Head Coach Jeremy Pruitt Press Conference
Open Week
Wednesday, Oct. 28

Opening Statement…

“Having a chance to go back and get into a fall camp mode this week has been really good for a lot of players, just working on fundamentals and really back to the basics in the run game offensively, conceptually in the throw game, and getting a chance to rep a lot of different groups and a lot of players, so it has been really good from an offensive standpoint. Defensively we have just been going back to the basics of striking blockers up front, and really on all three levels of block protection, being able to get off blocks and going back in our pattern match from a secondary standpoint and the linebackers being able to go back to the basics and work fundamentals. On special teams, whether it is two units a day twice a week here with punt and punt return, just going back to fundamentals. Giving guys that didn’t really have an opportunity to win a job on those teams early on in the season, getting a chance to rep a lot of different guys has been good. Our players have worked really hard in the first two days of practice. We got two more this week and then we’ll give them Friday and Saturday off before we get ready for Arkansas. I really like the attitude of our team. When you look at where we are at right now, obviously everybody in our program is disappointed, but I think the most important thing at this point is to figure out, No. 1 what are we doing pretty good right now? And two, what are we not and how do we fix that? So, it has been a really good couple of days here to go back and get back to these fundamentals and figure out exactly where it’s at and how do we go back and get it fixed.”

On what he meant by saying this team was closing the gap after the Alabama game…

“The most important thing is on the scoreboard, which has not showed up, so that’s the most important thing and it hasn’t showed up there. But to me, I was very familiar with that program (Alabama) and when I got here I knew exactly what the difference was within the two programs, and I would say three years later I’m still pretty familiar with that one and I know where this program kind of is right now. The thing we have to do as a program is it has to show up on gameday and it didn’t this past Saturday. That’s the most important thing, so that is something we have got to continue to work on to help fix and our guys are doing that.”

On if he as a coach has gone back to the basics of the defensive line during this bye week and spent more time on it…

“I really have. I really have kind of dove into the defensive line. To me, we’ve always been kind of an attacking style defense and we haven’t really been playing that way. You kind of got to play on the other side of the line of scrimmage if you are going to be able to stop the runs or create negative plays and affect the quarterback, and we’ve really got to improve in the area. It goes back to just fundamentally being more of an attacking style. But we’ve got lots of areas on defense that we’ve got to improve on, and we have a plan to do that and our players are trying to work hard to get it fixed.”

On if he has noticed some players during practice this week in the secondary that have a chance to come on the second half season…

“I have a lot of confidence in the guys that play in our secondary. They’ve played a lot of football around here and have played some really good football at times. I think one of the big things is it is pretty evident for these guys how important practice is, and unfortunately, for a lot of those guys we kind of got hit pretty hard in that area during fall camp. When you miss practice time there, you’ve got to be really sharp in preparation and I think moving forward our guys will continue to improve back there with our communication. One thing back there that is very similar to the o-line is we’re usually are playing with five defensive backs and very seldom over the last couple years have we had situations to where we’ve had busted coverages or left people open or not played very good technique. We’ve had much more of that this year and we’ve got to eliminate that because the defensive backs really place the limitations on your defense, and again, I have a lot of confidence in these guys. They’re working hard. We’re creating depth back there, and there is some younger guys. We’ve moved a few guys around. Just an example, like Keyshawn Lawrence. He’s a guy that we recruited in here to play corner, so all during the summer when we had the walk throughs, he played corner and as we practiced a couple of days he looked really good, but we didn’t think maybe he was going to be in front of Alontae (Taylor) or Bryce (Thompson), but we thought, ‘hey, this a guy we want to find a way to get him on the field.’ So, we’re thinking maybe in our six defensive back package, move the kid to safety and give him a chance to be a starter in our six defensive back package. So, he practices at safety for probably seven or eight practices, and then we lose all of our corners to quarantine and to be able to practice, just to have numbers we move him back to corner. That’s a particular situation that probably wasn’t fair to him and it’s probably delayed his development as a defensive player, but we’ve just left him at corner, and he’s done really well. This week, we’re going to play him a little bit at STAR in this open week just to see from a conceptual standpoint how he does there because he’s a guy that continues to kind of show up. Tamarion McDonald is another guy that obviously didn’t practice any until two weeks ago, so this is a really good week for him just to go back to the first four days of fall camp. How we put in everything from middle field coverage to split safety coverage to man-to-man, to fire zones, to pressures with trap and things like that, just to kind of go back and get a foundation for him. There’s is a lot of guys that kind of fall into that.”

