KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee closed out practice on Wednesday evening at Haslam Field as the Vols continue to prep for their final regular season game at Vanderbilt on Saturday at 4 p.m. ET on SEC Network.
“It’s a great time of the year,” head coach Jeremy Pruitt said. “Growing up it was always big for the people in my community playing football on Thanksgiving. We are thankful for the men in our program and what they represent.”
The Vols will practice in the morning on Thursday, before releasing players to spend Thanksgiving with their families – if they live close by, or with assistant coaches, who all are hosting dinners, and Pruitt himself.
“We want to give guys the opportunity to go and spend time with their families if it’s close enough,” Pruitt said. “I think it’s important that everybody spends somewhere for Thanksgiving. Everybody in our program, from our equipment managers, to our trainers, to our players, to our coaches.”
The Vols will have an all-staff Thanksgiving lunch on Friday before leaving for Nashville.
PRUITT ANNOUNCES FOUR PLAYERS WILL REDSHIRT
The NCAA changed the redshirt rule in 2018 where players could play in any four games and still receive a redshirt. Previously, a player could only receive a redshirt if he did not play in a game or if he received a medical hardship waiver (could not play in more than 30 percent of contests and the injury had to occur in the first half of the season).
This season, however, a player could appear in any four games and still receive a redshirt.
Pruitt announced that four players reached the four-game limit and would redshirt: sophomore linebacker Kivon Bennett, freshman linebacker J.J. Peterson, freshman wide receiver Cedric Tillman and freshman defensive lineman Kurott Garland.
Several other Vols have not played in four games and could also receive redshirts.
“We’re not going to play any of those guys,” Pruitt said. “I’ve talked to them and I think moving forward it’s the best thing for those guys.”
SMITH GIVES BACK
Despite being out indefinitely for the season, Tennessee sophomore offensive lineman Trey Smith has not changed his mindset or work ethic. Smith continues to look for ways to give back and spent the majority of his time this past Tuesday morning outside of the Thornton Center, helping collect coats with Knoxville Area Rescue Ministry (KARM) for those in need.
Smith took to Twitter last Friday to provide a message to the community and make them aware of KARM’s mission and its effort to supply as many coats as possible for those in need. KARM received over 1,000 coats since Smith’s message.
JOHNSON AND PHILLIPS EARN ACADEMIC HONORS
Tennessee redshirt offensive lineman Ryan Johnson and senior defensive end Kyle Phillips were both named to the 2018 Google Cloud Academic All-District® Football Team, selected by CoSIDA, which recognizes the nation’s top student-athletes for their combined performances on the field and in the classroom.
Johnson and Phillips mark the 27th and 28th Academic All-District or Academic All-Americans presented by CoSIDA in Tennessee history. The Vols now have six academic All-District honorees in the last three years as the pair joins Parker Henry (2016, 2017), Todd Kelly Jr. (2016) and Dylan Wiesman (2016) as recent winners.
Head Coach Jeremy Pruitt Post-Practice Press Conference Transcript (Nov. 21)
Opening Statement:
“It’s a great time of the year, I know growing up it was always big for the people in my community playing football on Thanksgiving. I think over the years you appreciated it and it’s time you spend with you family. You have your football family and we are thankful for the men in our program and what they represent. We are excited about playing this weekend and we have a huge rivalry game. We have a lot of respect for Coach Mason and what they have done at Vanderbilt. I think that both of us have a lot to play for…so our challenge is to get our guys to execute, play hard, play together and we are looking forward to this Saturday.”
On playing another experienced quarterback:
“They do a really good job on offense. They’re very balanced. I think it probably starts with their run game. They’re committed to running the football. They have lots of different variations when they do that, and I think their quarterback gets them in and out of plays because of his experience. They stay out of negative plays. He can make all the throws. He’s got a good understanding of what they’re doing. He’s very well coached, doesn’t make many mistakes. With any good quarterback, you have to do a good job disguising. You need to force them into some long yardage situations. They throw a lot of balls on first downs so to stay ahead of the chains and a lot of boots, a lot of quick gain to get the ball out of their hand. We have to find a way to get pressure, get our hands up, bat some balls. I think that would be with anybody.”
On what he’s seen from Jarrett Guarantano and Marquez Callaway in practice:
“They practiced every day.”
On Joejuan Williams and what he does well for Vanderbilt:
“I think all their guys on defense are very aggressive. I like the way they play. They play fast. They play with passion. They’re physical, play together. They get after the football. He plays a lot into the boundary. I think he’s a physical guy, probably has a lot of experience, has some length to him. He’s got ball skills so if you make a mistake, he can make you pay.”
On the early signing period:
“I think based off the calendar it has sped everything up. Obviously, we had official visits some in the spring and summer, so the calendar has moved up, I would think for us and this signing class. We didn’t have a staff here until December 8th or 9th so we should be ahead in this recruiting cycle, but you have to recruit every day of the year and everybody in your program has to recruit. That’s something you have to balance along with coaching and we’re doing that.”
On if he likes the signing day being in December:
“I don’t think it matters whether I like it or not. I don’t make the rules, so I just kind of follow the rules and figure out a way to try to take advantage of it.”
On if he plans to be more involved in offensive play calling on Saturday:
“Offensive play calling? I’m not calling any plays. You want me to call the plays? You know I used to call the plays, but it was like Wing Right, 28 Sweep and Wing Right Nine 28. You all don’t want to see us out there running the Wing-T because if I was out there calling the plays we’d be running the Wing-T and the Split-Back Veer so it’d be a short game.”
On Jeremy Banks and Kingston Harris practicing on defense this week:
“No, we’re not going to play Kurott Garland in this game. He’s played four games and he’s really improved over the course of the season. He’s playing probably five to eight snaps in a game so to figure out a way to not force this kid into losing a year, we decided to move Kingston to defense. Jeremy has one of those nagging ankle injuries, kind of like Jauan (Jennings). They’re everywhere, the high ankle sprain. Right about when he gets well, he tweaks it again, so he’ll probably be questionable for the game.”
On how playing in just a few games can help in development:
“I think this rule is great for guys like that. We have four or five guys that have played in four games and they’ve prepared to play every week in some role. Some of them have played on special teams. It’s something that you have to make a decision based off their role, is it worth an entire year? We talked through some of that about some of our guys.”
On Ty Chandler’s status:
“Ty practiced. He practiced. He tweaked his knee there to start practice a little bit. He’s been kind of day-to-day and Ty’s a tough guy and he’s a little bit banged up, but he’ll be ready to go.”
On how Derek Mason has sustained the competitiveness at Vanderbilt:
“I really just met Derek, since I really got to Tennessee, in the head coaches’ meetings and things like that. Just kind of looking, watching his teams play, I think they play the right way. They’re very competitive, they play hard, they never quit, and I think they do a really good job on both sides of the ball. I’ve coached against them and they have always been very well coached, fundamentally sound and he’s done a really good job.”
On the decision to move Jeremy Banks back to linebacker:
“Jeremy would have stayed at linebacker probably if we hadn’t got some guys hurt. We moved him back [to running back] but when you got the ball and you got 11 guys trying to tackle you, it’s hard to play with kind of a bad ankle. We’ve got some guys banged up at linebacker and we obviously have some depth issues, probably all over our team, so just trying to find the right guys and just making smart moves.”
On Vanderbilt running back Ke’Shawn Vaughn’s success:
“I think he’s a really good back. He’s got good size, he’s got good speed, good vision, has balance, he’s a physical runner, he finishes off his runs, has lots of runs after contact, he can make you miss, and they have a really good scheme. They’ve got a quarterback that can stretch the field, they’ve got some playmakers on the outside, and some of the things they do in the run game make you play from sideline to sideline.”
On the plan for guys who are in the redshirt range of games:
“We’re not going to play any of those guys. I’ve talked to them and I think moving forward it’s the best thing for those guys. I mean you look at Cedric Tillman, I mean he’s a guy that’s played in four games and he’s took tons of reps this fall, so just being fair to him down the road… J.J. (Peterson) is the same deal, got in here the second week of the season. Four years from now, they’ll have a choice. I look back and think about guys, their fifth year and how they developed as players. Last year, there was a guy, Levi Wallace, that played that was a former walk-on. I think now he’s playing for the Buffalo Bills and really didn’t become a starter until his last year. Another guy was Ryan Anderson. I can remember when he was a young kid, he was gripping because he was getting redshirted, but he sure was proud that senior year, his fifth year. I don’t remember what round he got drafted in, but he probably improved his draft stock by four or five rounds and you don’t get that money back.”
On what the plan is for the team on Thanksgiving tomorrow:
“We’re going to practice. We’ll obviously practice early. We want to give guys the opportunity to go and spend time with their families if it’s close enough. I think it’s important that everybody spends somewhere for Thanksgiving. Everybody in our program, from our equipment mangers, to our trainers, to our players, to our coaches – when you look at it, probably how many people in this building that work under this program, I don’t know, we’re probably from all over the country – coach (Brian) Niedermeyer is from Alaska. We’ve got some guys from Miami, Florida. Coach Oz (Joe Osovet) is from Jersey, so you have your football family and we appreciate our football family, we’re thankful for it, we’re all thankful for the opportunity and we enjoy being around each other. I told them as much as my wife cooks, if they eat at their coaches or eat at their parents house and they want to come back to my house tomorrow night, come on back because I don’t need all that food in the refrigerator.”
On what he’s seen from the offensive line this week in practice:
“I think our guys have worked hard every week. They’ve worked hard to understand what we’re trying to get done. When you play offensive line, it’s one of the toughest positions to play because lots of times when one guy moves or two guys move on the defensive side, it doesn’t just affect one guy, it affects all five of them and possibly a tight end and maybe even a fullback or something, so they’ve got to work together. At least the group that we’ve got playing now have played together for the last couple of weeks. The longer you play together, you get more comfortable, which creates some confidence. This will be another week and it will be a big challenge for those guys.”