Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt met with the media on Monday to review Tennessee’s loss to Arkansas and preview this Saturday’s game against Texas A&M.
Pruitt updated the status of several players that suffered injuries against the Razorbacks, talked about what went wrong in Fayetteville, Savion Williams announcing that he was transferring, and how he thought Harrison Bailey played.
Here’s everything Pruitt had to say:
Opening Statement:
“Reviewing Saturday’s game and looking at the first half, I thought we did some things really well. I thought we ran the ball extremely well in the first half, but as you look at the way the game played out, starting in the first half, we obviously didn’t create enough explosive plays in the passing game. As a coaching staff, we have to do a much better job of creating opportunities for our guys. We have some really good playmakers on the outside. I felt like the way the box count was, our offensive line did a really nice job in the first half. I felt like there were some plays out there on the perimeter that we’ve got to be able to call and dial them up to give the guys an opportunity to have success. That’s on us as a coaching staff to get that done. In the second half, offensively, we had a couple of penalties on some opportunities where we did throw the ball. We didn’t make a couple of throws there. Obviously, Jarrett (Guarantano) got hurt in the third quarter and went out of the game. To me, just philosophically on offense, we’ve got to be much more aggressive. We’ve got to push the ball down the field. That’s something that we’ve talked about as a staff and have continued to talk about it. We’ve got to be able to give our kids an opportunity to have success doing that.
“Defensively, for three out of four quarters, I thought our guys played pretty well. In the third quarter, starting with the opening drive of the second half, third downs were third-and-2, 3 and 5. In the first half, we kept them to a little bit longer down and distances. I felt like we had a chance to get off the field twice there and didn’t execute calls like we needed to. There were two plays there. One play down the sideline where the kid comes back in bounds – it was a scramble where we had everybody covered and lose a guy on the scramble drill. I thought we gave up two explosive plays that resulted in 14 points. I think there’s one play where there was a pass interference called on us that put them in position to kick a field goal and total 24 points. Going back to look at it, we need to play cleaner on defense. I felt like our guys did that for the majority of the game. We just had a couple of mistakes and they took advantage of it. That’s something that we’ve got to eliminate.”
On Texas A&M:
“Watching their tape over the last day, they’re one of the more complete teams that I’ve seen in our league. I’m very familiar with Jimbo (Fisher), after working with him in the past. Offensively, Kellen Mond seems like he’s been playing there forever. Isaiah Spiller, along with the other three running backs they play, is very talented. They’ve got a huge offensive line. I think they’re giving up the least amount of sacks in the SEC. They’ve got playmakers on the outside defensively. They create a lot of negative plays. When it comes to production, I think they’re first or second in our conference. It will be a tremendous challenge for us. Looking at their special teams, they’ve got really good return guys and they’ve got good specialists. We’ll need to find a way to create an advantage in the kicking game.”
On altering the way the team called plays against Arkansas:
“In this league, when you’ve been in it a while, you have guys that change staffs and over the course of a season, it’s not unusual to mix up your signals. It’s a part of the game. Just like in baseball, people try to steal signals. We were just trying to change it up.”
On if changing the way the team called plays was long-term:
“It’s something that we’ve done in the past. I think everyone does that. Obviously, with familiarity with last week’s staff at Arkansas, with Coach (Sam) Pittman and Coach (Jim) Chaney, it’s something that we felt like we needed to do.”
On what he believes is causing Tennessee to not execute in the secondary:
“We didn’t have defensive busts in the back end. We had a guy that played really good technique and got the guy out of bounds. The guy pulled himself away to get back in bounds and caught the ball. Then, we had the guy guarded in the back end, we just took our eyes off the guy on the scramble. The scramble drill is something that we do every week. Offensively, as the game goes, there are more and more guys in there and they start playing man-to-man. We have to take advantage of it. We’ve got good skill players on the outside. It’s something that we’ve done where we’ve created some big plays over the season. We’ve got to be more aggressive to do that.”
