KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee football team has just one more practice before Saturday’s DISH Orange and White Game. The Vols wrapped up their 13th practice of the spring season on Tuesday in full pads at Haslam Field and will have one more session Thursday in helmets.
UT head coach Jeremy Pruitt said he hopes to get 80 plays in the game for the offense and defense and he will announce to the team what squad they are on following practice on Thursday.
The first-year head coach hopes to receive assistance from the fans to create an electric, game-like atmosphere inside Neyland Stadium.
“We have an opportunity, and when I got the job, one of the first things we talked about was, it’s going to take everybody to get Tennessee football back to the way it’s supposed to be,” Pruitt said, reflecting on his introductory press conference in December. “When I say everybody, I mean everybody. So, everybody that considers themselves a Tennessee fan, it’s going to take us all, and the first way to demonstrate that is showing up for the spring game. The passion for it. So, I expect our fan base to be there. We need it as a football team, we need it as a football program. Obviously, it helps in recruiting, when you look and you see 102,000 people for a spring game, that sends a message to recruits about how important spring football is at Tennessee, and how much football is important in general.”
After two closed scrimmages, Pruitt also wants to see how players respond to the pressure of a packed stadium with fans cheering.
“It also gives our guys a chance to compete and an electric atmosphere which is important for us to give a good evaluation of them,” he said. “We’ve had two chances for scrimmages to get a look at them. There may be some guys that have gotten better each time, and hey, maybe they won’t if there’s that many people in the stands. I think it gives them an opportunity to prepare for the environment they’ll see in the fall.”
More Explosive Plays in Last Saturday’s Scrimmage
Pruitt said he saw more explosive plays from the offense during last Saturday night’s scrimmage that lasted 143 plays in Neyland Stadium.
Most of the scrimmage featured the 1s going against 1s and the 2s facing the 2s.
“One good thing, just looking at the scrimmage, I felt like offensively we created a few more explosive plays,” Pruitt said. “One thing that we’ve got to improve on is we have to finish some plays, finish some opportunities that we had. Again, I thought our running backs competed well with the ball in their hands, and I thought they blocked well, so that was good to see. We protected the quarterback and gave both of them a little bit of a chance to have some success.”
Pruitt added that the defense needs to improve on creating turnovers.
Get Your Official Fan Shirt This Weekend
This year’s DISH Orange and White Game will be the first public look at Pruitt’s program. The event, on April 21, will feature a live game at 2 p.m., using standard scoring and rules, and several other new fan-friendly promotions. Pruitt hopes fans will treat the annual exhibition at Neyland Stadium like it’s a Saturday in the fall.
In addition to the live game where the first team offense will face the first team defense, Tennessee has several other promotions scheduled, including:
- 9:30 a.m. – Toyota Vol Village in Lot 9 opens, which includes give-aways, face painting, music, photos with Smokey and the spirit squad, food options, inflatable games, interactive areas and more.
- 12:30 p.m. – Gates Open
- The first 5,000 fans in Gates 10 and 21 will receive a free “Fan-dana” from Coca-Cola.
- 12:55 p.m. – The Vol Walk
- 2 p.m. – Kickoff
The game will also be the first opportunity for fans get the “official fan shirt” for the 2018 season.
