At the end of September, the feeling around Tennessee football had completely flipped on its head.
Vol fans entered the 2018 season with hope that with someone other than Butch Jones at the helm, the undeveloped four-and-five-star talent on the roster would finally blossom into what many thought they would be when they signed.
But then Tennessee was beat down by West Virginia in the season opener, and three weeks later, the Vols turned the football over six times in an embarrassing loss to arch-rival Florida. At that point, it felt like it would take a miracle for the 2018 Vols to make a bowl game.
In year one under Jeremy Pruitt, that miracle is slowly starting to manifest.
Pruitt appeared on The Paul Finebaum Show on Monday afternoon, and he was asked about the Vols’ journey and efforts to get to a bowl game.
“We’re focused on Missouri this week,” Pruitt told Finebaum. “To get to a bowl, you’ve gotta beat good teams every week.”
That’s exactly what Pruitt’s squad has done.
One week after the Florida game, Tennessee went down to Athens and competed with a very good Georgia team, showing signs of improvement. Two weeks later, following a bye week, the Vols went on the road and upset an Auburn team that was ranked No. 21 in the AP Poll at the time.
Following a blowout loss to Alabama on the Third Saturday in October rivalry, Tennessee went on the road to South Carolina and beat themselves, losing 27-24 to the Gamecocks. After a tune-up game against Charlotte, the Vols got back on track against Kentucky.
“Our guys have just went to work,” Pruitt said of the turnaround. “They’ve never questioned what we’re trying to get done. It would be easy for ’em to do that because we’ve had some times this year that didn’t hardly go our way, but our guys believed in what we’re trying to get done.
“I think that says a lot about the guys in this program.”
Tennessee’s determination guided the Vols to a dominating 24-7 win over No. 11 Kentucky on Saturday.
The Wildcats entered the game possessing a potent defense and an intimidating rushing attack. It was the Vols who flipped the table, though, and they had the potent defense as well as the intimidating rushing attack.
On the ground, Tennessee rushed for 215 yards against Kentucky, the most they has rushed for against an SEC opponent this season. Defensively, Pruitt’s players held star running back Benny Snell to just 81 rushing yards. Snell entered the game averaging 112.0 yards per game on the ground.
“I think for the first time this year, Saturday, our guys played a complete game,” Pruitt said. “We didn’t execute exactly the way we liked to, but we did play hard, and for the first time, we put a 60-minute game together.”
There’s no easy answer as to why it took until the 11th week of the season for Tennessee to play its first complete game. Many variables have changed since the opener in Charlotte, but one variable stands above all else. No matter the outcome on Saturday, UT has continued to hit the practice field with the right mindset, and as a result, the team has continued to improve.
“We’ve really had good weeks of practice,” Pruitt stated. “I think our guys have tried to create the right practice habits, and we’ve really improved. Sometimes it hasn’t showed on Saturdays because of a lack of execution, but I felt like Saturday our guys played hard.
“We cut down on our mental errors Saturday and executed a little better and played harder. We were able to run the football, and defensively we kept our edges, and I thought our front guys struck blockers and didn’t give up one-for-ones. And we tackled much better.”
With the win over No. 11 Kentucky, Pruitt became the only active SEC head coach to have two wins over ranked opponents in his first regular season as head coach. It also marks the first time Tennessee has defeated two ranked opponents in a season since 2016, and it’s just the second season since 2008 that the Vols have registered two regular season wins over ranked teams.
“We get an opportunity every week,” Pruitt responded when asked if he would have believed Finebaum if he had told him in July that Tennessee was going to beat two ranked teams this year. “It seems like everybody we play is ranked. If we’re gonna win some games, we’re gonna have to beat some ranked teams.”
Pruitt has received recognition for potential SEC Coach of the Year from national media members such as the SEC Network’s Laura Rutledge. Considering the Vols were predicted to win just four games this season by some, the attention is warranted. Even if Pruitt doesn’t want to have the conversation.
“Well, I can tell you this, I haven’t played one down,” Pruitt said. “It takes a lot more than one person to go into having success each and every week. I think we have a fantastic staff, great support staff, good administration. We have everything we need here to have success. Our players are buying in to what we’re trying to get done.”
