Midweek Updates

Photo Credit: Austin Perryman/Tennessee Athletics

In this edition of our Midweek Updates, we discuss what it will take for Tennessee to make a bowl game, including Saturday’s matchup with Kentucky and hear what Pruitt said during his weekly press conference.

Focused On Winning

Tennessee needs to go either 2-1 of 3-0 over their final 3 games, in order to make a bowl game. In our Twitter poll this week, 13% of respondents said that the Vols would go 3-0 in that span, while 46% voted for a 2-1 finish. A win against Kentucky on Saturday would be huge. Beating a top-15 team would help the Vols mentally and would increase their bowl chances. As bad as it has looked recently, when the Wildcats come to town, Tennessee will not back down. Understanding what needs to be done over the course of several games is important, but as cliché as it sounds, the Vols need to focus on winning one game at a time.

Key To Winning On Saturday

Late in Kentucky's win over Vanderbilt, with the game tied at 7, Kentucky let running back Benny Snell win the game for them. They executed a 12-play drive, handing the ball off to Snell 10 times on those 12 plays. He is the centerpiece of their offense. Everything they do seems to revolve around him. If Tennessee's defense, which has still been pretty solid as of late, can slow him down, it gives the Vols a much better chance of winning. Pruitt spoke about how the Vols plan to stop Snell, by saying, "He's a tough guy. They do a lot with him, lots of Wildcat, so he can obviously handle what they do. They used him a lot as a freshman, which is the last time I coached against him. He's very physical, but he doesn't take a lot of one-on-one hits. He runs through the soft shoulder, so it's tough to get him squared up. We'll have to do a really good job of gang-tackling him."

Pruitt’s Monday Press Conference

Jeremy Pruitt said the following to open his press conference on Monday. "We're going to play a really good football team this weekend. I followed Coach [Mark] Stoops at Florida State so I know firsthand what his teams are all about. They're going to be very well coached and hard-nosed. He does a fantastic job evaluating talent. They have a lot of experience. They start 15 seniors, you can see it on both sides of the ball. They're tough, they're physical, they can run the football offensively. They have a very athletic quarterback. It seems like some of these guys have been playing forever. They have playmakers on the outside. Defensively, they're sound and they stop the run. They're really good in the red area. They give you multiple looks and they've got good pass rushers. They have good guys out on the edges that can deny the ball."

In the final 3 SEC games, creating big plays will be important for the Vols' success. Pruitt spoke about Tennessee's big play potential, stating, "I think big plays come when you execute at a high level. It's not like you go into a game and say we've got "x" amount of plays that we think will be there. If you execute it, it presents itself. Two weeks ago, we had a few chances that were there because we had break downs in protections. This week, probably the same thing."

He also commented on his message to the offensive line over the past weeks, saying, "I think the message to our entire team is we want to go out there every day and improve every snap. Take it one snap at a time. Our guys have worked really hard to do that, but again like I've said to the team, how you play on Saturdays is how you're remembered. It's not how you play on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. But, to play good on Saturdays you need to practice well and prepare well. We had too many mistakes Saturday, which went back to earlier in the year, guys blocking the wrong folks. It's hard to have success when you do that."