Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt met with the media on Monday afternoon to recap Tennessee’s 31-19 loss to No. 6 Florida on Saturday and preview this week’s game against Vanderbilt.
Pruitt discussed Brent Cimaglia opting out, the quarterback rotation this week, facing Vanderbilt without Derek Mason, the role of Jarrett Guarantano, Josh Palmer accepting an invitation to the Senior Bowl and much more.
Here’s everything Pruitt said on Monday:
Opening Statement:
“Reviewing the Florida game, just starting special teams-wise, to me, we had two penalties on kickoff return that were huge that hurt us in field position. I thought Paxton done an excellent job kicking the football, controlling their punt returner. We had really good coverage there and created some really good vertical field position. We had the one fake punt that I thought we executed really well, we just needed to finish it. Probably, when we didn’t, it cost us field position for the remainder of the first half there.
“Offensively, I felt like once the second quarter started, we were much more aggressive in play-calling and started moving the ball. At times, we had a couple of times there where we didn’t protect like we needed to when we had some guys open. There was two really critical plays at the end of the third quarter and (start of) fourth quarter. We get an intentional grounding where we’re throwing the ball down the field and end up giving up a sack, but both of those very easily could have resulted in points there, but it knocked us out of field goal range and really it was too far to actually go for it. Think it was fourth-and-14 and maybe fourth-and-12.
“Defensively, again, I thought we really done a nice job controlling the run game. There was three plays in the game that we got our hands on balls that we didn’t come down with interceptions that we needed to. Third down, again, there’s probably four third downs in the game that felt like we’re in a good call and just didn’t get off the field. They made some plays there. I didn’t say it after the game, but I thought the guys that hadn’t practiced all week, I thought those guys played extremely hard and it says a lot about them to come out there and play without any practice.
“After the game, on Sunday, we had a special graduation for our football team who didn’t get a chance to participate earlier in graduation ceremonies, I believe it was the week of Auburn. We had 15 guys that received degrees on Sunday and ChancellorPlowman and CoachFulmer, we had just really a special ceremony for those guys and their families. I thought it was a fantastic event there. We had two guys that got their graduate degrees, so that’s good to see. It’s why you come to school, No. 1, is to get a degree.”
“Looking at Vanderbilt, Tennessee-Vanderbilt, you always are going to get the best game from Vanderbilt. You look at these guys, playing a young quarterback (Ken Seals). I think he’s leading the country in yards per game for a freshman. I think he’s had three 300-yard games where he’s passed for that amount of yardage. They always play hard on defense. Just looking at them in special teams, they create issues there with some unorthodox looks, but our kids are excited about going and playing. I felt like our kids played hard Saturday. They continued to do that and work hard, so we’ve got to go back and go to work this week.”
On the latest with Tennessee’s Covid-19 situation:
“We got our results back from our Sunday test and everybody was negative, so that was good. We’ll get a couple of players back this week, at some point in time. That’ll probably help a little bit more with some depth there, but right now I feel like we’re in a good spot with the quarantine.”
On the status of offensive linemen Cade Mays and K’Rojhn Calbert:
“K’Rojhn (Calbert) and Cade Mays both had lower-leg injuries. I think both of them will probably be out (of practice) today, maybe today and tomorrow, but I think we’ll probably get them back as the week goes.”
On the status of the quarterback position heading into the Vanderbilt game:
“If you look at Saturday, obviously Harrison (Bailey) and J.T. (Shrout) will take the majority of the reps moving forward. Brian (Maurer) brings kind of an extra element with his athleticism and just trying to keep him with a role, and I thought he done a nice job Saturday with the role that he had. We’ll continue doing that moving forward.”
On if Thursday or Friday is the latest a team has waited to name a starter in his coaching career:
“I think that’s probably normal. Maybe at the beginning of a season, couple of staffs that I worked on, the quarterback competition was so close that it was maybe all the way up until Thursday or Friday before the first game.”
What he saw from Harrison Bailey and JT Shrout after reviewing the film and how Shrout moved back up the depth chart since throwing an interception at Kentucky:
“Not traveling to Arkansas was really a unique circumstance. At that time, that was the week had a lot of false positives, so it was Thursday before we got a lot of guys cleared and we didn’t know exactly where we were at with the 70-man roster traveling. That probably wasn’t as much about him as it was the other positions on the team, when you can only travel 70 guys. But J.T.’s a guy that’s continued to work really hard. He started one year in high school, he had a really good fall camp this fall and the couple of plays that he played against Kentucky, it wasn’t his best, but he’s continued to work hard. Like I said last week, he had a really good 10 days of practice leading up to the game Saturday. That was good to see. If you just look at the game with him and Harrison, No. 1 they took care of the football. I thought Harrison showed some poise in stepping up and scrambling and making some plays there. I felt like he handled the signaling from the game, the communication with the O-line, the wide receivers. We did use one timeout there about the 30-yard line and he’s telling me when he comes off the field he was snapping the ball, but anyhow, I thought he done a nice job. I thought J.T. come in and done a really nice job and Brian did, too, on the plays he played.”
