Alontae Taylor this week, speaking on the Tennessee-Kentucky series. The Volunteers did lose to Kentucky in 2020 — they were blown out, actually — which left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth for over a year.
Fast forward to 2021, just days after he made that statement, and it was Alontae Taylor delivering perhaps the biggest play of the game for Tennessee.
Both sides were trading touchdowns at that point, and it felt like a game that would be determined by who would blink first.