Gene Chizik fires back at Tennessee football critics after Week 3

Tennessee finally managed to get in the win column in Week 3. SEC Network analyst Gene Chizik liked what he saw from the Vols and praised them for not quitting after a rough start to the 2019 season.

“I saw a team that was improved and I saw a team that wanted to come out there and make a statement,” Chizik said on SEC Now. “They didn’t care about what anybody said about them all week. This team didn’t quit. They didn’t quit last week and they didn’t quit two weeks ago.

“I want to make this clear to everybody out there who has painted the narrative that this is a bad football team. Have they played great? Not necessarily, but this team will win some games.”

The former Auburn head coach was impressed that Jeremy Pruitt’s squad fired on all cylinders Saturday.

“Today was a complete game,” Chizik said. “Opening kickoff, 58-yard return. You got blocked punts. Touchdown passes. Today, they loved to play the game. They were efficient. They did everything they could’ve done to go out there and kind of shut everybody up.”

Chizik addressed the obvious – that it’s only a win over an FCS win – and also pointed out that Week 2’s loss to BYU doesn’t look as bad after what the Cougars did in Week 3.

“I know what they’re going to say, ‘It’s Chattanooga.’ But they lost last week to BYU. And BYU beat 24th-ranked USC today. That was a not a bad loss. They’re getting better. They need to improve, there’s no question, but this team has not quit.”

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.