Tennessee cornerback Alontae Taylor reveals the two toughest he's had to cover

Playing in the SEC means playing with future pros — Tennessee defensive back Alontae Taylor got to experience that first hand when playing Alabama over his career. He pointed toward Jerry Jeudy and DeVonta Smith as being the two most difficult receivers he’s ever had to guard.

“I always say their ability to get in and out of breaks, [Jeudy and Smith’s] touchiness — those guys are really smooth on their routes, so being aggressive players, that can kind of be hard for me sometimes just because I can’t get my hands on shifty guys like that,” Taylor said ahead of his NFL Combine workouts.

His statement, however, is not echoed on the Tennessee-Alabama box scores over Taylor’s career. Compared to the rest of their career stats, Jeudy and Smith never had incredible breakout games against the Volunteers.

Jeudy lined up against Taylor and the rest of the UT defensive backs unit three times over his career, hauling in 11 receptions for 161 yards (48, 72, 41) and 1 touchdown. In Alabama’s 2020 Vitrus Bowl victory, Jeudy caught 6 passes for 204 yards and one touchdown.

Smith only played against Tennessee twice in his career and had similar numbers with 8 receptions for 91 yards and no scores. His game against the Volunteers in 2019 was the only time that season that the future Heisman Trophy winner would only have one reception in a game. Compare those all-time stats to Smith’s College Football Playoff championship victory’s when he caught 12 passes for 215 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Looking at these stats alone, scouts are likely clamoring to see what Taylor can do at the Combine after the success he’s had against NFL stars when they were playing in the SEC. Over his four-year career in Knoxville, Taylor had 162 tackles (including 60 this past season), 4 interceptions (1 pick-6) and 3 forced fumbles.

Taylor declared for the draft on Dec. 1 and decided to opt out of playing in the Music City Bowl against Purdue. Volunteers head coach Josh Heupel perviously commented on the Taylor’s decision prior to the game, giving him well-wishes in the process.

“I think for Alontae, I had an opportunity to sit down with him at the back end of it, he’s very thoughtful, he took the information, understood potentially where he was slotted, and made a good decision for him,” Heupel said. “At the end of the day, you guys have heard me say this, you want to be able to give good concrete information to kids to help them make a really sound decision for themselves. I feel like Alontae did that. We’re going to help and support him in every way as he goes through the draft process. 

“He’s been a great leader from the time he stepped on campus for us,” Heupel continued. “For me, he’s been a great resource in helping to build the foundation for Tennessee football. A guy that battled through injury the last three weeks of the season and things that not very many people knew. It’s an opportunity for him to get back and get healthy before he ends up in that draft process.”