It would take someone in need of Mr. Magoo-level corrective lenses to not see this one coming.
As you no doubt know by now, Alabama took Tennessee to the woodshed Saturday afternoon in Tuscaloosa. The Vols did save a slight sliver of their collective manhood as they scored a touchdown for the first time since the second quarter of the Sept. 23 win over previously winless UMass, a span that stretched nearly 13 full quarters of playing time.
In the aftermath of that defensive touchdown, however, defensive back Rashaan Gaulden decided to offer up a double-digit, middle-finger salute to the Crimson Tide student section that resulted in a 15-yard penalty. In the aftermath of that gesture, Gaulden offered up an apology.
“I would like to issue an apology to the University of Tennessee and the University of Alabama for my gesture after the pick-six by (Daniel) Bituli,” Gaulden said. “That remark that I showed was very out of character. That’s not how my parents raised me. That’s not how a leader of the team should show their emotions on the field.
“I really, sincerely apologize to the student section at Alabama for disrespecting them.”
Beleaguered head coach Butch Jones, who is likely out at some point after the end of the regular season if not sooner, certainly didn’t need something like this shedding even more negative light on his flailing football program. Jones stated that any punishment meted out to Gaulden will be handled internally.
“That’s something that will be dealt with internally in our football program, but that’s not who we are, that’s not what we’re about,” Jones said. “But, he knew that. We spoke about it, and he feels awful about it. It’s one of those things of overall just being a mature football team. But, again, that’s something that we don’t accept in this program and he understands that.”
Since we here, we’ll go ahead and offer this up as the current state of the once-proud UT football program.Butch Jones: 0-4 in SEC play twice at Tennessee. Derek Dooley: 3 times. From 1933-2009, Vols were 0-4 in SEC play four times.
— CollegeFootballTalk (@CFTalk) October 22, 2017