On being more creative on offense:
“Offensively, the name of the game is scoring points. You can do it a bunch of different ways. You can run it every snap or you can throw it every snap. It’s my belief that you probably need to be able to do both. You have to mix it in there, and you have to keep the defense on their heels. When you do that sometimes you have to throw play action passes or drop back passes on first down and when you do that, you have to take advantage of that. If they guard them, you have to take the check downs. You can’t get holding calls. We’ve got to call an aggressive game and when we do that, we have to execute it so that we can soften the other team up.”
On the health of Jarrett Guarantano and the plan at quarterback if he can’t play:
“It’s day to day. Our medical staff didn’t feel like it was in his best interest to play the rest of the game, so we held him out. It’ll be day-to-day this week. We’ll work the other guys and see how we develop this week. We’ll work a good game plan that fits all of those guys.”
On his decision to not kick the field goal late in the game:
“We obviously always go back and do quality control each game. When you’re down two scores there’s a thought in all that: do you take the points? Do you go for it? Saturday, I elected to go for it. The reasoning was because of where were at on the field and we felt like we had a good call for that down and that distance. We had a good idea for what they would do. In the back end of the game, there was a thought when there were 40 seconds left to kick a field goal and do an onside kick. Obviously, it didn’t work and when it doesn’t work you want to do the other thing. It’s something that we philosophically look at and see where we’re at. We know kind of what we’re going to do during the game. If I had it back, absolutely I would have kicked it.”
On a lack of aggressiveness offensively:
“No, I think we had explosive plays against Alabama. You get into that game Saturday and we’re controlling the ball 13-0. It’s my belief that you have to be able to do both. You have to score touchdowns in this league. You have to try to eliminate as many field goals as you can. We had good control of the game and we kept it close by doing that. In the second half, we didn’t run the ball nearly as effectively as we did in the first half. Within a matter of one drive and one play we go from leading 13-0 to (trailing) 14-13. One thing that I’ve said all along is that you always want to coach aggressively. If you’re calling the defense, you want to make the other team react to you. It’s something that we have to do a better job of in all three phases.”
On Tennessee’s third quarter struggles:
“If you look, I believe offensively, for whatever reason we’ve had turnovers in that quarter. We didn’t on Saturday. Turnovers and penalties hurt us. It’s obviously something that if you’re not doing it well, then you want to go back and try to figure out why. We’ve done that and we’ve been doing that. Offensively, as the game goes, you see the plays that were going well, and you mark them down to create a script for the second half. You meet with it at half time and get a good opening script. Saturday when we came out in the second half, we got a false start and that gets us a second-and-16. We end up being fourth-and-3. We have to do a better job there. Defensively, just getting off the field on third down on the first drive and obviously the previous two plays that I talked about.”
On defending the middle of the field:
“If you are going to play middle-of-the-field coverage, people are going to attack you with slants or what I call ‘chop’ routes, inside fades. They are basically working off the leverage. You have to be able to play man-to-man if you want to be good on defense and by playing man-to-man with a middle field safety; those are the two things that people are going to attack. There is lots of times in the game that we play split safety coverage and you can take that away if you are going to do that then you have to be able to stop the run with six guys in the box or find a way to hide to get the seventh guy. There’s lots of indications from formations that teams get in. On Saturday, Arkansas got in a couple of those formations and you kind of anticipate these plays are coming. We have to do a better job of getting our guys prepared to understand that.”
On getting things turned around and snapping a four-game losing streak:
“Well, you just go back and look at the things you are doing well and you want to continue to do those. You want to do the things that you believe. If you are not executing (you ask), is it an execution issue? Is it a philosophical issue? Is it a personnel issue? All those things. You have to go back and look and see. It’s something that we do after we win, we do the same stuff. We keep trying to find ways to improve our football team. I feel like if you look at this last week, it is what I said, we have to be more explosive on offense. You are not going to win games in this league scoring 13 points. We didn’t turn the ball over, but you have to be more explosive. Defensively, it’s what I said, you have to get off the field on third down and you can’t give up big plays. You have to make them earn it.”