American Idol Winner to Perform at DISH Orange & White Game
Nashville country music sensation Trent Harmon (Big Machine Records) will perform at the Toyota Volunteer Village in Lot 9 prior to the DISH Orange & White Game. Harmon won the 15th season of American Idol in April of 2016. His hit song, “There’s A Girl” is currently being played throughout the nation. Trent Harmon – There’s A Girl Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyGIk7dnn3Y
Head Coach Jeremy Pruitt Press Conference Transcript – April 17
Opening Statement:
“You know, on Saturday night, I think we went 143 plays with the ones and the twos, and we actually got some three reps, so that was good. So, some of the guys that had not gotten in there as much lately because of a few injuries, the fact that we had moved some of these guys to the offensive side of the ball allowed us to get some reps, so that was a good thing, and it will give us a chance on Thursday and Saturday to rep more guys. So, we can continue to develop some guys. One good thing, just looking at the scrimmage, I felt like offensively we created a few more explosive plays. One thing that we’ve got to improve on is we have to finish some plays, finish some opportunities that we had. Again, I thought our running backs competed well with the ball in their hands, and I thought they blocked well, so that was good to see. We protected the quarterback and gave both of them a little bit of a chance to have some success. Defensively, we didn’t create enough turnovers. To me, not a lot of cleanup tackle, not playing the way you should play on defense. If you play the right way, then the runners don’t want to run the ball, and we’ve got to improve on that. Coming back today, we had some guys that looked like it was the 13th practice. By that, what I mean is there’s some guys that went out there and just tried to make a day. Quite often, from flex, to getting it started there, we had to jump start some of these guys, and unfortunately, it’s like I told them, we’ll have a football team around here when it’s not me policing them. They have paid the price, they’ve prepared, they’re passionate about what they do and they’re not going to let their peers bring them down. Until we get to that point, we’ll get the same result, so that’s one thing that we’ve got to do is improve on that, and hopefully we can do that as the summer goes.”
On if the players will stay at a hotel Friday night to get a more game-like feeling:
“What we’re going to do, is we’re actually not going to stay at a hotel, just from the standpoint of logistics for this deal. What we need is, I’m sitting here preaching basically to our recruits the passion about Tennessee football, the way Tennessee football was when I knew it, growing up, playing against it. So, we have an opportunity, and when I got the job, one of the first things we talked about was, it’s going to take everybody to get Tennessee football back to the way it’s supposed to be. When I say everybody, I mean everybody. So, everybody that considers themselves a Tennessee fan, it’s going to take us all, and the first way to demonstrate that is showing up for the spring game. The passion for it. So, I expect our fan base to be there. We need it as a football team, we need it as a football program. Obviously, it helps in recruiting, when you look and you see 102,000 people for a spring game, that sends a message to recruits about how important spring football is at Tennessee, and how much football is important in general. It also gives our guys a chance to compete and an electric atmosphere which is important for us to give a good evaluation of them. We’ve had two chances for scrimmages to get a look at them. There may be some guys that have gotten better each time, and hey, maybe they won’t if there’s that many people in the stands. I think it gives them an opportunity to prepare for the environment they’ll see in the fall.”
On whether or not the team is hungry for more practice time:
“Well, it’s easy to sit here and talk about. To me, it’s more about show me what you want instead of talking about what you want. I don’t think that matters. I think that what’s important is we try to go out there each day and prepare and be the best that we can possibly be, and the thing about it is, you get 15 days and 13 of them are gone for us. So, we have one more practice in headgears, and then we have the Orange and White Game on Saturday. So, hopefully, we’ll be able to get 80 plays on each side of the ball, which would be game-like.”
On position changes:
“I think to be fair, I don’t think letting a guy practice for two days, and then going to a scrimmage is a fair assessment. I think we have an idea about their future, about what they could be at that position as opposed to their last position. But, we’re going to let these guys finish through the spring at those spots and then, we’ll evaluate when the spring is over with.”
On how rising freshman Greg Emerson has played on both sides of the ball so far:
“I think the biggest thing is he’s played offense before, he played offense in high school, and to say Greg Emerson is an offensive or defensive player, he didn’t play his senior year. Unfortunately, he suffered a pretty severe injury at one of these camps during the summer. So, he’s done a really good job to get his body healthy, to get back in kind of football shape. This is the first time he’s actually practiced since last spring. So, I think it’s good for him to work on both sides of the ball. He’s a young kid, and it’s always easy for us to put unrealistic expectations on recruits. I think the big thing is that it’s a developmental game, and the position he plays is developmental, so, moving forward, we’ll make the decision as the summer goes to see where he’s going to play.”