On the role of Jarrett Guarantano moving forward:
“We’re going to go with (Harrison) and J.T. and probably stay with the same schedule as we did this past week.”
On the production of tight end Princeton Fant against Florida:
“Princeton, he’s up here all the time. Football’s very important to him. He continues to work hard. He’s a guy that early on in his career here bounced around at a couple of different positions, but he’s finding a home at tight end. He’s a guy that probably the strength of his game is his pass-catching ability, his speed and his athleticism. He’s worked hard to be a good blocker in the C-area, but he’s going to continue to improve because football’s important to him.”
On what he meant when he said after the Florida game that he was too tough on his players:
“Well, you’ve got 10 or 12 that hadn’t practiced, right? It’s’ very easily in the heat of the moment, when a guy makes a mistake, you forget that they’ve not been there for 14 days, right? Just the reality of the circumstances that’s been presented in some of these cases along the season.”
On Vols senior wider receiver Josh Palmer accepting an invitation to the Senior Bowl:
“Usually we talk to players about these things at the end of the season. It’s kind of unusual, I guess this past week would normally have been the SEC Championship Game, I think that’s right, so our season has been moved back a couple of weeks. We’ve not really had those conversations, but it’s a great opportunity for Josh with the invite to the Senior Bowl. They don’t just give those things away, so it’s a great opportunity for him.”
On if he expects Palmer to return for a second senior season since he accepted the Senior Bowl invitation:
“I probably wouldn’t, if he’s thinking that way.”
On if the program has continued to develop this season despite having to deal with COVID:
“Saturday, that’s a really good football team we played against. There was times in the game where we’re playing with them toe-to-toe, and it’s been that way for most of the season, periodically with every team we’ve played. The circumstances around the season, and hey, it’s everybody, right? And I only know our circumstances, I don’t know the circumstances anywhere else, but our kids play hard. There’s lot of really good that we do every single week. You see a lot more younger guys that continue to develop and get an opportunity to contribute. I feel like our guys are gaining confidence, and that’s part of it right now. I can tell you this, when the game’s over with Saturday, we’ve got a lot of guys hurting in our locker room. The No. 1 thing for us is to win, and obviously we didn’t get that done Saturday, but when you look at it, we’ll come back in here today and figure what we did really well, try to continue to develop that part of our football team, figure out the issues that we had during the game — was it a preparation (error), was it a technique issue — correct it and continue to move forward.”
On playing better in the second half:
“I think if you look Saturday, the difference in the ball game is what we call the middle eight, the last four minutes of the first half and the first four minutes of the second half. We lost that 14-0. We didn’t play good in the last minute and 38 seconds of the first half on defense. There’s a third-and-12 they convert, there’s a third-and-11 they convert. Then on the first drive of the second half, they go down and score, so there’s 14 points. If you look, when we had won eight games a row, I think seven out of those eight games, we either tied or won the middle eight, and that’s something that we’ve always really focused on, and we’ve got to do a better job of executing that part of the game plan.”
On how proud he is of the players who graduated on Sunday:
“Just the circumstances, for all these guys, right? And not just ours, everybody across the country. I’m 46 years old, and the last nine months has been on tough on me, just like I’m sure it’s been tough on y’all. Just the circumstances changing, I can’t imagine being a teenager, somebody in college, the way the whole dynamic of our world has changed. The fact that these guys have stayed the course, worked hard and continued and finished their degrees, just speaks volumes about them and our academic support here at the University.”
On the importance of beating Vanderbilt to snap the six-game losing streak:
“We’re focusing on Vanderbilt. We continue to improve every week, but the bottom line is you want to win football games, right? That’s the bottom line. We’ve got to figure out away to put our players in the best position to have a chance to do that.”
On why Velus Jones Jr. saw more of a role against Florida:
“Velus is a guy that he’s strong. He weighs 200 pounds, has experience, he’s fast. A guy that we’ve tried to use in our game plan in a bunch of different ways, so it was good to see us have a chance to get him the ball.”
On Tennessee’s third down struggles:
“Defensively, I think we were 7 for 15 on third down Saturday, which is like 52 of 53%. Maybe it was 8 for 15, I can’t remember. There’s probably four calls in the game that we felt like we were in the right call for the play that they had called, and we just didn’t get off the field. It obviously goes back to us, right? We’ve got to do a better job so our players understand what they’re trying to do. We’ve got to be more technical, because some of it was technical, some of it was awareness. You have to go back and keep coaching it. It’s all you can do, is just keep coaching the fundamentals, the details, until you can’t get it wrong.”
On communication with assistant coaches who are considering taking other jobs:
“I’ve worked at places where those opportunities have presented themselves. For us as coaches, we always continue to do our job, but just like players want to advance their career, coaches want to advance their career. For me, I want to help coaches do that. It’s a great opportunity for guys, if they get those opportunities to do it, to maybe take that next step. It’s not unusual. It goes on probably with every staff.”