On how he feels quarterback development has gone in his program:
“Brian (Maurer) has not been here two and a half years, he was here last fall. He missed fall camp being in quarantine and having a hamstring (injury). I don’t think it’s really fair to put him in that category. The circumstances at quarterback are relative to everybody around you. It takes protection, it takes a good run game, it takes wide receivers that you’ve got some chemistry with. I’m not sure that this fall’s body of work for those guys is really fair based on the circumstances that those guys were put in during fall camp and summer and without spring ball. When you look at the guys in our league, most of the time the guys that are playing really well at that position are guys that probably have a little bit of experience with them or they’re playing on a team that has a lot of experience. It can go either way. I think all of those guys have lots of talent, they work hard every single day and as long as they continue to do that they will develop and have a chance to be really good players one day.”
On what needs to happen to be more effective on third down:
“You really don’t want 15 third downs in a game to start with. Probably 11 is the number, maybe 10 to 11 there. You want to stay out of third and longs. You want to be on third-and-one, twos, threes, fours and fives. If you just look, you probably have a better opportunity to convert those than the longer downs and distances. We have to be more efficient on first and second down and stay out of as many third downs.”
On how he thought Theo Jackson and Kenneth George Jr. played:
“Theo (Jackson) is a guy that has really played STAR, he’s played money, he’s played safety. He really can play any one of those positions. He’s a smart guy. He made some plays in the game Saturday. He probably gave up a couple plays that he’ll work hard to fix. Kenneth George has played off and on for us for the last year and when he’s played, he’s been really consistent. I didn’t feel like that from a technical standpoint that was probably one of his better games. We got to work hard to clean him up on some of his technique. Alontae (Taylor) and Shawn (Shamburger) are guys that have really kind of played a lot of ball the last couple of years. Unfortunately, both of them have been in and out of the lineup this year. That has probably hurt their development as players and probably a little bit of the chemistry in the back end.”
On why Shawn Shamburger didn’t travel:
“Every week we decide who we’re going to bring on the trip. We have 120 guys, so we take 70 each week. Based off circumstances, Shawn didn’t come this week.”
On what went wrong offensively early in the second half:
“Offensively, I think the second drive we had in the game there in the third quarter – might have been the third drive – third-and-two we had a rocket sweep going by there that Brian (Maurer) should have pitched the ball there based off the count. Those little things like that. We’ve had a couple of things there on the offensive side that probably kept us from getting going.”
On Savion Williams entering the transfer portal:
“I thought he improved in those two games. Again, the circumstances surrounding each individual is probably different when you talk about opportunities, really over the last six or seven months. Based off some of the circumstances, his were limited. Savion is a good kid that works hard, and I’ll help him in any way that I possibly can.”
On what he would say to the fanbase right now:
“To me, I’m just as restless as they are. I think everybody is kind of in this together. We all want the same things. My names at the head of the organization. I understand that. We as a group and this organization, we got to find a way to get it going and play the right way and finish the right way. That’s on me as the coach to get it going and we’re going to work hard to do that.”
On the status of LaTrell Bumphus:
“It was unfortunate with LaTrell, during warmups somebody fell into his leg there and he’s probably going to miss the rest of the season, so that’s unfortunate for him.”
On how he thought Harrison Bailey played:
“I thought Harrison, based off the circumstance, did a really nice job there. They were dropping eight and he took what they gave him. He didn’t try to force the ball until basically the time on the clock forced him to do that, so I thought that was promising for him.”
On if LaTrell Bumphus’ injury is a knee injury:
“Yes, he’s probably going to be out 4-6 weeks, so based off the season that probably will be it for this year.”
