Josh Heupel revealed reaction to Alabama's decision to play Jermaine Burton after viral video

Josh Heupel sent Alabama home from Knoxville with a loss, but one of the biggest stories from the game happened after the clock struck zero.

To illustrate, the chaos of Tennessee’s 52-49 win over the Crimson Tide — which snapped a 15-year losing streak and prompted fans to storm the field to celebrate — caused videos to appear on social media showing on-field interactions between fans and players. Allegedly, Alabama wide receiver Jermaine Burton was part of at least two unfortunate incidents with Volunteers fans, and TMZ and the alleged victims claim to have been struck by him.

In an alleged incident, a fan taking video from on the field runs past Burton – who is seen more clearly in front of the camera – before the camera turns and shakes momentarily. A fan later posted it with the caption, “Jermaine Burton punching a Tennessee fan after the ‘Bama loss.”

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Afterwards, many called for Burton to at least be suspended for Alabama’s following game, which turned out to be a victory over Mississippi State. Alas, the Crimson Tide elected not to suspend Burton, and Heupel was asked to give his thoughts during the SEC Coaches Teleconference.

“I’m going to be honest, I haven’t seen the video or paid much attention to anything that’s happening outside of our program,” Heupel responded, asked if Burton should’ve been suspended for last weekend’s game. “There’s enough going on here in Knoxville that we’ve got to continue to develop our roster and our program, so don’t really deal with hypotheticals as far as that happening inside of our own program.”

Evidently, Josh Heupel has tunnel vision — only focused on what has an impact on his team moving forward. Still, one has to wonder what the Volunteers coach would do if faced with the same situation.

Nick Saban explains decision not to suspend Jermaine Burton following incident with Tennessee fan

Moreover, Alabama head coach Nick Saban explained the decision to play Burton and not suspend him. He said some people on the Alabama team were scared and now, the wide receiver is in a counseling program. Saban thinks if everyone knew the full story, they would agree with his decision to not suspend Burton.

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“I don’t know how many of you have ever been in a situation like that,” Saban said. “But, I talked to him. He was scared, I was scared. Some of our other players were scared. I think you learn to respect other people because we have a responsibility to do that, regardless of the circumstance that we’re in. I talked to the guy. We have him in a counseling program.

“It’s not an anger management program as people announced today. Nobody ever said that. That’s not the problem, that’s not the issue. But, it’s about having the proper respect for other people. I didn’t think it was necessary to suspend the guy. If you knew the whole story, maybe you wouldn’t either but I am not going to divulge that.”

Burton was the second-leading receiver for Alabama on Saturday, finishing with 40 yards. Although he only had two receptions, it was a productive day for the former Georgia transfer. While Burton continues to go through some things off the field, the production on the field has not been affected.