KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee football head coach Jeremy Pruitt said he has seen an increase in confidence and maturity in the Vols this week following Wednesday’s practice held indoors at the Anderson Training Center due to weather conditions.
“Lots of competition out there today,” Pruitt said. “I saw guys competing all the way to the end of practice… you could see a little more sense of urgency. I think a little bit of that is maturity. I think some of it is confidence, so that’s a good thing. We’ve got to continue to work the next two days to get ready for a really good football team in Georgia.”
Tennessee quickly put last week’s loss to Florida in the rearview with players coming in voluntarily to watch film on Sunday and prepare for the second-ranked Bulldogs.
Georgia will be the first road opponent for the Vols this season as the two teams square off on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. on CBS. Tennessee is 23-22-2 all-time against Georgia and 11-11-1 all-time in Athens, Ga. UT’s last trip to Sanford Stadium ended with wide receiver Jauan Jenningscatching a 43-yard Hail Mary from Josh Dobbs to win the game as time expired.
“When you go on the road in the SEC, you find out a lot about yourself,” Pruitt said. “To me, one of the best things about being a player or coach in this league, is you find out really who you are when you go on the road. Everybody is against you. It’s a tough environment. You have to overcome a whole lot, but you find guys who have maturity, who can focus and do the little things that it takes to have success.”
Pruitt and his staff are very familiar with the Bulldogs. Pruitt was the defensive coordinator at Georgia in 2014 and 2015, and recruited and coached many of the Bulldogs’ top players. Several other members of the Tennessee staff have coached at Georgia, and vice versa. Pruitt and Georgia head coach Kirby Smart also worked on Nick Saban’s Alabama staff together for six years.
Additionally, 15 scholarship players on the Tennessee roster call Georgia home, including projected starters: wide receiver Marquez Callaway, safety Micah Abernathy, defensive tackle Alexis Johnson, safety Nigel Warrior and cornerback Baylen Buchanan.
“I would think that Georgia is a hard place to play,” Pruitt said. “To start with, like all the schools in the SEC, they have a lot of passion for their team. They have a very good football team that’s very well coached. In my time there, the players, the relationships that I got to build and be a part of, (I) had a lot of fun memories there.”
Vols’ D Finding Success on Third Down
Tennessee is allowing opponents to convert just 24.5 percent (12-of-49) of third down attempts through four games – the nation’s sixth-best mark and the third-best rate in the SEC. The Vols have been especially stout on third down since the season opener against West Virginia, too. UT has held opponents to a 17.5 percent conversion rate (7-of-40) on third down over the last three games.
Georgia has emerged as one of the SEC’s top offenses this season behind sophomore quarterback Jake Fromm and a stable of playmakers, including wide receiver Mecole Hardman (five touchdowns) and running back D’Andre Swift (190 yards, two touchdowns).
The Vols’ defense will need to continue to make stops on third down to have success against a Bulldogs’ team converting third downs at a 43 percent clip, while scoring 44.5 points and totaling 477.5 yards of total offense per game.
Tennessee Coaches Wearing AFCA’s Coach to Cure MD Patch Jeremy Pruitt and the Tennessee coaching staff will be wearing special arm patches in honor of the AFCA’s Coach to Cure MD program this Saturday against Georgia. This is the 11th year coaches around the country join together to raise funding and awareness of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Fans are encouraged to donate by texting “CURE” to 5055 or visiting www.CoachtoCureMD.org.
Opening Statement:
“I think for three days now our guys have worked hard to improve. We’ve got a long ways to go. I think they understand that. We’ve been working all year trying to get it right. Lots of competition out there today. I saw guys competing all the way to the end of practice, which is a good thing. Not that we haven’t been, but you could see a little more sense of urgency. I think a lot of that is – a little bit is maturity – I think some of it is confidence, so that’s a good thing. We’ve got to continue to work the next two days to get ready for a really good football team in Georgia.
“When you go on the road in the SEC, you find out a lot about yourself. To me, one of the best things about being a player or coach in this league, is you find out really who you are when you go on the road. Everybody is against you. It’s a tough environment. You have to overcome a whole lot, but you find guys who have maturity, who can focus and do the little things that it takes to have success.”
On the environment at Georgia and the time he spent there as a coach:
“I would think that Georgia is a hard place to play. To start with, like all the schools in the SEC, they have a lot of passion for their team. They have a very good football team that’s very well coached. In my time there, the players, the relationships that I got to build and be a part of, (I) had a lot of fun memories there.”
On if they have looked at bringing anybody in due to the new redshirt rule and the subsequent transfers:
“I think after four games there have been things that have been brought to my attention that’s happened nationally. I think you’ve got to kind of adjust with what the rules are. We’ve really been focused with trying to improve our team. You obviously couldn’t bring anybody in right now, so to answer your question, I have not focused on bringing anybody in. (We) haven’t worried about it, (we’re) trying to get the team we’ve got right now better.”
On knowing a lot of the coaches at Georgia and other SEC schools:
“Yeah, I think if you work on staffs that have success, guys on those staffs get an opportunity to move on and kind of get promoted. I’ve been fortunate to do that, so a lot of the guys that I’ve worked with have become head coaches or have become coordinators. We know lots of guys on all the staffs really, but particularly Georgia, working with Kirby [Smart] for six years. When he was the defensive coordinator, one of the things I did was I assisted him, I wasn’t an on the field coach yet, so we spent a lot of hours together. You’ve got Glenn Schumann there, who was a grad assistant when we were there. Dan Lanning was at Alabama and I was there for a little bit with him, so there’s lot of guys there. Then you’ve got the guys that are still there from Georgia that worked in administration and all around the building. There’s probably no secret to why they’re having success. They’re committed to what they’re trying to get done. They’ve done a really good job. Kirby’s got a vision and they’ve worked hard to get there.”
On K’Rojhn Calbert and if any injuries will play a part of this game:
“I do not think from an injuries standpoint that any will affect us. K’Rojhn is a very unique individual. I think he has had three ACLs, two before he got here, so he has not played a lot of ball. He is a big man that can bend (and) has power. He was even contemplating when we first got here not playing anymore. He was that frustrated, but he has worked really hard. He has lost weight and got into shape. I see the guy working every day to improve as a player and he is only going to get better. He has finally got an opportunity where he can go practice and you see it every day.”
On Jarrett Guarantano’s status going into this weekend:
“He has been out there every day. Jarrett is a tough guy and that is not surprising to me. He will be ready to go.”
On the similarities between Kirby Smart and him:
“To me, I think Kirby’s defense is a little different now, then they were 10 years ago. We all keep evolving a little bit. They probably run a lot more ODD, we call MINT now, then we did years ago, but I would say there is a lot of similarities. They are a lot further ahead of us because this is their third year, and probably when they took over, there was a lot of carry over. Not all of it is the same, but there is a lot of carry over because it was the defense that we run here, so we steal from each other. I watch their tape and I am sure that they watch someone else’s tape and you are always trying to find ways to improve as a coach.”
On if it is hard this year to have patience:
“What I want everybody in our program to do is to be at our best all the time. If we are at our best all the time, then the rest of it will take care of itself. That is what we are working to do every single day. I know where we want to go, and I know where our players want to go, but you do not get what you want, you get what you earn.”
On schematics and the coaching styles between Kirby Smart and him:
“Both of us worked in the same system when you talk about schematically, beliefs and how you go about structuring things. I have not worked with him in several years, but I know from a baseline that it will probably be very similar. I watched them on defense and they play tough. They are physical and fly around the ball. They recruit the type of players that you are looking for. Big, fast men that can deny the ball and put pressure on the quarterback.”
On the progression of freshman linebacker JJ Peterson:
“Well if he had gotten here in June, it probably now would have been like it was the middle of July. Everybody else was here in June, and they have all these practices, so for him, the reality of it is that by the time we get to the end of the season, it would almost be like the end of fall camp, but we don’t have football everyday like you do in fall camp. We’re not practicing threes and fours, we’re practicing ones and twos and getting ready for ball games, so right now he’s competing on the scout team and doing a really good job. His body is changing which is important. He’s doing a good job for us and he’s getting better every day.”