On what lessons the team learned in July about COVID-19 that can apply now and issues he has seen in the secondary…

“I think the big thing is that it’s very unpredictable. You may feel like you’re doing everything the right way, as far as the masks, but you can’t assume that somebody who’s not in the testing procedure doesn’t have the virus. It’s better to assume, if they’re not in our testing protocol, that they do have the virus and you need to stay away, which is tough. My family is not in the testing protocol, so I get it. A lot of these guys, they see their family members, their girlfriends, grandparents and friends. We just have to understand that. These guys have worked really hard to try to get the opportunity to be able to play. We did learn some lessons from that.

“As far as making mistakes in the secondary, it’s really uncharacteristic for this group of guys because they’ve all played a lot of ball together. One thing that has happened, Alontae (Taylor) has kind of been in and out of the lineup because of his hamstring, since fall camp. Bryce (Thompson), he missed the Missouri game and he’s playing with a torn pec right now. That’s something that’s kind of healing on its own. So, he’s missed some practice time. (Shawn) Shamburger has missed, Jaylen McCollough was out. They’ve kind of been in and out. As a group, when people go in motion, when they shift, when they change, when they get in stacks and they get in bunches, there’s a lot of communication. We’re not very vanilla in the secondary. We play a lot of different coverages and try to man-max a lot of things and create issues for the quarterback. To be able to do that, you’ve got to be really good communicators and all five people have to be on the same page. Unfortunately, we’ve had some instances where we’re not. We’ve got to eliminate that and make the other team earn it.”

On what he saw from Alabama’s third down defense that caused him to run on third downs Saturday…

“If you watch the first four games from Alabama, they gave up a lot of runs on third down with people playing fast. Probably one of the reasons is they’re very similar to us, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina, they’re kind of in the same defensive family. When it gets to third down, they want to put six defensive backs on the field. When it comes to protections, you get exotic looks. Over the first four games, they gave up a lot of runs on third down, particularly the last couple of weeks. That was something we thought we possibly could do. There were a couple of times that we were in four down territory, so you’re trying to go from third-and-seven to fourth-and-two or three. That was the philosophy behind it.”

On if he has considered having Ty Chandler and Eric Gray on the field at the same time…

“We do have some packages to do that and as the season goes, we’ll probably see more of that. We just haven’t had an opportunity to do it yet.”

On how he would rate the tackling ability of the defense and how to come up with more interceptions on the defensive side of the ball…

“To me, just looking at the defense’s first five games, the thing that sticks out the most is the mistakes that we’ve made. The first thing that you want to be able to do defensively is you want to be sound and you want to make the other team earn it. If you make the other team earn it, you’ve got a shot. How do you do that? You keep edges on defense. You don’t let the ball run around the defense, whether it’s a run play or a perimeter throw. You don’t give up explosive plays down the field. You make them throw the ball in front of you with tight coverage. Then, you’ve got to be a good tackling team so there’s no yards after contact. I think Saturday, we missed 23 tackles. I think Alabama got 97 yards after contact, which you can’t have. The next thing is, on third down, you’ve got to get off the field. We’ve been very poor on third down, which is not who we’ve been in the past. So, we’ve obviously got to address those issues, create turnovers and then when the play is there to be made, make the play. We’ve got to do better at finishing on the ball, whether it’s knocking the ball off somebody or when the ball is in the air, get your hand on it and finish it off. We’ve got to be more opportunistic on defense.”

On the health of OL Wanya Morris and the play of OL Jahmir Johnson…

“Wanya practiced on Tuesday and Wednesday and he probably could have played on Saturday. Would he have been 100 percent? Probably not. He was a couple of days away. He has participated this week in practice and looks pretty good. He’s gaining confidence. Jahmir got hurt in the South Carolina game, didn’t practice against Missouri, tried to go to practice against Georgia and was a game time deal there, wasn’t ready to go. Kentucky still wasn’t quite there. I thought as we practiced the week of Alabama, he would gain confidence. When you think about it as an o-lineman, if you’re not practicing for three weeks you get a little rusty. I thought he’d gain confidence. I thought at both offensive tackles we played better last week.”

On what he thinks the team has done well at this year…

“I feel like offensively, in the three run concepts, running inside zone, some RPOs that we’ve run off of, that’s a couple of things that we’ve done well.  We call them chop routes. We hit Jalin Hyatt on a couple of them on Saturday. Earlier in the year we hit Brandon Johnson on a few of them. I feel like that standpoint has been much improved.

