University of Tennessee Athletics
Photo by: Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics
What Jeremy Pruitt Said Entering Vanderbilt Week
November 23, 2020 | Football
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Tennessee closes a month-long, three-game road swing as it travels to Vanderbilt for a 7:30 p.m. ET / 6:30 p.m. CT Saturday kickoff in Nashville. Head coach Jeremy Pruitt previewed the Vols' matchup at his weekly Monday press conference.Â
The game will be televised live on SEC Network Alternate with Dave Neal (play-by-play), DJ Shockley (analyst) and Dawn Davenport (reporter) calling the action.Â
Jeremy Pruitt Press Conference
Vanderbilt Week
Monday, Nov. 23
Opening StatementÂ
"After reviewing the game, I was pretty spot on after the game. Starting offensively, it was probably our best performance, especially up front. I felt like we really dominated the line of scrimmage there, created some explosive plays in the run game. I thought our backs ran extremely hard. I thought our tight ends blocked well and we blocked well in the perimeter. We created some explosive plays in the throw game. We were better on third down. Thought we did a nice job getting in manageable third downs when we got behind the sticks a little bit. Probably, one of the biggest plays of the game was the interception down there (in the Auburn end zone). We dominated the drive going down through there and we made a mistake which turned into points for the other team.
"I thought defensively, which the exception of one coverage – we made a mistake on there and made a couple of mistakes on third down. We did a pretty good job stopping the run, but, to me, the big difference in the game defensively is getting off the field on third down. A couple of third-and-four and fives there, we didn't match the patterns the right way. Had a couple of chances to finish on the quarterback and didn't. They extended plays. In the kicking game, we didn't really create an advantage. We had one really good kickoff return and had one really poor one. I thought our kickoff coverage was fine and thought Paxton Brooks continues to punt the ball well. So that's a positive. Just looking at the game, I thought from an effort, toughness, competitiveness (standpoint), I thought our kids tried to play for four quarters, play together, tried to find a way. There were probably six or seven plays in the game that were the difference in the game that we needed to be on the other side of."
On if the Vols' play against Missouri was the team's best offensive performance…
"No, we played much better this game (at Auburn) than we did in Missouri to me offensively. If you look at over the course of the season, if you take away turnovers – we have a thing call the 'War Daddy Board' – to figure out if these guys played the right way. To make that board every week, you've got to play the right way. You've got to not have many mental errors. You've got to play with toughness, effort, just compete the right way. As the season has went, we've had more guys on that board. The one thing, to me, that has really kept us from being where we want to be, is that we've made some critical mistakes in some games that have kept us from doing that."
On what he sees from Vanderbilt…
"When you look at Vanderbilt – spent a lot of time on them yesterday, I think offensively, they're spreading the ball around, they're playing fast. I think they've got really good running backs. They're playing with a young quarterback that has gained some confidence as the season has went. They have good playmakers on the outside. They played really good against Florida and had a chance to beat Mississippi State there a couple of weeks ago. Derek's (Mason) teams always play hard. He does a really nice job getting the guys to believe in what they're doing and playing hard. They always have."
On the status of DL Greg Emerson…
"Coming out of high school, Greg had a really bad injury and didn't get a chance to play his senior year. He just got a little bit of a twist there on an old injury. I think he will probably be day-to-day this week."
On what makes RB Eric Gray special…
"I think when you look at his preparation, him and Ty (Chandler) and the whole running back group, those guys are really good competitors. They compete every week. They compete every day at practice. They're really good students. They're good leaders. They try to do it the right way. I think Jay's (Graham) done a really nice job with them, continuing to take them to the next level there. I thought Saturday was really Eric's best game. I thought the touches that Ty had, I thought that Ty had a good game too."
On if Jarrett Guarantano's interception was due to calling the wrong play…
"No, that was an RPO. We obviously were late throwing the football. He knows that we can't do that. He just made a mistake."
On the results of Sunday's COVID-19 testing…
"Well, one of the reasons we didn't practice yesterday, just if you look within our conference, it seems like some of the teams that have traveled the week before (have had COVID issues). We've been fortunate this year, but just from a precautionary standpoint, we didn't practice yesterday so we can get this testing back today. It's still coming in. So, as we get the final results, we'll have a little better idea this afternoon."