On Jarret Guarantano’s ability to read the defense and make decisions as well as his freedom to make changes at the line:
“Well I think that probably one of the most important things is that you want to stay out of bad plays, and when you talk about the quarterback being able to do that, sometimes you can change the play or run a combo run, or you can run a run pass. But, when you start doing that type of stuff, then the rest of the guys have got to think pretty fast to snap the ball. I don’t think Jarret has any problem doing that, but sometimes, if everybody can’t do it, it puts limitations on what he can do.
On how Keller Chryst handled being the backup and how he has stayed ready this season:
“We really hadn’t talked about who the guy is. We’ve played both guys. I know going into the first game we had a plan and we executed the plan, and then we had a plan the next couple of games. We’ll have a plan for this game and we’re going to try to the play the players that give us the best opportunity to have success and we’ll make decisions on that each week.”
On Kyle Phillip’s play so far and if he is a leader on the team:
“I think we have lots of guys that can be really good leaders for us. Everything is new, whether it was winter workouts, whether it was spring ball, summer conditioning, fall camp, how do you handle a win, how do you travel, how do you do meetings on the road? So, at times, I think that some of the guys are trying to figure out exactly what we want them to do. And to me, about being a leader, we’re trying to encourage it, but it’s not about what we want, they’ve got to do it themselves. It’s still a little bit of a feeling out process and when you’ve got a lot of guys that are working hard that are trying to do the right thing, I think the best way a lot of these guys can lead right now is to lead by example and just do their best every day. I think Kyle is one of the guys that tries to do that.”
On how Keller Chryst played against Florida and his confidence in Keller Chryst:
“Well, it didn’t matter who played quarterback against Florida. First of all, we were behind in the game because we put ourselves in a hole by turning the football over. Secondly, we didn’t protect very well, which wasn’t just the offensive line, there’s more to it than that. So, when you put yourself in a tough situation like that, it’s hard to have success. It takes everybody, and one guy can’t do it. I haven’t seen Jarrett or Keller or a lot of the guys in our program change. I see guys that continue to work as hard as they can to be the best that they can possibly be, which excites me.”
IRVING, Texas – Tennessee senior defensive end Kyle Phillips was named a semifinalist for the 2018 William V. Campbell Trophy on Wednesday. The National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame announced 179 semifinalists for the award that recognizes an individual as the top football scholar-athlete in the nation.
Phillips has been a standout on and off the field during his career on Rocky Top. The Nashville, Tenn., native is a three-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll and graduated in three years with a degree in sport management. He is a nominee for the Wuerffel Trophy, which honors college football’s top community servant, and was inducted into the Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK) National Leadership Society last year.
In 2017, he traveled to Vietnam as part of a 13-day service trip with the VOLeaders Academy. Phillips and fellow Tennessee student-athletes learned about the nation’s culture and used sports as a means to enact positive change. On the trip, Phillips interacted with Vietnamese youth, worked with children in orphanages and volunteered at various sports skills camps. He also helped run the annual VOLeaders Sports Fest, an inclusive sports event for persons with disabilities.
On the gridiron, he has started four games on the defensive line in 2018 and has appeared in 31 games with 12 starts in his career. Last season, he tallied 35 tackles and 4.5 TFLs. He has nine stops and one fumble recovery in 2018, while serving as an anchor on the Vols’ defensive line.
The Vols have had two winners of the William V. Campbell Trophy. Quarterback Peyton Manning collected the award in 1997 and offensive tackle Michael Munoz grabbed the prestigious honor in 2004.
The NFF will announce 12-14 finalists on Oct. 31, and each will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship. The finalists will travel to New York City for the 61st NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 4, where their accomplishments will be highlighted in front of one of the most powerful audiences in all of sports. Live during the event, one member of the class will be declared as the winner of the 29th William V. Campbell Trophy and have his postgraduate scholarship increased to $25,000.
Nominated by their schools, which are limited to one nominee each, candidates for the awards must be a senior or graduate student in their final year of playing eligibility, have a GPA of at least 3.2 on a 4.0 scale, have outstanding football ability as a first team player or significant contributor and have demonstrated strong leadership and citizenship. The class is selected each year by the NFF Awards Committee, which is comprised of a nationally recognized group of media, College Football Hall of Famers and athletics administrators.
