Midweek Updates

Photo Credit: Maury Neipris/Tennessee Athletics

Tennessee is 3-5, but a bowl game is still in reach. This week's Midweek Updates cover Saturday's upcoming matchup with Charlotte and how basketball season does not need to sway fans from being enthusiastic about the football team. We also take a look at what Jeremy Pruitt had to say in his weekly Monday press conference.

Homecoming 2018 Should Be Used To Make Adjustments

If the Vols plan on making a bowl game this year, they must win 3 of their next 4 games. Fortunately, they start this final 4-game stretch with a homecoming game against Charlotte. The Vols can not afford to relax. They need to improve the offensive line's play, as well as consistency on the defense. If they can do this, along with eliminating unforced errors and limit penalties, they will set themselves up to play well in their final 3 SEC games of the season.

Basketball Season Shouldn't Draw Fans Away From Football

Basketball season starts this week and I do not necessarily believe that this will happen, but with the basketball Vols being ranked No. 6 in the nation and the football team not doing very well, it can be easy to switch to basketball mode and leave football in the dust. Personally, I have been extremely excited for this basketball season, but I still am fully supporting the football team. Coach Pruitt has the team playing better than previous first year head coaches and may even lead them to a bowl game this season. I understand that fans will not turn their attention away from football completely, though basketball season will be more exciting. Vol Nation is the best fanbase for a reason, but I just though this should be said.

Pruitt's Monday Press Conference

Coach Pruitt began his press conference by saying, "The outcome of the last game was not what we were looking for. There's a lot of bright spots that we can build off of, especially offensively. We ran the ball a little better last week. We converted some on third down, but if you look at us, one time we had way too many penalties that created negative plays and negative yards. We had one in the red area that knocked us out of third-and-10, and we had to run the ball and kick a field goal. There are a lot of positives that we can build off of. Defensively, we didn't stop the run and we didn't create many negative plays. We gave up some explosive plays, we have to eliminate that. It's interesting when you watch the first 24 plays versus the last 30 plays in the game. The difference when it comes from the defensive standpoint, is the production, so we have to improve there... There's lots of lessons that we can learn, and we've got to take them and move forward. I thought that last week we practiced really well, and I think it showed in the game and how we performed, but we have to be able to finish and find ways to win games like that."

Pruitt was asked about the non-fumble call at the goal line in the third quarter and responded by saying, "Well it was definitely a fumble. I saw that, but unfortunately for the officials, they only have certain angles they can see, and from their angles they didn't see that. You can look at it on our film, it's obviously a fumble. It was disappointing for me because I could see it on the sideline, but they have a tough job to do, just like we have a tough job to do, and those guys are doing the best they can, and they have to take what they have to work with it. It is an unfortunate circumstance, but the officials had nothing to do with us getting nine penalties, they had nothing to do with us losing the battle at the line of scrimmage, so that's really only one small part of the game."

He also spoke about Jarrett Guarantano's play, stating, "I've said all along, Jarrett's a tough guy. He made some really good throws and made some really good decisions. I think we played 73 offensive snaps and probably 65 of those he played extremely well. There were probably three throws that he would've liked to have had back. There were probably five decisions, whether it was a check or with protection or maybe starting on the wrong side of the field, that he was wrong on. I thought he showed a lot of courage, played really hard and was a really good leader for our team. We just need to fix those other plays, and he can do that. We ask him to do a lot of things, which, I think it helps our offense. He gets us in the right plays in the run game, we can make checks from run to pass, he can change protections. There's a lot of demand on him and he can handle it. There's just a few things that we got to fix from this past week."