“Defensively, for the most part I have been pretty pleased with the inside linebackers. Not as much this past week, I feel like we were out of place on some runs. I felt like we played better in that point there from a communication standpoint with the front. I’m talking about the linebackers to the defensive front. For losing our signal caller in Daniel Bituli, I think Henry (To’o To’o) has done a pretty good job there. Lots of times the other team will look at the defense and make checks and when they check, we want to check. I feel like Henry has done a nice job doing that. I feel like the play of Matthew Butler and LaTrell Bumphus and Aubrey Solomon this past week was much improved.

“In the kicking game, Matthew Salansky has done a nice job snapping. Paxton Brooks has done a really nice job placing his punts. I thought this past week was really good. When you look at our kickoff return, we are not as good when we have double teams at the point of attack. We are not where we need to be there. I thought our back-line guys have done a really nice job, much better than we’ve done the last two years operating there. Kickoff coverage has been pretty good. We need better play out of our missiles. On the punt team, there has been a couple of times on our zone side where we call it being had short. What happened Saturday, guy comes off the edge and Bumphus has really got that guy in the count but because somebody threw their guy inside, he flashed in front of Bumphus and we got close to getting a punt blocked. On our punt return, we haven’t had a lot of opportunities. We haven’t put much pressure on the opposing punter this year. I think in the previous years we have blocked a punt each year. We went back and tried to study and do it with every particular group. With the running backs we feel like we are doing good there. What we need to work on this week, we’ve done that with every individual group, and we have something that we can focus on each week.”

On how he would assess the pass rush this season…

“I felt like the first game we did a really nice job against South Carolina, affected the quarterback. The next game (vs. Missouri) was a little bit different in terms of changing quarterbacks and how they played and what they did. We must improve there. You can be a team that is a pressure team, where you’re bringing five, six or seven guys and you put the pressure on the backend of the secondary, because if you’re going to bring those folks, most of the time the quarterback knows it and he can get the ball out of his hand. You look at Saturday, there was lots of times Alabama was protecting with seven or eight man protection, so most of those times we were trying to guard them in the backend and didn’t necessarily do a good job of that all the time. And then there’s times that they protected with five and maybe we’re rushing four, so we got to improve there. We got to improve in the interior d-line, we got to improve at outside backer, we got to improve as blitzers from inside backers (and) secondary guys. All the way around, we got to improve our pass defense. Affecting the quarterback, whether it’s disguises, pass rush, coverage, whatever it is, we must improve.”

Jacob Warren, R-So., TE

On what Austin Pope’s role has been within the tight end group this year…

“Obviously, Austin has played a big role for this team for the past few years. Some unfortunate circumstances for him took place with his back and everything. He’s been doing all he can to be here, to keep our spirits high. I’m sure you all see him during games and stuff, he’s always over there on the sidelines with us, just talking to use and just being a friend because at this point really, he’s just here to still kind of be a part of this team and we love having him around. Pretty much anything he can do, I think he’s willing to do for sure.”

On how much weight he’s put on and how he’s adjusted to that…

“When I was in high school, I really played my senior season around 205 pounds, really that’s generous. I came into Tennessee around 210 and now I’m out there around 245, 246 on a pretty consistent basis. Just having that extra weight and being a solid weight, I think just gives me more confidence. When I first came in, it’s tough blocking anybody at 205 pounds, 210 pounds, so just being able to add on that weight and strength has really helped me develop the side of my game that needed to be developed, and that’s blocking and being viable in our pass protections and our run game and everything as well as being able to catch the ball.”

On how much he had to change his mindset from being just a pass catcher to a more complete tight end…

“It was pretty obvious that coming in you can’t just expect to just catch balls all day. As an SEC tight end, any offense we’re going to be in is going to be hardnosed, running the ball. We’re going to need to hold up in pass protection because we’re facing some of the best defensive fronts in the nation. I think coming in, like you said, it was a transition. I just had to tell myself that this is something I want to do, and, in the past, that’s never been a problem for me. When I set a goal for myself, I’m able to achieve it, so that’s really all it was, just developing a mindset of, ‘all right, I got to go, I got to go. I got to be viable in every aspect of the game rather than just catching the rock.’ So, yeah, I mean it was a transition, but I don’t think it was too tough. Obviously, I’ve still got some work to do. I’m not the most elite run blocker, the most elite pass protector, but I think I’m getting there and just with more work it’ll come along.”

