If you fell asleep before the end of the Tennessee/Georgia Tech football game on Monday night, you missed a pretty dramatic conclusion to the contest. With Tennessee leading Georgia Tech 42-41 in double overtime, GT attempted a two-point conversion for the win—and didn’t get it. Volunteers defensive end Darrell Taylor tackled Yellow Jackets quarterback TaQuon Marshall on the play to preserve a win for Tennessee.
A short time later, Taylor started trending on Twitter but it wasn’t because of the play. Rather, it was because he appeared to celebrate his game-winning tackle by telling one of his teammates that he wasn’t going to attend class on Tuesday morning. In a brief clip that made the rounds on the social media site, Taylor appeared to say, "I’m not going to class."
Taylor clarified his stance on his upcoming class attendance while speaking with reporters after the game. If the clip of him telling his teammate he wasn’t going to be in class hadn’t gone viral, he probably would have skipped it. The game was played in Atlanta’s new Mercedes-Benz Stadium and didn’t end until after midnight, after all, meaning Taylor and his Tennessee teammates wouldn’t arrive back on the UT campus in Knoxville, Tennessee until very early Tuesday morning. But because the clip of him was so widely circulated after the game—and because his coaches likely saw it—Taylor changed his tune when he was asked about his Tuesday morning plans.
"I’m going to class, man," he said. "I’m a student-athlete. I’m going to class."
Right answer. But what are the chances he actually got up when his alarm went off this morning? Hmmm…
While you’re pondering that, you can check out the great play Taylor made during Monday night’s game here:
