University of Tennessee Athletics
Photo by: Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics
What Jeremy Pruitt Said At His Monday Arkansas Week Press Conference
November 02, 2020 | Football
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The Tennessee Volunteers return to action this Saturday against Arkansas in Fayetteville, kick starting the back half of their 10-game All-SEC slate after a bye week. See what head coach Jeremy Pruitt had to say about the Vols' first outing against the Razorbacks since 2015 during his weekly press conference.Â
Tennessee sophomores Eric Gray and Henry To'o To'o, as well as senior Trey Smith, also answered questions from the media on Monday. Those videos can be found HERE.
Kickoff for Tennessee (2-3) and Arkansas (2-3) is 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday live on SEC Network with Tom Hart, Jordan Rodgers and Cole Cubelic on the call.Â
Jeremy Pruitt Press Conference
Opening Statement …Â
"Looking at Arkansas, I have been really impressed with how they've come together as a team. Looking at them defensively I'll start with Barry Odom – I think has done a fantastic job. They've created a lot of different looks in the secondary. They have created a lot of turnovers. I believe they lead the country in interceptions. They have been very opportunistic there with tons of eight-drop, rushing three guys and getting out and getting into coverage, mixing it up there. Offensively, they've played with a lot of speed on offense, snapping the ball a lot of times. As the season's gone, probably been more efficient offensively creating some explosive plays. When you look at them with special teams, you obviously see guys with ability as kickers and they have return guys there that have bounced around and had a couple of guys, but it looks like they're settling in on who they have as return guys. For us, this open week was a great opportunity to go back to the basics. Just going back through the early days of install trying to catch some guys up, and it was a good opportunity to do that and move some guys around to possibly create some opportunities for guys who have worked hard in practice and really give them an opportunity."
On COVID-19 results from the bye week and moving players around to different positions …
"With the COVID stuff, we get tested on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, the results should be coming in any time now. We've moved several guys around, especially in the secondary. We moved Key Lawrence to STAR and let him get some work there just to see what he looks like at that position. He is a guy that continues to work hard in practice. The guys in front of him at corner, he hadn't had a lot of opportunity to play there during the games, but we thought he played well in the games that he's played in. He's done pretty well. We looked at him at STAR just to get more production out of that position. He possibly will get an opportunity on Saturday."
On the younger guys he wanted to learn more about during the open week ...
"Dee Beckwith was a guy that didn't participate any during the summer. When fall camp gets here, he's back in quarantine again and then he turns his ankle. He's a guy that we looked at a little bit at tight end but and we are starting to look at, at running back that has size and speed. Tee Hodge is another guy that was injured during fall camp that is starting to get his legs back under him a little bit, seeing a little more burst and speed out of him. There's lots of guys. I could go through the whole roster. We need more depth at running back. We've really played three guys for the year and have been very fortunate that those guys have stayed healthy. We need to get those guys more of an opportunity. Another guy that was doing well is Len'Neth Whitehead. He had been out because of his foot injury but came back and was doing really well and unfortunately hurt his shoulder in camp and is probably going to do surgery on it in the next week to get him back in time for spring ball."
On splitting the reps at quarterback with Brian Maurer and Harrison Bailey in practice and how different Feleipe Franks looks …Â
"We repped three groups last week. We went back and didn't have enough to do four but we did have three groups go. We split the quarterbacks among those three groups and got them a lot of reps there. Feleipe to me is a guy that I am very familiar with. I started recruiting him when I coached at Florida State, and he was in the eighth or ninth grade. Very talented, multi-sport guy. Really a big man and a really good athlete. He has as strong an arm as anybody in our conference. I thought he played well at Florida. Two years in a row there, they won 10 games. I know he got hurt last year,but he's come back and you can tell that he's got experience and he's making a lot of plays for them."Â
On what he learned from the defensive line during the open week ...Â
"We've got to play lower. To me, every play we should be four to six inches lower than what we are. We don't have a lot of really large men. There are a couple of guys, but all us need to play lower and play with more leverage. We need to play on the other side of the line of scrimmage. We need to be able to convert from RPOs, play actions, off-the-run fakes and be able to convert from run blocks to pass blocks. We had a lot of really good work this week and we continue to see improvement there. There are a lot of positives and we'll see how we do on Saturday."
On how the team's week is impacted by Election Day on Tuesday …
"For us, it was pretty easy because we were off last week. We just came in yesterday and did our Monday or Sunday practice and today we'll come in and do practice No. 2 and take tomorrow off. There's not a lot of shakeup with us."
