Coaching
Nathanael: A
You could tell on Saturday that Jeremy Pruitt and his staff had Tennessee prepared and ready to go coming off the bye week. And that extra week of preparation resulted in the Vols’ best effort of the 2018 season. Pruitt made several quality decisions again on Saturday, going for it on fourth down when it was needed and trying again for an onside kick that was a great call but just wasn’t executed properly. Tyson Helton still called too many runs on first down, but he did a much better job for the whole game at opening the playbook and letting Guarantano sling the ball around. He trusted Guarantano and UT’s receivers more, and it showed.
Ben: A
Finally, Tennessee looked good coming off of a bye week. The Vols looked much cleaner on both offense and defense, and that’s a huge credit to Jeremy Pruitt for having his team ready to play. Since the Florida game, Pruitt has spent the majority of practice time on the offensive side of the ball. Against Auburn, you saw Pruitt’s fingerprints all over the offensive game-plan and as a result, Guarantano had a career-day. The fact that Pruitt was able to spend time with the offense throughout practice is also a credit to the defensive coaches. Pruitt clearly trusts them enough to where he can step to the other side of the ball and know that the defense is going to get its work done.
