KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – With the final scrimmage of fall camp completed on Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium, Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt said he is pleased with the Vols’ team speed and is a step closer to naming UT’s returners for the season-opener.

Excited by several components of play throughout fall camp, Pruitt expects his Volunteers to get down the field and ball hawk a bit sooner this season. Pruitt has also been pleased with the special teams as a whole.

“We really have more speed on our team this year,” Pruitt said. “That has enabled us to create some depth on special teams. I feel like our kickers have continued to kick the ball extremely well in camp. We are much closer to figuring out who our return guys are going to be.

“You know we got a lot of really good work out there today. With the one’s, twos’, and three’s. Lots of competition.”

The Vols are two weeks away from their season and home opener against Georgia State and as the days count down the focus will start to shift to game-week preparations and focusing on upcoming opponents later this week.

“Game-week prep we’ll probably start on Thursday,” Pruitt said. “Throughout fall ball we’ve worked on some component of an opponent we play.”

Inky Johnson Energy
Notable Vol alum Inky Johnson, who is now a recognized motivational speaker, returned to Rocky Top on Friday to address the current team.

Johnson, who’s playing career ended with a life-threatening injury on the playing field in 2006, found a way to turn a tragedy into purpose – motivating and helping others.

He shared his story with his beloved Vols and Pruitt said he noticed the difference in Saturday’s practice.

“I felt like the effort to start practice was much improved,” Pruitt said. “We had a speaker last night, Inky (Johnson) spoke, I’ve heard him speak before and he did a fantastic job. He talked about what it meant for him to be at Tennessee. The message he shared with the players is right on track with what we’ve been talking about since we’ve been here. There was definitely much more energy. So my question is do we have to go get Inky before we go out there and practice every day? But there was more energy to start practice so that was positive.”

Tennessee Head Coach Jeremy Pruitt Post-Scrimmage Transcript | Aug. 17, 2019

Opening statement:

“You know we got a lot of really good work out there today. With the one’s, twos’, and three’s. Lots of competition. If you look on both sides of the ball, it seems to me and it is probably everywhere, it seems like the guys who have more experience have a better understanding of how to prepare. When you get to the second and third week of camp, maturity starts showing up. That’s why in this league it helps to have an older team, a mature team. Usually the younger guys who can sustain and do it right now on a consistent basis all the time are few and far between. The ones that can, they end up to have a chance to haver really good freshman years. We’ve got guys that have played a lot of ball, that can sustain, can execute. We got some guys that are physically ready, for whatever reason when it comes to consistency they’re not there yet. It only takes one offensively. Defense plays a little bit different; you can have 10 players mess up but one guy who just dominates his guy at the point of attack and nobody even realizes the other 10 guys messed it up. Offensively it doesn’t really work that way.

I feel like our kickers have continued to kick the ball extremely well in camp. We are much closer to figuring out who our return guys are going to be. We have really more speed on our team this year. That has enabled us to create some depth on special teams. But in all three phases, we really got to be more consistent. Especially offensively; we put the ball on the ground several times today. Opportunities for turnovers. Anytime you go against each other, if the offense doesn’t turn the ball over you’re ticked off at the defense. If the offense does turn it over, you’re ticked off at the offense. We have to have a happy medium there. Offensively we don’t have to turn the ball over ever, and we have been trying to harp more about being a ball-hawking defense. There were some balls out today. Still making dead-ball penalties, has nothing to do with talent it has to do with focus and discipline. We must improve there.”

On newcomers catching his attention:

“It’s interesting when you’re talking about newcomers, we have them everywhere all over our team. A defensive lineman can show up on a sack rather or a play at the point of attack. Usually, an offensive lineman you don’t really notice him when you’re standing there unless he gives up a sack. Wide receiver, you may have a great day and the ball never comes to you. It is hard to tell when you’re out there standing on the field, but we have lots of guys that are competing really hard. We’ll watch the tape, get a much better idea but nobody that I would say right now.”

On the energy at practice:

“I felt like the effort to start practice was much improved. We had a speaker last night, Inky (Johnson) spoke, I’ve heard him speak before and he did a fantastic job. He talked about what it meant for him to be at Tennessee. The message he shared with the players is right on track with what we’ve been talking about since we’ve been here. There was definitely much more energy. So my question is do we have to go get Inky before we go out there and practice everyday? But there was more energy to start practice so that was positive.”

On who is stepping up on the defensive line:

“I see guys that have some ability. They have to learn how to play and learn how we want them to player. Whether it is technique, effort, toughness or knowhow, the more you are in a program the more you have an understanding of the people around you and how the puzzle fits together, defensively. There are several guys that have improved up front and we still have a long ways to go there. They have to continue to work hard every single say. They can’t take a day off. We have to continue to improve over the course of the season.”

On progression of Guarantano:

“Jarrett has been really consistent this camp. We started practice off a little different today. Last time it was third downs and this time it was coming out of the endzone. For me, you are looking for a guy that can make the throws, get the ball out of his hand and to the right people.”

On what the rest of fall camp looks like:

“We’ll be off tomorrow. We’ll start for the next three days and take some opponents we have early in the season and spend a day on each one of them. We will probably start getting into our game week prep on Thursday and spend three days on that. We’ll work on early-season opponents this week and we have done that all fall camp. Since day six, we have been working on some component of somebody.

On pre-snap penalties:

“Any dead-ball penalty is a loss of concentration or focus. It’s all three phases. Whether it’s a guy out there at gunner or a tight end on field goal protection. There are some really foolish pre-snap penalties and a lot of it comes from maturity. It’s amazing how many times young guys can line up offsides. That comes from growing up and being mature enough to handle whatever is thrown at you. Whether it is the number of reps you are taking or whether or not you are having success, it’s just being discipline to do what is right.”

On what is valued more doing well in practice or in a scrimmage:

“I like to look at it like this. Let’s just say me and Zach (Stipe, Director of Football Communications, standing to his right) are playing corner. Zach might be playing with the best technique, he never makes a mental error, he’s always in the right spot, but during the course of the scrimmage there are only five opportunities for Zach to make a play and he makes absolutely none of them. Zach has been in the program for four years or two years and has been through two springs and he has a better understanding. Then there is me. I just got here. I’m learning the technique and I’m somewhere in between. I don’t always know what to do. I might not be lined up with proper leverage or I might not have my eyes in the right spots. Over the course of a scrimmage, I get five plays and I make four out of five. Now you are the coach, do you want to coach me or do you want to coach Zach? We’re at that point right now. We have some guys who have been here, have the experience and have the knowhow. That’s valuable and sometimes the play won’t present itself to him because he is in the right spot. Then there’s a guy like me that might not know what I’m doing and I’m not in the right spot so the ball is going to come at me more times. So, there is a fine line if are you coaching the right people. That is something we have to make a decision on in the next couple of days moving forward. There are some guys that aren’t ready to play right now that the fourth of fifth week they might be starting. We have a guy on staff right now, Nate Andrews, that was a high school quarterback in Mobile and we signed him at Florida State. About this time that year, I was like lord have mercy what am I doing signing this guy. He couldn’t backpedal, he couldn’t get it right. By the fourth game, he was starting on a team that won the National Championship. He led us in caused fumbles and interceptions. We ended up being right all along but we just didn’t have the patience to deal with it. There will be guys like that.”