On what he has learned about Sam Pittman after working at Georgia …
"I never worked with Sam. We just kind of missed each other. I've known him for a while. I have a ton of respect for him as an offensive line coach. He's a really, really good person. While he's been at Arkansas, we've talked on the phone a couple of times and really enjoyed it. He has a good relationship with Jim (Chaney) and familiarity with each other. There's a lot of people within Knoxville that have talked about him. He's a very likeable guy. I think he's done a really, really good job. You can see it. His team is playing hard and playing together. I think he's doing a great job."
On movement of players to different positions during the bye week …
"We've moved some pieces. Bryson Eason is at outside linebacker. We took (Kurott) Garland and moved him to inside linebacker to create a little more depth at that position. Morven Joseph has worked at inside and outside linebacker. Normally, these things happen if you have them during the summer. During June and July, you can see these guys move around a little bit and get a clearer picture of what position they should play. Then, you get probably 14 really hard days of camp to see it. Some of these guys didn't get to do it, so after going through the first five weeks of practice here, it's an opportunity for us to put them into positions so that we can see them for their future."
On Arkansas' running game and what the key is to playing better in the second half of games …
"If you look at Arkansas' run game, I think they did a really good job last week of getting the ball on the perimeter. Some of that was designed quarterback reads. I think Kendal Briles has done a really nice job of mixing the RPOs. The wide receivers have plus splits, so they've been able to get the ball out on the perimeter. It's not been as congested there. I feel like they block really well up front. They've used two tight ends, whether it's counter schemes, running it the same side or the other side with stretch schemes, inside zones and split zones. The other night, they probably got lots of yardage on Feleipe (Franks) just scrambling. He probably scrambled for 50 yards. They've really done a nice job up front. Their wide receivers have blocked well on the perimeter.
"If you look at us, the first thing is don't turn the ball over. All of our coaches, we have a thing where you look each week at turnovers. We usually do it across the league. What's everybody's record based off the turnover margin. In the three games that we're in the red in the turnover margin, we've lost. In the two games that we're in the positive area, we've won. That's kind of that way all across the conference. So, No. 1, we can't turn the ball over. We've got to be able to take care of the football. How do you do that? You do it by being clean up front, from the offensive line to the tight ends to the running backs and wide receivers, protecting the football. We've got to get turnovers. We've had way too many dropped interceptions and we're not causing enough turnovers. That's something that we've focused on, something that we always focus on. For whatever reason, we've not been very opportunistic and we've got to finish when we get our hands on the ball."
On knowledge of opposing personnel ahead of the Arkansas matchup …
"It's the first time I've coached against Arkansas since the 2016 and '17 seasons. You can really see, on their roster, the difference in the talent level from 2017 until now. Over the last couple of years, they've done a nice job of recruiting some good, young talented guys. I'm probably not as familiar with their roster in itself. There are several guys on their team that we recruited at one stop or the other but didn't get them. We know that they've got some really talented players."
On improving fundamentals …
"Yeah I think absolutely you can. We spent lots of times working with individuals. We have ABCs that we do every day. It could be some kind of block protection, tackling, turnover drill where you're handling the football, or footwork. You have these things that you do whether its Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. There's nothing like going back and doing cleanup as far as when you get to the season. There's nothing like spending thirty minutes a day just on fundamentals. Teaching progression conceptually so the kids understand exactly what they're doing."
On Omari Thomas, Dominic Bailey and leadership roles on the team …
"Dom Bailey and Omari Thomas both have really good talent. Dom hasn't played at all this year. He's still learning and growing. There's a big difference when you walk in there and you're going to strike a guy in front of you that's 22 years old compared to a 16-year-old. Some of that comes with time. I think Dom's got lots of ability. When you look at Omari, he's played more and more each game. I think the longer he plays, he's going to continue to improve. He's one of those guys that has to continue to learn to play lower. I felt like all along we've had good leadership. We've had good practices. We've had good energy. If we take care of the football and create more turnovers, we'll be a much better football team. Some of the circumstances some of the guys have had, especially the younger guys, they couldn't control that. I think our guys have worked really hard. I see the guys in the office all the time now. Everywhere I've coached, I'm used to players being in the office constantly. The first year we had to drag them up here. Now we have kids up here all the time studying and trying to be the best player they can possibly be."
On a change in training during the open week ...Â
"We went back to fall camp. In fall camp we usually work four groups, and everybody gets the same amount of reps at every position. We believe that players develop because we spend that much time working in four groups. We split the staff up. We watched every bit of tape. This past week we kept some guys out of practice to help them heal up a little bit. We only worked three groups, but we still went back to camp mode. We worked very little on future opponents. We worked very hard just on ourselves and the fundamental parts of getting back to the basics. I think it was good for a lot of players in our program. It's something you can't do in a game week. You can do a little bit every day. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we always work on our opponent and we always do 7-on-7 and team run. From a competition standpoint, you need it.  You don't want to always be going against a scout team."
