Joe Milton details how Tennessee beat itself with self-inflicted wounds

On Saturday, the Tennessee Volunteers were upset in The Swamp by the Florida Gators. However, as quarterback Joe Milton explained, it had less to do with anything Florida did and more to do with what Tennessee did during the game.

In particular, Milton feels that Tennessee became the victim of self-inflicted wounds in the game against Florida.

“Just us not being focused,” Joe Milton said. “Just shooting ourselves in the foot. That’s all it is.”

Milton also added that he didn’t think playing in The Swamp had a major impact on Tennessee. Instead, it simply came down to the Volunteers not taking care of business.

“Not as much. Environments like this, as a team, you’ve got to come together as a collective and you’ve just got to execute plays. We didn’t start off doing that in the beginning of the first half. So, that led to the score tonight.”

One of the mistakes Tennessee made during the game was a Joe Milton interception. That interception was the first he’s thrown in a Volunteers’ uniform and he took the full blame for it.

“It happened, man. It happened. I can’t go back and change what happened. You only can learn from it. Totally on me. I understand.”

The game ended as a two-score loss for Tennessee. Among the issues that Tennessee had in the game was an 0 for 3 on fourth down attempts and 10 penalties called against them, some of which were incredibly costly.

“Absolutely, it’s all self-inflicted wounds. You look at it and you’ll be like, ‘Oh, man. Oh, we lost to Florida,’ but you go in there and you see all the self problems we made, the self things that we did to ourselves that messed up the play or messed up the drive,” Milton said.

“Like those small things we can go change, but you’ve got to keep believing in yourself as a team. That’s my message to the team, keep believing in yourself and go execute. That’s all that matters.”

Next week, Tennessee will return home and look to bounce back against UTSA.

Paul Finebaum is worried about Tennessee

After the loss to Florida, Paul Finebaum expressed his concern over Tennessee this season.

“I think that was Tennessee’s third loss in its last five SEC games,” Paul Finebaum said. “Remember the South Carolina game last year? You have to be a little, not a little, seriously concerned if you’re a Tennessee fan because I sat with some of the experts yesterday and they told me, ‘Joe Milton, he’ll be fine.’ Well, he wasn’t fine.”