Senior defensive back Alontae Taylor announced Dec. 1 his intentions to enter the 2022 NFL draft.
Taylor will not play in Tennessee’s bowl game.
Tennessee (7-5, 4-4 SEC) will play in the TransPerfect Music City Bowl against Purdue (8-4, 6-3 Big Ten) on Dec. 30 at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee. Kickoff is slated for 3 p.m. EST and ESPN will televise the matchup.
First-year Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel met with media Saturday and discussed Taylor’s decision to enter the 2022 NFL draft and not play in the Vols’ bowl game.
“I think for Alontae – I had an opportunity to sit down with him on the back end of it – he’s very thoughtful, took 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 the back half of the year as you guys started asking those questions, you want to be able to give good, concrete information to kids and have them make a really sound decision for themselves and I feel like Alontae did that. We’re going to help and support him in every way as he goes through the draft process, excited about his future. It’s a kid that has been a great leader from the time that he stepped on campus for us. For me, he’s been a great resource in just helping build the foundation of Tennessee football.
“A guy that battled through injury the last three weeks of the season and really those are things that not very many people knew. It’s an opportunity for him to get back and get healthy here before he ends up in that draft process.”
The 6-foot, 195-pound Taylor appeared in 45 games for the Vols from 2018-21, totaling 162 tackles, five tackles for a loss, four interceptions, 19 pass deflections and three forced fumbles.
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