Â
Tennessee sophomores Eric Gray and Henry To'o To'o, as well as senior Trey Smith, also answered questions from the media on Monday. Those videos can be found HERE.
Kickoff for Tennessee (2-3) and Arkansas (2-3) is 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday live on SEC Network with Tom Hart, Jordan Rodgers and Cole Cubelic on the call.Â
Jeremy Pruitt Press Conference
Opening Statement …Â
"Looking at Arkansas, I have been really impressed with how they've come together as a team. Looking at them defensively I'll start with Barry Odom – I think has done a fantastic job. They've created a lot of different looks in the secondary. They have created a lot of turnovers. I believe they lead the country in interceptions. They have been very opportunistic there with tons of eight-drop, rushing three guys and getting out and getting into coverage, mixing it up there. Offensively, they've played with a lot of speed on offense, snapping the ball a lot of times. As the season's gone, probably been more efficient offensively creating some explosive plays. When you look at them with special teams, you obviously see guys with ability as kickers and they have return guys there that have bounced around and had a couple of guys, but it looks like they're settling in on who they have as return guys. For us, this open week was a great opportunity to go back to the basics. Just going back through the early days of install trying to catch some guys up, and it was a good opportunity to do that and move some guys around to possibly create some opportunities for guys who have worked hard in practice and really give them an opportunity."
On COVID-19 results from the bye week and moving players around to different positions …
"With the COVID stuff, we get tested on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, the results should be coming in any time now. We've moved several guys around, especially in the secondary. We moved Key Lawrence to STAR and let him get some work there just to see what he looks like at that position. He is a guy that continues to work hard in practice. The guys in front of him at corner, he hadn't had a lot of opportunity to play there during the games, but we thought he played well in the games that he's played in. He's done pretty well. We looked at him at STAR just to get more production out of that position. He possibly will get an opportunity on Saturday."
On the younger guys he wanted to learn more about during the open week ...
"Dee Beckwith was a guy that didn't participate any during the summer. When fall camp gets here, he's back in quarantine again and then he turns his ankle. He's a guy that we looked at a little bit at tight end but and we are starting to look at, at running back that has size and speed. Tee Hodge is another guy that was injured during fall camp that is starting to get his legs back under him a little bit, seeing a little more burst and speed out of him. There's lots of guys. I could go through the whole roster. We need more depth at running back. We've really played three guys for the year and have been very fortunate that those guys have stayed healthy. We need to get those guys more of an opportunity. Another guy that was doing well is Len'Neth Whitehead. He had been out because of his foot injury but came back and was doing really well and unfortunately hurt his shoulder in camp and is probably going to do surgery on it in the next week to get him back in time for spring ball."
On splitting the reps at quarterback with Brian Maurer and Harrison Bailey in practice and how different Feleipe Franks looks …Â
"We repped three groups last week. We went back and didn't have enough to do four but we did have three groups go. We split the quarterbacks among those three groups and got them a lot of reps there. Feleipe to me is a guy that I am very familiar with. I started recruiting him when I coached at Florida State, and he was in the eighth or ninth grade. Very talented, multi-sport guy. Really a big man and a really good athlete. He has as strong an arm as anybody in our conference. I thought he played well at Florida. Two years in a row there, they won 10 games. I know he got hurt last year,but he's come back and you can tell that he's got experience and he's making a lot of plays for them."Â
On what he learned from the defensive line during the open week ...Â
"We've got to play lower. To me, every play we should be four to six inches lower than what we are. We don't have a lot of really large men. There are a couple of guys, but all us need to play lower and play with more leverage. We need to play on the other side of the line of scrimmage. We need to be able to convert from RPOs, play actions, off-the-run fakes and be able to convert from run blocks to pass blocks. We had a lot of really good work this week and we continue to see improvement there. There are a lot of positives and we'll see how we do on Saturday."
On how the team's week is impacted by Election Day on Tuesday …
"For us, it was pretty easy because we were off last week. We just came in yesterday and did our Monday or Sunday practice and today we'll come in and do practice No. 2 and take tomorrow off. There's not a lot of shakeup with us."
On what he has learned about Sam Pittman after working at Georgia …
"I never worked with Sam. We just kind of missed each other. I've known him for a while. I have a ton of respect for him as an offensive line coach. He's a really, really good person. While he's been at Arkansas, we've talked on the phone a couple of times and really enjoyed it. He has a good relationship with Jim (Chaney) and familiarity with each other. There's a lot of people within Knoxville that have talked about him. He's a very likeable guy. I think he's done a really, really good job. You can see it. His team is playing hard and playing together. I think he's doing a great job."
