Orange blues
Vols 3-7 with loss to Aggies; coach confident he’ll remain
A Tennessee regular season that began with third-year football coach Jeremy Pruitt receiving a contract extension two days before an opening triumph at South Carolina ended Saturday afternoon with a
3-7 record and with Pruitt explaining why he is still the right man for the job.
Tennessee’ s 34-13 loss to No. 5 Texas A&M saddled the Volunteers with their first three-win regular season as a Southeastern Conference member. The Vols wound up dropping seven of their last eight contests by double-digit margins after a 2-0 start, with their lone victory coming last weekend over a Vanderbilt program that competed with fewer than 50 scholarship players for reasons related to COVID-19.
“Yeah, I think, absolutely,” Pruitt said when asked if he was confident he would be the coach moving forward. “If you look over the first two years we were here, from personnel, culture and what we’re building, and I get it — 3-7 is not where we want to be, right? But I can lay my head down on my pillow every night and know that I’ve done everything that I can possibly do to make sure that we protected everybody in our program. We weren’t looking for a competitive edge.
“There were a lot of things that we didn’t know about, and if we were going to have a COVID season again, I would probably be a little more prepared to handle it, but I get the business and I understand it. Most of our team will be back, and I think it’s a very good indication that we compete every week. These guys don’t quit, and they believe in what we’re doing. They understand that we’re not that
“These guys don’t quit, and they believe in what we’re doing. They understand that we’re not that far away.” —JEREMY PRUITT
far away.”
Coaching changes were not expected to be prevalent during a year in which the coronavirus has strained college athletic departments financially from coast to coast, but Auburn, South Carolina and Vanderbilt did just that in the SEC alone. Pruitt’s buyout would be $12.8 million, according to the Knoxville News-Sentinel, while the buyout for Pruitt and his staff would be $18.6 million.
Potentially adding to Pruitt’s shakier status was a Saturday report from Fox Sports Knoxville claiming Tennessee’s football program is being investigated by its own compliance department and by the NCAA for alleged recruiting violations and impermissible benefits involving current players. The Fox Sports Knoxville report, which cited anonymous sources, stated this investigation dates back “to at least early December.”
When asked about the report, Pruitt said, “I haven’t seen the article or anything like that, but anytime in college football or college athletics, you have typical compliance stuff, and that’s all I know.”
Texas A&M counterpart Jimbo Fisher, meanwhile, spent significant time lobbying his Aggies (8-1) for a spot in the upcoming College Football Playoff. Their chances were damaged by Ohio State winning the Big Ten championship and Clemson claiming the Atlantic Coast Conference title, which could result in the Aggies becoming the SEC’s first one-loss team in the playoff era not to receive an invite.
Tennessee entered Saturday hoping to upset the Aggies and got off to a brilliant start when freshman quarterback Harrison Bailey zipped the Vols 75 yards in five plays, grabbing a 7-0 lead on a 33-yard scoring strike from Bailey to tight end Jacob Warren. Highlights would be few and far between for the Vols after that, however, as Texas A&M racked up 497 yards while holding Tennessee
after its opening possession to just 138.
The Aggies extended Tennessee’s defensive woes on third down by converting 10 of 14 opportunities, and they strengthened their grip as the SEC’s top team in possession time by controlling the ball for an eye-popping 44 minutes and nine seconds.
“When you’re out there on the field, it’s just going to wear on you,” said Tennessee cornerback Alontae Taylor, whose third-quarter interception of Kellen Mond kept the final score from being even more decisive. “You’re going to get tired, but that’s where your conditioning comes in from the summer and spring ball. We didn’t really have that this year because of COVID, so you had to dig in and find it.”
Said Vols center Brandon Kennedy: “You’ve got to give credit to Texas A&M, because they did a great job with time of possession. When we got the ball, we tried to execute, but some things just didn’t go our way.”
Bailey went 6-for-6 passing for 85 yards and the touchdown but was sacked four times and lost a fumble early in the second quarter. Redshirt sophomore J.T. Shrout replaced Bailey after that fumble and threw a 46-yard touchdown pass to Cedric Tillman that got the Vols within 17-13.
Tennessee rushed 17 times for only 24 yards and didn’t have the services of sophomore running back Eric Gray.
Pruitt was asked afterward why Gray didn’t play and responded, “He was unavailable.” When pressed whether Gray’s absence was due to injury or related to COVID-19, he said, “The entire year, when it’s come to our guys from injuries to COVID to whatever reasons, we’ve always said they’re unavailable.”
When asked Gray missed the game due to a compliance issue, Pruitt said, “Guys, I’ve already addressed that.”