On how he'd assess the play of the safeties this season and what he attributes the busted coverages to…
"I think you can look, Jaylen McCollough and Trevon Flowers, have played really good ball for us over their career. Jaylen missed the entire fall camp and he's just a sophomore. He got hurt against Missouri and he's played the entire year with an injury, so practice time has been cut down. Same with Trevon. These guys are practicing one or two days a week. It's precautionary to make sure we protect them. I think because of that, there have probably been a few (mistakes) there. There haven't been a ton, but when you turn a guy loose who's the fastest guy in the country there, it's hard not to hit him. At the time, the game was 10-0. I have to do a better job of getting these guys prepared. This is not unusual. We've had guys over the years, maybe based off an injury to protect them down the road, we limit their reps here in practice. It's just something we as a coaching staff need to do a better job, so these guys are prepared a little better."
On how he'd assess pass protection…
"This week, I thought we did a pretty good job. Our running backs ran the ball really well in the game. I felt like we didn't protect as well there as we needed to and that's something we've got to work on this week."
On his evaluation of QB Jarrett Guarantano's play at Auburn…
"He's done a lot of really good things for us in the game. Made a lot of good checks for us, got us in the right runs, these guys were shifting in and out of fronts. That's important in the quarterback position. If you want to be efficient running the football, you've got to make sure you're able to run in the right fronts. Obviously, there are three or four plays in the game that needed to be better, particularly that one (interception) was a game-changing play. It's something that he understands and it's something that can't happen. You can't throw the ball to the other team any time. There are going to be times that maybe you got one-on-one shot and you throw the ball and somebody makes a good play. Maybe there's a time where there's pressure and somebody hits you and the ball flutters out. But that was an unforced error and you can't have unforced errors."
On how the quarterback impacts the run game…
"There's a lot. You can have guys that maybe throw the ball, make two or three really good throws and you think they've had a really good game, but maybe they've missed in the run game 50 percent of the time. There's a lot that goes into it. If you're going to run the zone to our right and they (opponent's defense) have got six people over there and we've got three guys to block them, we don't need to be running the zone over there, we need to be running it to the other side. There's lots of things that kind of go into that. We've tried to keep it simple this year just based off circumstance in our entire program. Because we've got guys in practice and out of practice and it's been an unusual year, so really in the kicking game, offense and defense we've tried to err on the side of simplicity so we can make the other team beat us and we can give more guys the opportunity to play."
On freshman QB Harrison Bailey's play at Auburn and his progression…
"If you go back to the Kentucky game, Harrison got in one drive there. I'm not sure how many plays – maybe eight to 10 plays in that game. Against Arkansas, probably very similar, maybe a little bit more – probably 10 to 14. This Saturday (at Auburn), I think he got in two drives there. The one thing about him that I've really liked is I've liked his presence. He seems to be pretty calm. He stepped in there and made two or three really good throws. Not all of them were caught. He made two or three good throws. I think he kind of took what the offense gave him. If you go back and look, one thing I really like about it is the fact he didn't really get any live reps much during fall camp, so these are kind of like his opportunities and I think he's taken advantage of them. So, it gives him confidence moving forward, which is important for him, and some experience there playing on the road."
On the secondary…
"It is my belief that before every play there are lots of things that need to go through every defensive player's mind before the ball is ever snapped. What's the score of the game, what's the quarter, where are they at on the field, what's the down and distance, what personnel is in the game? Look at the formation, some teams change based on running backs and the wide receiver locations. The best teams that I have been a part of, most of the time have experienced players that play the play. That's the way I like to put it when it comes to defensive football. You want to be as aggressive as you can possibly be as a defense but at the same time you want to have simplicity so you can just play the play. I think particularly in this last game, as a team, it was very important to do that. There were a few changeups in the game that they probably got us on. I think some of our lack of experience with guys playing different positions on third down, they converted a couple of third downs because of that."
On the team's attitude despite the losing streak…
"These guys work extremely hard, they prepare the right way, they compete at practice. They're smart guys. Most of these guys, except for the freshman class, were all here when we went on an eight-game winning streak. One thing that we try to do after game, we'll do it today, we will have a meeting on things that we done really good and things that we done really bad. More times than not, it's all about us, it's not about the other team. Whether it is execution, whether its effort, whatever it is. These guys have seen the little things that it takes to be successful and the little things that it takes that maybe keeps us on the short end of the stick, so to speak. I think we've got good leadership. I think our guys continue to work hard. I thought they played hard the other night. There are just four to five plays every game that change the game and we have not been able to be on top of those plays."
On defensive players going down to slow down the offense…
"We don't coach that. I've been at places where that was the norm, but we haven't coached that here. It has never been addressed with our players."
