Tennessee’s season came to an embarrassing halt on Saturday afternoon in Nashville.
In a must-win game for the Vols, neither side of the football showed up as Vanderbilt won its third straight game over Tennessee, 38-13. The last time the Commodores won three in a row – the 1920’s.
“They (Vanderbilt) executed better than we did,” Jeremy Pruitt said following the game. “It’s pretty simple, the best team won today.
“You go back and look, they blocked us better than we blocked them. They got off blocks better than we got off of blocks. They covered us better than we covered them. They made better throws. Made plays at wide receiver. They had one-on-one plays, made some. We didn’t. They got off the field on third down, we didn’t.”
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For Tennessee, it began and ended in the trenches. Vanderbilt dominated the Vols up front on both sides of the ball for the entirety of the game. A scenario that for nearly the totality of the rivalry never happened. It’s now happened five out of the last seven years.
Even with star running back Ke’Shawn Vaughn leaving the game in the first quarter due to injury, Khari Blasingame was able to come in behind a veteran offensive line and tally 132 yards of offense and a touchdown. Through the air, facing no pressure, quarterback Kyle Shurmur was 31-of-35 for 367 yards and three touchdowns. Shurmur finishes his Vandy career a “Vol killer,” completing 64.9 percent of his passes for 1,275 yards and 12 touchdowns against the Vols in his career. He threw just two interceptions in four games against Tennessee, and he went 3-1 against the Vols.
“He (Shurmur) got the ball out of his hands, made a couple good throws,” Pruitt said. “He basically took what our guys gave him and allowed them to make plays, and they did.”
It wasn’t just the defense, though. On offense, the offensive line once again struggled to protect the quarterback. And aside from Ty Chandler’s 75-yard rushing touchdown, the O-line produced just 28 rushing yards.
“We don’t have competition at certain positions,” Pruitt stated. “So, you’re either going to play somebody or you’re going to play nobody, basically. We’ve got to recruit to where we can recruit some depth.”
Pruitt isn’t just attempting to speak those words into existence, he’s been acting on it as well. It’s why there are currently four offensive linemen committed to Tennessee and will be five, maybe even six, signed on National Signing Day.
“When we do that, we’ll get better in a hurry,” Pruitt said, referencing recruiting. “I think if a young man wants an opportunity to have a chance to play in the SEC really early, this would be a good place to start.”
The recruiting haul will help generate the competition Pruitt wants to have within the walls of his program. If somebody isn’t practicing the right way, or they’re not executing in a game, successful programs have somebody they can plug in and get the job done. At Tennessee in 2018, Pruitt and his coaching staff were stuck with what they had.
“Hopefully, we’ll have some guys that continue to develop, and we can create some good competition to improve as a team,” Pruitt said. “We’ve gotta take the guys that are in our football program.
“I thought over the season we learned how to practice. We improved tremendously in how we practice. We improved tremendously in how we practice. But you should’ve seen us in the spring. From where we were at, there was nowhere to go but up.”
After Saturday’s performance, once again, there is nowhere to go but up. For Tennessee’s coaches and fans, National Signing Day can’t come soon enough.