On how helpful having this open week will be for the offense…

“I don’t think that the bye week could necessarily fall on a better place for us as an offense. I think we’re this close every week to performing, to being the offense that I think we can be. Everyone’s talked about it. It’s just a matter of execution, like you said, details and getting timing right, making the plays when they’re there. I think just having this week to kind of take a step back and work on the fundamentals, work on the things that are going to improve our game individually, and then come together as a unit and be able to perform at a higher level this last stretch of the season. I think just having the bye week is very helpful where we are right now, for sure.”

On the motivation and mood within the locker room amongst the players…

“I think after we come out 2-0 and now, we’re 2-3, we got to take a step back and just kind of look at ourselves and really evaluate ourselves personally. We’ve all talked together and met with each other and just talked about, ‘look guys, it’s time for each of us to look in the mirror because you’re only really as strong as your weakest link.’ If one of us is not doing what we need to be doing, that’s really going to hurt the team as a whole, so I think that’s kind of our focus right now, just taking the steps each and every day, coming to practice every day with the mentality that we got to be the best in the nation and we got to come and we got to prepare. Because if we don’t prepare the right way, it’s just not going to work out and that’s just how it goes. I think that’s probably been our attitude going into this bye week and going into the rest of the year. Every day just progress ourselves personally to be stronger as a unit.”

Quavaris Crouch, So., LB

On Coach Pruitt coaching the defensive line and being more like a position coach…

“I feel like Coach Pruitt has always been a position coach. If you look back at it, he coached linebackers, he’s coached everything. It has definitely been a big difference. I feel like he’s getting a lot out of the defensive linemen and I’m thankful for him being there. I play inside linebacker, so I have to play behind them. I’m grateful for Coach Pruitt being there and proud of my d-linemen working hard this week for us to get better.”

On conversations between the players on leadership…

“We’ve been talking. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that everything has been good, but we’ve been talking. We are players and we are all going to have our opinions but the great leaders on our team and people who see things the right way are going to say, ‘listen man, we know that all this is going on but we have to rally together and go finish the season strong.’ That’s what we are going to do. Just being positive about everything because it’s not the end of the world and we are getting better and better.”

On the main fundamentals he has been working on…

“Well, this week we have definitely been working on getting off blocks, getting off them big boys better and actually getting back down to make the tackle. Little things like that. Our footwork and going over the basics of our defense just to be crisper. Little things like that just to be the best linebackers we can be. Tackling, running to the ball, punching the ball out, little things like that which mean a lot. Just creating good habits.”

On staying safe during the open week…

“If people are going to go home, wear your mask, be selfless. That’s the biggest thing I think everyone should do in life is to be selfless. But just know that you should have your mask on because you’re not only going to affect yourself, but you are going to affect your whole team. We still have games to play so just be smart, be disciplined and do the right thing even when it’s hard.”

On keeping the offense motivated…

“Just being positive. It’s football, so things are going to happen, honestly. Things just happen. Just being positive with our teammates and keep on encouraging them. Tell them, ‘hey let’s go, let’s go man. Let that play go, that’s last week. Let’s worry about this week.’ Just being where our feet are, I think is the biggest thing. At practice, pushing our offense to the ultimate level. We’ve been practicing against each other and pushing them and giving them the best look we can so we can fix the little mistakes we can.”

Theo Jackson, Sr., DB

On the leadership within the team and the communication amongst the players…

“Right now we’re just trying to keep everybody to try and have a positive attitude because right now with this bye week, it kind of helps with getting people the reps that they need or the extra coaching for the next five weeks.”

On what some of the fundamental things he’s focusing on this week…

 “Really just technique and learning the smaller details of my position. Since I play multiple positions, I just have to learn the small things of the different positions I play.”

On using last year as motivation to try and finish this season strong…

 “Yeah, but we don’t want to harp too much on what happened last year. I feel like we’re just trying to finish out this season strong so we can finish out with a winning record.”

On how often the team does turnover circuits or drills to force turnovers in practice…

“Every day. Every day. Even during the middle of practice, we always just harp on just trying to get the ball out or pick it.”

On what he’s seen from freshman DB Tamarion McDonald’s development…

 “I really like T-Mac. He’s really coming along. I’ve gotten a chance to help him out with the play calling and all that and just being used to it since he’s coming off an injury, and I really like him. He’s going to be a special player.”