On his opinion on the newly proposed redshirt rule modification:
“Well, to me, you would like to be in a position where if you needed to redshirt a guy, that you redshirted him. The unfortunate part is you look at a guy that possibly could be playing a position and say you get a couple of guys hurt at the end of the year, and the guy has to go in and play two games. Say it’s an offensive line position, and you have a bunch of guys that get hurt. You’ve got to play with five offensive lineman, so you put the guy in, and he plays two games. I think that helps from that standpoint. So, I’m not against it.”
On using the new redshirt rule for non-injury related reasons to get players more experience:
“We play every game the same. It’s not about who we play, it’s about how we play. So, we prepare the same way, we hope to play the same way, and if you were fortunate enough to where you had an opportunity to play a guy, and he could get some experience, it would be good to reward somebody that has worked hard, say on the scout team all year. If they’ve done a good job, and if you have a chance to do that, and there aren’t many places that have the luxury to do that, but I get it if you did.”
On addressing the fans prior to the Orange and White Game:
“I’m trying to get our football team to play at its best, so I’ll be focused on that and recruiting. And I’ll tell you, I’m excited about meeting our players’ parents. There’s some guys on this team, very few, that we were involved in recruiting them. So I know their families personally, but there’s a lot of guys that I’ve never met their parents. Heck, I never met them until I got here.”
On if he plans to run the same defenses at Tennessee that he has run at other stops in his career:
“Yeah, I think so. We have guys that have plenty of talent, talent’s not an issue. We have to learn how to play, how to compete, how to be smart football players. There’s more to playing football than just when the ball snaps. There’s a lot of things, especially with defensive football, before the ball ever snaps. You can eliminate a lot of plays you’re going to get, and the great ones know how to do that. I’m not going to change the way that I coach, I’ve had too much success doing it that way, so I’m going to coach the same way.”
On the running back position group:
“With all of our guys, the first thing that I’m going to talk about is ball security. We have guys that make some good runs, but maybe when they get out in open field, they aren’t securing the correct way. Sometimes you get guys that make runs that might not have done exactly what they’re supposed to do. So there’s kind of a bunch of things that go into it. But as a whole, I think the group of running backs have improved this spring, which we have very little depth at that position. That’s what we moved Princeton Fant to that position. So we’re looking for able bodies that can play running back, but the guys that have had a chance to compete have done that.”
On the performance of the offensive line after being hit with adversity:
“It’s kind of hard to tell. First of all, when it comes to being good on offense, one of the hardest things to do is protect the quarterback, and that’s even on really good football teams. Good football teams struggle to protect the quarterback. And we put our offense in bad situations, a lot of third downs, two-minute drills and playing situational football. You have to know how to play in those situations, so it’s hard to grade exactly where we are on either side of the ball because we’ve had some guys out at key positions and we’ve moved guys around. But I can tell you this, we’ve improved in both areas on the offensive line and the defensive line as the spring has progressed.”
On getting to know Terry Fair and his coaching style:
“One thing I’ll say about Terry Fair is that he has poise. So he probably has the worst position to coach because I’m over there with him all the time. He’s a smart guy, picks up things really fast. He has a way about him with young men. He’s demanding, and the thing about Terry Fair is this: I think for eight years, he played the position at the highest level. So either he played it the right way, or he had to find a job. To do that, you have to get good at your craft. To me, that’s the great thing about having him in the room. Got his degree. All-American I think. First round pick. And then goes out there and plays for six to eight years at a high level. Most of the guys that you go recruit would take that right now. So that’s a huge deal.”
On the new NCAA kickoff rule:
“I haven’t had time to think about the strategy part of it. I would say from a safety standpoint, I think any time you raise your hand and fair catch the ball, there’s probably not going to be as many folks running down there hitting each other as opposed to when they don’t fair catch it. It’s kind of like when you get a run and go and hit the wall, it hurts, but when it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”