On third down success for opposing offenses…
"Every week we go back and look at our quality control. We start with our third and ones to twos. I think this year its 28 that we've had third and ones to twos. Then we go third and three to six, seven and 10 and 11-plus and we look at the percentages of that. Lots of times, seven to 10-plus and 11-plus you should be better. We've been really good on 11-plus, which we should be. To me, we have not gotten off the field on third and three-to-six and seven-to-10 like we normally would. We've got to improve in those down and distances. I've coached all types of different teams. I've coached teams that have phenomenal pass rushers and I've coached teams that didn't really have pass rushers. You find ways to get it done and we have struggled in that this year and the next week this will be important, getting off the field on third down. It has been important every week, but we have to focus and improve there for sure."
On the interception return for a touchdown by Auburn…
"I just know, just particularly that one, just threw the ball away. It's a bang bang deal. It's a run play, if it's there on the pass you give it to him and if it's not, you throw it away. It's pretty simple. It's a 13-10 ball game there and ends up being at least a 10-point swing, could have been 14 points. It was a big play in the game, obviously, and can't do that. It's just obvious, can't make those mistakes."
On sophomore DB Warren Burrell's performance...Â
"Warren has played really well the last two weeks. It's really the first action he's seen. He played really well for us early on last year as a freshman and we got some guys back and he didn't play as much, played on special teams. He missed a lot of fall camp. There was a point in time where we thought we were going to move him to safety and we did for one day during fall camp because we liked the way he was practicing and he was a guy that could give us some range in the back end. He's a smart guy, missed several weeks and came back the day before the South Carolina game. It's kind of been a little bit of a roller coaster for him but the kid has stayed the course, he's kept working and I think he's played really good the last two weeks."
On if he would play with 49 scholarship players like Mississippi State did last weekend...
"I think the first thing is just the safety of the players. You might only have five guys out, you might have 80 scholarship guys, but what if all five of them are centers? That's the first and foremost, you have to look at the safety of the players and every circumstance is different."
On the week's schedule…
"I think it changes when you play away. You obviously travel on Friday, so everything is sped up. We always practice on Thursdays, so we will move it in the morning to give the guys some time off."
On takeaways from the Auburn game…
"Just looking at it, defensively we only gave up three explosive plays. That's probably the least amount that we've given up against these guys in all my years of coaching. Our problem was we didn't get off the field on third down and we gave up one big explosive play that resulted in a touchdown. Offensively, I thought we moved the ball extremely well in between the 20-to-20. We didn't create enough explosive plays in the throw game to get some cheap points there and we didn't come away with enough points."
The game will be televised live on SEC Network Alternate with Dave Neal (play-by-play), DJ Shockley (analyst) and Dawn Davenport (reporter) calling the action.Â
Jeremy Pruitt Press Conference
Vanderbilt Week
Monday, Nov. 23
Opening StatementÂ
"After reviewing the game, I was pretty spot on after the game. Starting offensively, it was probably our best performance, especially up front. I felt like we really dominated the line of scrimmage there, created some explosive plays in the run game. I thought our backs ran extremely hard. I thought our tight ends blocked well and we blocked well in the perimeter. We created some explosive plays in the throw game. We were better on third down. Thought we did a nice job getting in manageable third downs when we got behind the sticks a little bit. Probably, one of the biggest plays of the game was the interception down there (in the Auburn end zone). We dominated the drive going down through there and we made a mistake which turned into points for the other team.
"I thought defensively, which the exception of one coverage – we made a mistake on there and made a couple of mistakes on third down. We did a pretty good job stopping the run, but, to me, the big difference in the game defensively is getting off the field on third down. A couple of third-and-four and fives there, we didn't match the patterns the right way. Had a couple of chances to finish on the quarterback and didn't. They extended plays. In the kicking game, we didn't really create an advantage. We had one really good kickoff return and had one really poor one. I thought our kickoff coverage was fine and thought Paxton Brooks continues to punt the ball well. So that's a positive. Just looking at the game, I thought from an effort, toughness, competitiveness (standpoint), I thought our kids tried to play for four quarters, play together, tried to find a way. There were probably six or seven plays in the game that were the difference in the game that we needed to be on the other side of."
On if the Vols' play against Missouri was the team's best offensive performance…
"No, we played much better this game (at Auburn) than we did in Missouri to me offensively. If you look at over the course of the season, if you take away turnovers – we have a thing call the 'War Daddy Board' – to figure out if these guys played the right way. To make that board every week, you've got to play the right way. You've got to not have many mental errors. You've got to play with toughness, effort, just compete the right way. As the season has went, we've had more guys on that board. The one thing, to me, that has really kept us from being where we want to be, is that we've made some critical mistakes in some games that have kept us from doing that."
