KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — It'd be hard to find anyone that played harder than Jauan Jennings on Saturday. It'd be hard to find anyone that loves football more than Jennings.
He led Tennessee with seven receptions for 108 yards and a touchdown, but it wasn't enough to pull the Vols out of downward spiral in a 38-30 loss to Georgia State, who was picked to finish last in the Sun Belt Group A division.
"I feel like this team, they weren't juiced up on the sideline," Jennings told the media on Tuesday. "As a leader I take full responsibility for that, I've gotta be in their heads, in their ears 24/7 and as a leader I admit that I did not do that. This week and from here on out, that's what I'm going to focus on doing is making sure this team knows we have a lot of fight left in us and we're not going to give up."
Several Tennessee players reiterated that the Vols have put the Georgia State game in the past, they aren't dwelling on it and have moved on to preparing for Saturday's 7 p.m. kickoff against BYU.
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Safety Theo Jackson said the Vols met as a team on Sunday without the coaches and went over what they need to do to make sure a loss like that doesn't happen again. He pointed out seniors Jennings, Nigel Warrior and Darrell Taylor as the most vocal leaders in the last few days.
"I am the leader, so we're going to get this right," Jennings said. "I'm not worried about anything else other than this team because it's a great program and we've got great people here and a lot of people with talent that are ready to go out and execute and we're going to get that done."
"We responded well, these guys are hungry, I'm hungry we're all hungry, I just can't wait to get back on Saturday and show how much we prepared for this game," Jennings said.
"I didn't sign up for a one-game fight, this is a twelve-game fight."