On movement of players to different positions during the bye week …
"We've moved some pieces. Bryson Eason is at outside linebacker. We took (Kurott) Garland and moved him to inside linebacker to create a little more depth at that position. Morven Joseph has worked at inside and outside linebacker. Normally, these things happen if you have them during the summer. During June and July, you can see these guys move around a little bit and get a clearer picture of what position they should play. Then, you get probably 14 really hard days of camp to see it. Some of these guys didn't get to do it, so after going through the first five weeks of practice here, it's an opportunity for us to put them into positions so that we can see them for their future."
On Arkansas' running game and what the key is to playing better in the second half of games …
"If you look at Arkansas' run game, I think they did a really good job last week of getting the ball on the perimeter. Some of that was designed quarterback reads. I think Kendal Briles has done a really nice job of mixing the RPOs. The wide receivers have plus splits, so they've been able to get the ball out on the perimeter. It's not been as congested there. I feel like they block really well up front. They've used two tight ends, whether it's counter schemes, running it the same side or the other side with stretch schemes, inside zones and split zones. The other night, they probably got lots of yardage on Feleipe (Franks) just scrambling. He probably scrambled for 50 yards. They've really done a nice job up front. Their wide receivers have blocked well on the perimeter.
"If you look at us, the first thing is don't turn the ball over. All of our coaches, we have a thing where you look each week at turnovers. We usually do it across the league. What's everybody's record based off the turnover margin. In the three games that we're in the red in the turnover margin, we've lost. In the two games that we're in the positive area, we've won. That's kind of that way all across the conference. So, No. 1, we can't turn the ball over. We've got to be able to take care of the football. How do you do that? You do it by being clean up front, from the offensive line to the tight ends to the running backs and wide receivers, protecting the football. We've got to get turnovers. We've had way too many dropped interceptions and we're not causing enough turnovers. That's something that we've focused on, something that we always focus on. For whatever reason, we've not been very opportunistic and we've got to finish when we get our hands on the ball."
On knowledge of opposing personnel ahead of the Arkansas matchup …
"It's the first time I've coached against Arkansas since the 2016 and '17 seasons. You can really see, on their roster, the difference in the talent level from 2017 until now. Over the last couple of years, they've done a nice job of recruiting some good, young talented guys. I'm probably not as familiar with their roster in itself. There are several guys on their team that we recruited at one stop or the other but didn't get them. We know that they've got some really talented players."
On improving fundamentals …
"Yeah I think absolutely you can. We spent lots of times working with individuals. We have ABCs that we do every day. It could be some kind of block protection, tackling, turnover drill where you're handling the football, or footwork. You have these things that you do whether its Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. There's nothing like going back and doing cleanup as far as when you get to the season. There's nothing like spending thirty minutes a day just on fundamentals. Teaching progression conceptually so the kids understand exactly what they're doing."
On Omari Thomas, Dominic Bailey and leadership roles on the team …
"Dom Bailey and Omari Thomas both have really good talent. Dom hasn't played at all this year. He's still learning and growing. There's a big difference when you walk in there and you're going to strike a guy in front of you that's 22 years old compared to a 16-year-old. Some of that comes with time. I think Dom's got lots of ability. When you look at Omari, he's played more and more each game. I think the longer he plays, he's going to continue to improve. He's one of those guys that has to continue to learn to play lower. I felt like all along we've had good leadership. We've had good practices. We've had good energy. If we take care of the football and create more turnovers, we'll be a much better football team. Some of the circumstances some of the guys have had, especially the younger guys, they couldn't control that. I think our guys have worked really hard. I see the guys in the office all the time now. Everywhere I've coached, I'm used to players being in the office constantly. The first year we had to drag them up here. Now we have kids up here all the time studying and trying to be the best player they can possibly be."
On a change in training during the open week ...Â
"We went back to fall camp. In fall camp we usually work four groups, and everybody gets the same amount of reps at every position. We believe that players develop because we spend that much time working in four groups. We split the staff up. We watched every bit of tape. This past week we kept some guys out of practice to help them heal up a little bit. We only worked three groups, but we still went back to camp mode. We worked very little on future opponents. We worked very hard just on ourselves and the fundamental parts of getting back to the basics. I think it was good for a lot of players in our program. It's something you can't do in a game week. You can do a little bit every day. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we always work on our opponent and we always do 7-on-7 and team run. From a competition standpoint, you need it.  You don't want to always be going against a scout team."
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