KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Game week has arrived for Tennessee football, which opens its 124th season at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday at South Carolina. Head coach Jeremy Pruitt previewed the Volunteers’ season-opening matchup with the Gamecocks at his first weekly press conference on Monday.
Full Transcript
Opening Statement
“Our guys are really excited about getting a chance to play this week. I am really proud about how everyone in our organization has really stuck together trying to figure out a way for us to improve daily. Our kids have had a great attitude along with this staff and we are excited about this week. We have a tremendous challenge going on the road playing South Carolina. We are very familiar with their staff. Coach Muschamp has done an outstanding job there. He does an outstanding job on defense. He hired Mike Bobo to be his offensive coordinator, a guy that I’ve worked with before that I feel like is one of the best offensive minds in all of football, so it will be a tremendous challenge on both sides of the ball. Then you throw in special teams, which for us has probably been a huge point of emphasis just with the fact that we’ve had so many guys that have not been able to participate in practice, we’ve had to bounce guys around. We’ve got a lot of work that we’ve got to get done this week. We’ve got to continue to build and try to create momentum heading into Saturday’s matchup.”
On UT’s preparedness and what to expect from South Carolina…
“I’m excited for our players and everybody in our organization that’s worked really hard to get to this point. We’ve got to continue to create momentum as the week goes. At the quarterback position, Mike Bobo has always done a fantastic job coaching the quarterbacks. He’s a guy that’s been in the system there for five years, this might be his sixth year, he’s a guy that’s going to be very familiar. He’s going to get him in and out of checks and keep him out of bad plays. He’s a guy that we’ve got to find a way to create confusion and try to possibly create some turnovers.”
On the No. 2 spot at the quarterback position …
“It is still open-ended heading into the weekend. We will make a decision over the weekend and see who gives us the best opportunity. With Harrison (Bailey) and Brian (Maurer), both of those guys have missed practices for different reasons during fall camp. J.T. (Shrout) has obviously had the opportunity to take more reps, but we are giving both of those guys a chance.”
On if the SEC has ruled on Cade Mays’ eligibility…
“We’ve got no indication as of yet. I’m sure that they will. It just makes too much sense not to. We’ve planned all along for Cade (Mays) to be able to play. If you look at what went in to the waiver process it is pretty evident that the young man deserves an opportunity to play.”
On what he’s seen from his players ahead of Saturday’s season-opener…
“I feel like we’ve got really good leadership all over our team. There’s lots of unknowns until you go out there and play and play together. I think there’s a willingness there to fight and find a way. That’s something that we’ve got to continue to develop – that personality throughout the season. There’s going to be adversity. There will be adversity on Saturday and we’ve got to be able to overcome it and find the answers.”
On how Jarrett Guarantano looks heading into this season, after having offensive coordinator Jim Chaney for a second consecutive offseason…
“As the second go-around with an offensive coordinator for Jarrett, this will be the first time. When you do the same thing over and over, it creates confidence, so I would suspect that he’s got to have a lot more confidence heading into this season, as opposed to the previous season because the terminology is the same and the people around him are the same. I feel like he’s demonstrated that at practice.”
On what he learned from last year’s season-opener…
“If you turn the ball over five times and only get one turnover, you’re not going to win. It doesn’t matter if it’s the opener or the last game, that’s the bottom line. You can’t make mental mistakes. You’ve got to be able to get off the field on third down. You’ve got to score touchdowns in the red area. You’ve got to keep them from scoring touchdowns in the red area. It’s the same thing with every week.”
On if COVID-19 has made having a second and third quarterback ready to play more important…
“That’s a position that the ball goes through their hands every snap. Being able to have a No. 2 and No. 3 is absolutely, always important. I don’t think this season would be any different. We’ve got to continue to grow and develop those guys behind Jarrett.”
On Ty Chandler’s offseason and the impact Jay Graham has made on the running backs…
“Starting with Ty and Eric (Gray), I think both of these guys have had good camps. Eric obviously missed some days during the camp, but Ty’s been there the whole time. You continue to see improvement. Those guys compete with each other, compete very hard every day. It’s good to have both of those guys back there. They’re good leaders for the other guys.”