On what he sees from Vanderbilt…
"When you look at Vanderbilt – spent a lot of time on them yesterday, I think offensively, they're spreading the ball around, they're playing fast. I think they've got really good running backs. They're playing with a young quarterback that has gained some confidence as the season has went. They have good playmakers on the outside. They played really good against Florida and had a chance to beat Mississippi State there a couple of weeks ago. Derek's (Mason) teams always play hard. He does a really nice job getting the guys to believe in what they're doing and playing hard. They always have."
On the status of DL Greg Emerson…
"Coming out of high school, Greg had a really bad injury and didn't get a chance to play his senior year. He just got a little bit of a twist there on an old injury. I think he will probably be day-to-day this week."
On what makes RB Eric Gray special…
"I think when you look at his preparation, him and Ty (Chandler) and the whole running back group, those guys are really good competitors. They compete every week. They compete every day at practice. They're really good students. They're good leaders. They try to do it the right way. I think Jay's (Graham) done a really nice job with them, continuing to take them to the next level there. I thought Saturday was really Eric's best game. I thought the touches that Ty had, I thought that Ty had a good game too."
On if Jarrett Guarantano's interception was due to calling the wrong play…
"No, that was an RPO. We obviously were late throwing the football. He knows that we can't do that. He just made a mistake."
On the results of Sunday's COVID-19 testing…
"Well, one of the reasons we didn't practice yesterday, just if you look within our conference, it seems like some of the teams that have traveled the week before (have had COVID issues). We've been fortunate this year, but just from a precautionary standpoint, we didn't practice yesterday so we can get this testing back today. It's still coming in. So, as we get the final results, we'll have a little better idea this afternoon."
On how he'd assess the play of the safeties this season and what he attributes the busted coverages to…
"I think you can look, Jaylen McCollough and Trevon Flowers, have played really good ball for us over their career. Jaylen missed the entire fall camp and he's just a sophomore. He got hurt against Missouri and he's played the entire year with an injury, so practice time has been cut down. Same with Trevon. These guys are practicing one or two days a week. It's precautionary to make sure we protect them. I think because of that, there have probably been a few (mistakes) there. There haven't been a ton, but when you turn a guy loose who's the fastest guy in the country there, it's hard not to hit him. At the time, the game was 10-0. I have to do a better job of getting these guys prepared. This is not unusual. We've had guys over the years, maybe based off an injury to protect them down the road, we limit their reps here in practice. It's just something we as a coaching staff need to do a better job, so these guys are prepared a little better."
On how he'd assess pass protection…
"This week, I thought we did a pretty good job. Our running backs ran the ball really well in the game. I felt like we didn't protect as well there as we needed to and that's something we've got to work on this week."
On his evaluation of QB Jarrett Guarantano's play at Auburn…
"He's done a lot of really good things for us in the game. Made a lot of good checks for us, got us in the right runs, these guys were shifting in and out of fronts. That's important in the quarterback position. If you want to be efficient running the football, you've got to make sure you're able to run in the right fronts. Obviously, there are three or four plays in the game that needed to be better, particularly that one (interception) was a game-changing play. It's something that he understands and it's something that can't happen. You can't throw the ball to the other team any time. There are going to be times that maybe you got one-on-one shot and you throw the ball and somebody makes a good play. Maybe there's a time where there's pressure and somebody hits you and the ball flutters out. But that was an unforced error and you can't have unforced errors."
On how the quarterback impacts the run game…
"There's a lot. You can have guys that maybe throw the ball, make two or three really good throws and you think they've had a really good game, but maybe they've missed in the run game 50 percent of the time. There's a lot that goes into it. If you're going to run the zone to our right and they (opponent's defense) have got six people over there and we've got three guys to block them, we don't need to be running the zone over there, we need to be running it to the other side. There's lots of things that kind of go into that. We've tried to keep it simple this year just based off circumstance in our entire program. Because we've got guys in practice and out of practice and it's been an unusual year, so really in the kicking game, offense and defense we've tried to err on the side of simplicity so we can make the other team beat us and we can give more guys the opportunity to play."
