There hasn’t been much to celebrate for Tennessee football of late. After scoring their first touchdown in more than three weeks the Vols flipped off the crowd.
Tennessee was more than five touchdown underdog on the road against Alabama on Saturday. They went into the locker room at halftime trailing 21-0. After extending the lead to 28-0 and inserting their backup quarterback it looked like Alabama would roll to a shutout win over this hapless Vols squad.
Then, with Alabama in the red zone, Tennessee struck for their first touchdown since Sep. 23. Daniel Bituli caught a misguided pass from freshman Tua Tagovailoa and returned it 97 yards for the score. The touchdown was the fourth longest pick six in program history and for the first time in the game it looked like the Vols had some semblance of momentum.
Then defensive back Rashaan Gaulden made a bad decision. After the play was over at the Vols had put points on the board. The redshirt junior decided it was a good idea to raise two fingers to the Alabama crowd.
Tennessee scores a TD and celebrates with a double-finger salute to the Alabama crowd. https://t.co/KDw6joXcKI
— The Sporting News (@sportingnews) October 21, 2017
This isn’t the first time this year that a player has made the decision to give the bird to an opposing fan base. Texas A&M wide receiver Will Gunnell got caught making the gesture at home to opposing fans after the Aggies trailed Louisiana at half time.
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One touchdown isn’t going to be enough to spark an upset bid by the Vols. A loss to Alabama today might be enough to warrant the end of Butch Jones’ tenure as the head coach at Tennessee. Regardless, that’s one decision that the Vols’ defensive back is going to want to have back. The Tide responded with back-to-back scoring drives to extend their lead to 38-7.