If coaches are open when considering other jobs:
“We’ve only had really one situation since I’ve been here, that was with Tyson (Helton). Tyson with the Western Kentucky job was very open.”
What he expects from Vanderbilt with an interim head coach:
“There’s really nothing to really go on. They’ve not played a game without Derek being the head coach. I’ll tell you, those guys played really hard for Derek. I thought he’d always done a fantastic job. Just coaching against him, recruiting against him, very well-respected within our conference for the job that he did there. Knowing the guys that are on the staff there now, those kids will be ready to play and they’ll play hard.”
On Brent Cimaglia’s decision to opt out for the remainder of the season:
“I just got done having a conversation with him, and I’ve said this before, he’s played through difficult circumstances throughout the season. Me and him just got done talking, and he feels like that it’s better for him not to participate the remainder of the season and it’d put him in a better spot to get ready for next year. His indication for me is yeah, he’s coming back next year.”
On who will handle kicking duties with Cimaglia out:
“Paxton’s (Brooks) been doing it, Paxton’s been our backup. If not him, Toby Wilson. When we play home games, Toby comes and he’s kind of the backup kicker. This past week, Paxton was not in practice the entire week, so Toby was there and was ready. We’ll figure that out as the week goes.”
On if he has heard from Vanderbilt about whether this Saturday’s game will happen after the Commodores had to cancel their game against Georgia last weekend:
“No, I’ve not talked to anybody from Vanderbilt. We’re working on them. I think the last time we were supposed to play them, we practiced on a Sunday night, took Monday off and were in the middle of our Tuesday practice when we got word that we weren’t playing. We’ve probably worked two days on them already and today will be our third day.”
On who handles the communication for games being played:
“It goes through the SEC office.”
If any other players have spoken to him this week about opting out:
“No.”
On the possibility of playing Texas A&M this week and when it would be ideal to know who the opponent would be:
“We already started working on A&M one week, so we’ve probably kind of been down that road before. Hey, we’ll play whoever they tell us to play. We’re just going to worry about the things that we can control.”
On how much Tennessee missed Brandon Kennedy at center against Florida:
“I thought that Cooper (Mays) and Jerome (Carvin) played well. Done a lot of really good things. Jerome’s not had an opportunity to play a whole lot since the Missouri game and he was a guy that really we felt like was one of our best six or seven offensive linemen going into the season and he played a lot in the first two games. Getting him back out there was good. I thought Coop done a really nice job, and hey, we’ll be happy to get Brandon back whenever that comes.”
On if Tennessee is still doing its Sunday night scrimmages:
“We didn’t do it this Sunday because of graduation. I just felt like it we had parents in town for the game, we had a graduation ceremony at 2 o’clock and I just felt like it was a great opportunity for our players and their families to really kind of enjoy the moment.”
On if he will evaluate JT Shrout differently than Harrison Bailey since Shrout only played the fourth quarter:
“No, I can assure you, Florida was trying to stop us and Dan (Mullen) was gonna try to score more points.”
On how the pandemic has changed the evaluation process in recruiting:
“Really the circumstances are different everywhere. There’s schools that played in the state of Tennessee, there’s schools that didn’t. Some of the schools that played, maybe they didn’t have a whole lot of practice time leading up to when they started to play. Maybe some of them had a lot of practice time. The state of Alabama, Georgia, Florida to an extent, have played a season, I think Louisiana has, maybe Mississippi. North Carolina has not. South Carolina started late. It’s unusual across the country, right? You’ve just got to worry about the ones that you get, not the ones that you don’t. You’ve got to really focus and make sure that you know what you’re getting. For the younger kids, it’s unfortunate because you don’t have camps and an opportunity to bring them in to kind of see where they’re at. I think we’re all trying to adjust to this and we’ve had a plan that we’ve really worked hard to execute and we’ll continue to do that. With the NCAA changing rules and allowing players to come back or this season not to count, that also affects your numbers a little bit when you talk about recruiting.”
How far back Tennessee will go back to prepare for Vanderbilt interim coach Todd Fitch:
“We’ll probably look and see what they’re doing right now.”
On how many players he expects to sign during the early signing period:
“It’s hard to predict how many guys will sign with the Early Signing Period, because it’s their choice, they can sign in December or sign in February. You try to figure that out as you get closer to it. There’s a lot of them that we obviously know because they’re mid-year. That obviously plays into some of it. Really in recruiting, it’s pretty interesting, because from a recruiting standpoint, the circumstances at their high schools this year have been so different than they’re used to. It’s really a lot of the questions are is about are we going to have school in the spring, when’s the next time that you think recruiting will be open, just things of that nature.”
On Paxton Brooks handling all of the kicking:
“It’d be the first time that he’s done it in a college game. He did it in high school. I think you just have to be careful about how much time he kicks during the week and just be efficient with how many kicks that he has.”