Kelsea Ballerini recently joined forces with The Chainsmokers to record the new single, “This Feeling,” which was released on Sept. 18.
Kelsea and the EDM-pop duo—which is comprised of Alex Pall and Andrew Taggart—performed the collaboration together for the first time on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Sept. 26.
The new tune was penned by Taggart, Pall, and Emily Warren. It will be featured on the deluxe version of Kelsea’s album, Unapologetically (Oct. 26).
Watch Kelsea and The Chainsmokers’ performance on Ellen.
Bill Murray made his surprise debut on the Grand Ole Opry on Sept. 25 as he joined the SteelDrivers and John Prine onstage to sing “Paradise,” a tune from John’s 1971 self-titled debut album.
The Opry shared a couple of photos of the A-list ensemble via Twitter, saying, in part: “This is one #OpryMoment you just HAD to be there for.”
Loretta Lynn will be honored with the Artist of a Lifetime award at the CMT Artists of the Year celebration on Oct. 17 at Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center.
Sissy Spacek, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of Loretta in 1980’s Coal Miner’s Daughter, will present Loretta with the award.
“I’m always so proud when I receive any awards for my music, but when I heard it was this year’s Artist of a Lifetime award it made me really happy,” Loretta said in a statement. “It’s an honor to be able to make music that people enjoy and I’m really excited to have a new album coming out. Thank you CMT for acknowledging me with this award and for honoring the women in country music at Artists of the Year.”
This year’s Artists of the Year celebration will honor the top female country artists, including Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Kelsea Ballerini, Maren Morris, Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman, and Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott.
Merle Haggard received the inaugural Artist of a Lifetime award in 2014, followed by Kenny Rogers in 2015 and Shania Twain in 2016.
Loretta will release her new studio album, Wouldn’t It Be Great, on Sept. 28.
The Artists of the Year celebration will air on CMT on Oct. 17 at 8 p.m. ET.
Old Dominion, which consists of Matthew Ramsey, Trevor Rosen, Geoff Sprung, Brad Tursi and Whit Sellers, has released two albums: 2015’s Meat and Candy and 2017’s Happy Endings. Both albums were produced by Shane McAnally, the latter of which debuted atop the Billboard Country Albums chart.
“Hotel Key” follows previous chart-toppers “Break Up With Him,” “Song for Another Time,” “No Such Thing as a Broken Heart” and “Written in the Sand.”
Old Dominion won Vocal Group of the Year at the 2018 ACM Awards. The five-piece band is nominated for Vocal Group of the Year at the upcoming CMA Awards in November.
Gucci posted a photo of the denim jacket on Twitter with the caption: “In a tribute to the most honored female country performer Dolly Parton, a sleeveless denim jacket with her image on the back, a two tone shirt and leggings, from the #GucciSS19 fashion show in Paris by #AlessandoMichele. #pfw#mfw.”
In a tribute to the most honored female country performer Dolly Parton, a sleeveless denim jacket with her image on the back, a two tone shirt and leggings, from the #GucciSS19 fashion show in Paris by #AlessandoMichele. #pfw#mfwpic.twitter.com/ZgeDIUEdRv
The finalists for the 2018 People’s Choice Awards—voted on by we the people—have been announced.
In addition to the Country Artist of the Year category that features Keith Urban, Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan and Thomas Rhett, Keith picked up a nomination in the all-genre Male Artist of the Year category where he’ll face Bruno Mars, Drake, Ed Sheeran and Shawn Mendes.
The finalist voting window runs through Oct. 19 in the 43 categories across movies, television, music, and pop culture. Fans can either vote online or through Facebook and Twitter.
The People’s Choice Awards will have its inaugural telecast on E! on Nov. 11 at 9 p.m. ET/PT with red carpet coverage kicking off at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
Below are the country-centric nominations for the 2018 People’s Choice Awards.
![Bill Murray Makes Surprise Grand Ole Opry Debut Alongside John Prine & the SteelDrivers [Watch]](https://cdn.socast.io/6616/sites/1446/2018/09/26103231/Bill-Murray-TA.jpg#aqua_resizer_image_not_local)