On freshman QB Harrison Bailey's play at Auburn and his progression…
"If you go back to the Kentucky game, Harrison got in one drive there. I'm not sure how many plays – maybe eight to 10 plays in that game. Against Arkansas, probably very similar, maybe a little bit more – probably 10 to 14. This Saturday (at Auburn), I think he got in two drives there. The one thing about him that I've really liked is I've liked his presence. He seems to be pretty calm. He stepped in there and made two or three really good throws. Not all of them were caught. He made two or three good throws. I think he kind of took what the offense gave him. If you go back and look, one thing I really like about it is the fact he didn't really get any live reps much during fall camp, so these are kind of like his opportunities and I think he's taken advantage of them. So, it gives him confidence moving forward, which is important for him, and some experience there playing on the road."
On the secondary…
"It is my belief that before every play there are lots of things that need to go through every defensive player's mind before the ball is ever snapped. What's the score of the game, what's the quarter, where are they at on the field, what's the down and distance, what personnel is in the game? Look at the formation, some teams change based on running backs and the wide receiver locations. The best teams that I have been a part of, most of the time have experienced players that play the play. That's the way I like to put it when it comes to defensive football. You want to be as aggressive as you can possibly be as a defense but at the same time you want to have simplicity so you can just play the play. I think particularly in this last game, as a team, it was very important to do that. There were a few changeups in the game that they probably got us on. I think some of our lack of experience with guys playing different positions on third down, they converted a couple of third downs because of that."
On the team's attitude despite the losing streak…
"These guys work extremely hard, they prepare the right way, they compete at practice. They're smart guys. Most of these guys, except for the freshman class, were all here when we went on an eight-game winning streak. One thing that we try to do after game, we'll do it today, we will have a meeting on things that we done really good and things that we done really bad. More times than not, it's all about us, it's not about the other team. Whether it is execution, whether its effort, whatever it is. These guys have seen the little things that it takes to be successful and the little things that it takes that maybe keeps us on the short end of the stick, so to speak. I think we've got good leadership. I think our guys continue to work hard. I thought they played hard the other night. There are just four to five plays every game that change the game and we have not been able to be on top of those plays."
On defensive players going down to slow down the offense…
"We don't coach that. I've been at places where that was the norm, but we haven't coached that here. It has never been addressed with our players."
On third down success for opposing offenses…
"Every week we go back and look at our quality control. We start with our third and ones to twos. I think this year its 28 that we've had third and ones to twos. Then we go third and three to six, seven and 10 and 11-plus and we look at the percentages of that. Lots of times, seven to 10-plus and 11-plus you should be better. We've been really good on 11-plus, which we should be. To me, we have not gotten off the field on third and three-to-six and seven-to-10 like we normally would. We've got to improve in those down and distances. I've coached all types of different teams. I've coached teams that have phenomenal pass rushers and I've coached teams that didn't really have pass rushers. You find ways to get it done and we have struggled in that this year and the next week this will be important, getting off the field on third down. It has been important every week, but we have to focus and improve there for sure."
On the interception return for a touchdown by Auburn…
"I just know, just particularly that one, just threw the ball away. It's a bang bang deal. It's a run play, if it's there on the pass you give it to him and if it's not, you throw it away. It's pretty simple. It's a 13-10 ball game there and ends up being at least a 10-point swing, could have been 14 points. It was a big play in the game, obviously, and can't do that. It's just obvious, can't make those mistakes."
On sophomore DB Warren Burrell's performance...Â
"Warren has played really well the last two weeks. It's really the first action he's seen. He played really well for us early on last year as a freshman and we got some guys back and he didn't play as much, played on special teams. He missed a lot of fall camp. There was a point in time where we thought we were going to move him to safety and we did for one day during fall camp because we liked the way he was practicing and he was a guy that could give us some range in the back end. He's a smart guy, missed several weeks and came back the day before the South Carolina game. It's kind of been a little bit of a roller coaster for him but the kid has stayed the course, he's kept working and I think he's played really good the last two weeks."
On if he would play with 49 scholarship players like Mississippi State did last weekend...
"I think the first thing is just the safety of the players. You might only have five guys out, you might have 80 scholarship guys, but what if all five of them are centers? That's the first and foremost, you have to look at the safety of the players and every circumstance is different."
On the week's schedule…
"I think it changes when you play away. You obviously travel on Friday, so everything is sped up. We always practice on Thursdays, so we will move it in the morning to give the guys some time off."
On takeaways from the Auburn game…
"Just looking at it, defensively we only gave up three explosive plays. That's probably the least amount that we've given up against these guys in all my years of coaching. Our problem was we didn't get off the field on third down and we gave up one big explosive play that resulted in a touchdown. Offensively, I thought we moved the ball extremely well in between the 20-to-20. We didn't create enough explosive plays in the throw game to get some cheap points there and we didn't come away with enough points."
Players Mentioned
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