On addressing the team about the unconventional game atmosphere to expect due to COVID-19…
“When you go on the road, to me, it’s one of the great tests in all of football, (especially) in this conference – when you go on the road and play an SEC rival. You have to be able to block out the noise. If there’s 100,000 people or there’s 25,000 people, you have to be able to block it out and execute. That’s what we’ve got to focus on doing.”
On his relationship with Mike Bobo…
“Mike’s a competitor, (whether it’s) playing against him in college, coaching against him, coaching against him every day in practice, playing golf against him, shooting pool, he’s a competitor. He wants to win in everything that he does. He’s going to have a great game plan. His kids are going to play hard. They’ll play together, so it will be a challenge for us.”
On if the team is prepared for the opener, compared to two weeks ago…
“We’ve got 50 more players that are able to play this Saturday than we had that Saturday.”
On an update on Carlin Fils-Aime…
“Carlin graduated this summer and he’s sitting out this year. He, possibly, may come back in January, but we’ve yet to decide that. When that time comes, we’ll get together and decide that. He’s a guy that has done everything that we’ve asked him to do as a player, since I’ve been here. Unfortunately, he’s had some injuries that have kept him off the field, but has been a great student, role model, good teammate and we would love to have him back for sure.”
On potential starters in the offensive line…
“With the offensive line, we’ve worked lots of different lineups. A lot of that has been forced based on guys missing practice. It is good that guys have played multiple spots. We’ll continue to work this week to figure out if we’re playing five guys, six guys, 10 or eight, and what positions they’re going to play.”
On the outside linebacker position…
“You only get to travel 70 guys, so the 70 that you take need to be able to contribute whether it’s on special teams or on defense. We’ll play 70 guys on Saturday.”
On the most concerning areas on the team…
“I have confidence in every position we have. Our guys have worked hard, and we have good competition in every position. Are there some guys that have had a lot more practice time than others? Sure. Will that dictate how much they play? It possibly could. We don’t want to put somebody in a situation that they’re not ready for. I have a lot of confidence in our team. Are we where we need to be right now? Absolutely not. We’ve got to continue to improve and get better. That’s the goal. Improve every week this year.”
On getting the wide receivers up to speed for Saturday…
“We’re getting there. Obviously, if you miss practice time there’s going to be a little bit of a timing element there. We’re going to work hard this week to create that. I believe our guys have confidence and trust in each other, so we have to just keep giving them reps out there so they can develop that.”
On comparing this year’s freshman class to last year’s and how many freshmen will contribute Saturday…
“I don’t know the exact number. I felt like last year’s class contributed a lot, especially down the stretch. It’ll be the same this year. The thing with freshmen is that you don’t want to put unrealistic expectations on them. There will be some guys that will play very little in this game, that possibly might be the difference in the next seven games. There’s lots of things that have gone on that they have no control over, but there’s no doubt that you have to be able to practice to create confidence in not only yourself, but in the coaching staff and the players around you. Unfortunately, we’ve had some of those young guys that have missed a lot of practice time and that will probably, at least for this game, be a contributing factor to how much they actually do play. It’s not as much about their ability, but the fact that they didn’t get as much practice and maybe they needed to be more prepared. We’re excited about this freshman class. We feel like a lot of these guys will contribute this year and we’ll see as the year goes on”
On previous comments about the lack of physicality in the defense and their improvement…
“That was a challenge. If you’re going to win in this league you have to control the line of scrimmages on both sides of the ball. It’s not something that you wait to do on Saturdays. You do it in August. You do it in spring ball. It’s something that you have to do every single day. We’re not where we need to be yet. Do we have the ability to get there? Sure we do. We’ve got to create the mindset to get there.”
On filling the tight end position on Saturday…
“There’s still three or four guys that we’re working there. We’ll see. We’ll obviously settle on somebody for the game. That’s going to be a position that we’re continuing to challenge and create competition. That’s a good thing because we’ve got competition there. The guys continue to push each other.”
-UT Athletics
