In a season of turmoil in Knoxville, Tennessee quarterback Jarrett Guarantano said he believes the offensive line still has confidence in the skill players despite the Vols falling to 3-4 following a humbling defeat at Alabama.

Guarantano, who started his first road game at Alabama in what turned out to be a 45-7 loss, said it was still the correct decision.

“The game wasn’t too big at all for me versus Alabama,” Guarantano told reporters this week. “It was the right time and everything was going well for me mentally. So I think the speed of the game hasn’t really changed much.”

Guarantano carried what seemed to be a team message of the Vols being seemingly one or two plays away from having a strong game.

Because of the confidence among the players, the quarterback said, “We’re ready to explode these next few weeks and play well. … I think there are a lot of things we’ve done that have shot us in the foot, and I think with the way we’ve handled things, I think we’re ready to keep it going, and actually get on a good foot and process things and keep it going.”

Tight end Ethan Wolf spoke of a lot of frustrations in the last month about something the players dedicate their lives to every day.

“We all put our heart and souls into this 365 days of the year, and when you don’t capitalize on those 12 opportunities, it’s frustrating,” he said. “There’s times where maybe we’re one guy away, or a bad read or something like that that is so close from us exploding. Throughout the game, if we just pick up one guy in protection, we have numerous big plays of guys running free down the field.”

Tennessee will travel to Kentucky on Saturday for a 7:30 p.m. game to be televised on the SEC Network.