The Day's Summary

Two days after the fact, Tennessee's 26-10 dismantling of Alabama was still producing headlines, and Tuesday turned the win into hardware and history. DeSean Bishop, whose 32 carries for 159 yards and two touchdowns powered the offense, was named the Doak Walker National Running Back of the Week — rich irony for a back left off the award's own preseason watch list. Two more Volunteers collected SEC weekly honors, and the university confirmed what everyone in the building already knew: the Neyland Stadium crowd peaked at 130.3 decibels, a verified college football record, the loudest moment arriving after a sack with the Vols up 19-10.

The view from the losing sideline was just as telling. Alabama guard Michael Carroll relayed that position coach Adrian Klemm called his unit's performance an 'embarrassment' after Tennessee sacked Keelon Russell five times, and Crimson Tide callers spent their Monday on the Paul Finebaum Show tearing into Kalen DeBoer's staff after a third straight loss in Knoxville. The flip side was a Tennessee defensive front — the unit's biggest question mark entering the season — now being described as the foundation of Jim Knowles' defense. The celebration carried a price and a few critics: a $500,000 SEC fine for the field storming and an opinion column dismissing the scene as a selfie trip rather than a storming.

The rankings rewarded the result, if not always in the order Knoxville would choose. Tennessee stands No. 11 in the AP Poll and jumped seven spots to No. 12 in ESPN's power rankings, while SP+ moved the Vols only to No. 13 — one spot behind the Alabama team they had just beaten by 16. The playoff math is real either way: the Football Power Index puts Tennessee No. 12 nationally with a 45.4 percent chance to reach the playoff, Heather Dinich projects the Vols as a No. 10 seed, one projection sends them to a first-round game at the Rose Bowl, and Bill Connelly argued Tennessee could play its way to Atlanta behind a defense that leads the nation in three-and-out rate over the last five weeks.

The quarterback question, for now, has an answer. George MacIntyre is expected to make his third straight start at South Carolina, with Faizon Brandon recovered from his shoulder injury but Josh Heupel choosing continuity after MacIntyre's efficient, unspectacular outing against Alabama — 21 of 31 for 197 yards. The skepticism around the sophomore remains a live debate, one ESPN's Cole Cubelic acknowledged head-on. The formula around MacIntyre is clear, though: running backs coach De'Rail Sims spent Tuesday explaining how the staff manages Bishop's workload, keeping a back with 837 yards and 10 touchdowns fresh for the stretch run.

The win kept paying dividends off the field. The Alabama game drew 8.10 million viewers, the third-biggest audience of Week 7, and with the Texas game's 9.7 million, Tennessee now owns two of the season's 10 most-watched games. Alabama weekend also doubled as a recruiting showcase: quarterback commit Kaden Craft and receiver commit Dayon Cooper were in the stands, 2028 running back Zion Coger picked up an offer and a locker-room celebration on his first visit, and prospects as young as the 2030 class left Knoxville with the Vols on their minds.

All of it now has to travel. Tennessee heads to Columbia on Saturday as a 2.5-point underdog in the early market despite the Alabama win, facing a rested South Carolina team that routed Florida before its bye. Cornerbacks coach Derek Jones, who faced the Gamecocks last season at Virginia Tech, warned their offense is a year better, and the matchup pits the SEC's best rushing attack against a run defense allowing barely 104 yards a game. Kickoff is 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN, and the margin is thin: with Kentucky, Texas A&M and LSU still ahead, a stumble Saturday would leave Tennessee with no room for error the rest of the way.

The fallout from Saturday's 26-10 win over Alabama kept rolling into Monday evening. Kalen DeBoer publicly absorbed the criticism aimed at offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb after the Tide managed just 147 passing yards and 34 rushing yards from their leading rusher, Nick Saban finally weighed in on his former team's upset loss, and Sports Illustrated handed out its unit-by-unit grades for the Vols' performance. The rivalry itself got its moment, too, with Southern Living explaining why the Third Saturday in October endures, while Ranvier and Weathersby added SEC weekly honors to Tennessee's growing haul.

Josh Heupel, meanwhile, was busy turning the page. He opened South Carolina week by reminding his team of the 2022 trip to Columbia, when a No. 5 Tennessee team lost 63-38 and saw its playoff hopes end — a pointed warning against a letdown after another emotional high. He also explained his players' bond with defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, the trust behind a defense that just held Alabama to 10 points and now has to travel into one of the SEC's trickiest road spots on Saturday.

The evening's two stings came off the field. Georgia reached into Franklin and landed four-star 2028 offensive tackle Koehn Dial, a 6-foot-6 Tennessee target who picked the Bulldogs over the Vols and several other powers — an early in-state loss in the 2028 cycle. And former Tennessee star Dalton Knecht, the Lakers' 2024 first-round pick and the face of the Vols' Elite Eight run, was waived by Los Angeles after a season and change, leaving one of Knoxville's most celebrated recent players looking for a new team.