Pruitt sees progress in Vols’ O-line

KNOXVILLE — As far as compliments from Jeremy Pruitt go, the one Tennessee’s first-year football coach handed out during Wednesday’s Southeastern Conference coaches’ teleconference seemed substantial.

“That was probably our best overall game by our offensive line,” Pruitt said, reflecting on Tennessee’s 27-24 loss at South Carolina last week.

The improved play of the offensive line came as the quality of the opposing defensive front dipped after a tough stretch of games against Georgia, Auburn and Alabama.

But the compliment-worthy performance by the Volunteers’ big guys also came as they grappled with the loss of starting left tackle Trey Smith, who was Tennessee’s lone preseason All-SEC selection.

That’s what made it impressive. “We mixed it up a little better, and probably play-calling kept them off balance with screens and things,” Pruitt said. “One negative is we missed some shots down the field. Some of that had to do with protection, and then (we) had a drop. We were efficient on third down.”

Dark stains from the field still covered quarterback Jarrett Guarantano’s white jersey by the fourth quarter — a sign of continued pass-protection woes — but the prevailing sense coming out of the game was that sophomore Marcus Tatum held his own in his fourth career start and first at left tackle.

Tatum will get another starting opportunity Saturday when Tennessee (3-5) hosts Charlotte (4-4) at Neyland Stadium.

If Tennessee does stick with Tatum and leaves the rest of the unit unchanged, it will be the first time since September that the Vols have used the same offensive-line combination in consecutive games.

Redshirt junior right tackle Drew Richmond is the only Tennessee offensive lineman to start every game at the same position this season.

“I feel like we executed better today,” Richmond said after the South Carolina loss. “I always talk about that, and I feel like we blocked better today. I feel like we played more physical today. I feel like it was a good game plan by our coaches. I feel like they set us up in the right things and we took advantage of it a little bit in the running game. That was a good improvement from a couple weeks we hadn’t been able to run the ball real well.”

But Richmond was clear that Tennessee’s pass protection needs to improve.

Finding continuity again with Tatum and a steady five should help.

“Well, if you just look at our entire team, we don’t have a whole lot of depth,” Pruitt said. “It’s been that way since the first day I got here. I don’t think it was new. I think we’ve done a good job trying to create some depth moving guys around.

“It probably hindered us early on at certain positions because we were playing multiple spots, but it’s something we had to do to prepare in case we lost guys.”

Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.