Tennessee’s defense did the talking against No. 6 Kentucky, and now two seniors are bringing home weekly hardware for it.
Arion Carter was named the Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Week, while Qua Moss picked up Shriners Children’s East-West Bowl Defensive Player of the Week honors after the Vols’ Saturday win over the Wildcats in Knoxville.
Carter was everywhere. He piled up a game-high and season-best 13 tackles, with 10 of them solo, and added career highs with two sacks and four tackles for loss.
Those four TFLs cost Kentucky 21 yards, and one of the biggest came on fourth-and-1 in the fourth quarter to flip possession back to Tennessee. He also made a key stop behind the line on third-and-7 while the Vols were ahead 13-7.
Tennessee held Kentucky to its lowest scoring output of the season and kept the Wildcats out of the end zone.
The performance put Carter in rare company. A Butkus Award semifinalist and Campbell Trophy finalist, he became the fifth FBS player in the last 11-plus seasons to log at least 13 tackles, 4.0 tackles for loss and 2.0 sacks against an AP top-10 opponent.
The last player to do it was Indiana’s T.J. Simmons against Michigan State on Oct.
24, 2015.
Moss made his own case for recognition with a disruptive all-around outing. He set a career high with nine tackles, including six solo stops, and forced two fumbles.
He also added a sack, a quarterback hurry and a pass breakup. Those two forced fumbles were the first two of his Tennessee career and the second and third of his college career overall.
That made Moss the fourth Tennessee player since 2019 to force two fumbles in one game, and the first Volunteer to do it since Edrees Farooq against Oklahoma on Nov. 1, 2025. His sack matched his career best, and his six solo tackles topped his previous career high of five total tackles.
For Tennessee, the awards keep stacking up under Josh Heupel. The Vols have now collected 59 SEC weekly honors during his tenure since 2021, including eight this season.
The SEC’s Week 10 honors also included Texas quarterback Arch Manning as Offensive Player of the Week, Vanderbilt kicker Brock Taylor as Special Teams Player of the Week, Oklahoma tackle Michael Fasusi and Georgia tackle Earnest Greene III as Co-Offensive Linemen of the Week, South Carolina EDGE Anthony Addison and Alabama defensive end Devan Thompkins as Co-Defensive Linemen of the Week, and Auburn linebacker Shadarius Toodle as Freshman of the Week.
For Tennessee’s 2026 SEC weekly honors list, Carter joined DeSean Bishop, Dejuan Lane, Jackson Ross, Cooper Ranvier, Tyree Weathersby and Faizon Brandon among the Vols recognized this season.
In Other News...
Kentucky Player Tries To Explain Away Neyland After Tennessee Blowout
Tennessees win over Kentucky added another layer of postgame noise when backup tight end Mikkel Skinner took to a TikTok live stream and claimed the Volunteers were pumping in fake crowd noise at Neyland Stadium. Skinner suggested the volume on defensive third downs sounded more like speakers than a real home crowd, a charge that landed with plenty of attention given the atmosphere Tennessee typically brings on Saturdays in Knoxville.
The allegation was quickly met with a public denial from Tennessee athletic director Danny White, who pushed back on the idea that the stadium sound was manufactured. Similar claims have surfaced before and never been verified, but they tend to follow big Tennessee home games, especially when the crowd becomes part of the story as much as the scoreboard. [Read more 🡒]
Tennessee's Playoff Push Just Took A Brutal Hit On Defense
Tennessees playoff chase picked up a major complication in the win over Kentucky, when pass-rusher Tyree Weathersby went down with a serious knee injury and will miss the rest of the season. Weathersby has been the Vols most disruptive edge presence, leading the team with seven sacks, and his absence leaves a noticeable hole in a defense that had counted on him to help close out games down the stretch.
With three games left, Tennessee now has to keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive without its top sack producer. The timing is especially tough because the margin for error is already thin, and replacing that kind of pressure off the edge is never simple this late in the year. [Read more 🡒]
Arion Carter Just Sent Tennessees Defense A Bigger Message
Arion Carters afternoon against Kentucky fit right into what Tennessee has been leaning on all season: a defense that can take over a game and make an opponent feel stuck in place. The senior linebacker was everywhere in the 34-6 win, finishing with 13 tackles, four for loss and two sacks, and the Southeastern Conference rewarded him by naming him SEC Defensive Player of the Week. It was the kind of performance that underscored just how disruptive Tennessee has been when its front seven is rolling.
The bigger takeaway for the Volunteers is that this was not an isolated flash. Tennessees defense has already shut down other top-ranked teams this season, and Carters latest statement only adds to the sense that this unit is built for the biggest stages. The next test comes against Texas A&M, where the Volunteers will find out whether that same edge can travel into another SEC spotlight. [Read more 🡒]