What Jeremy Pruitt said about Tennessee's loss to Georgia and the Vols' chances of making the playoff
Former Tennessee Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt had some thoughts this week on UT's 27-13 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs. Pruitt sat down with Dawg Nation's Mike Griffith this week to discuss the Georgia/Tennessee game and the rest of the action from this past weekend. "Tennessee has been able to get off to fast starts […]
Former Tennessee Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt had some thoughts this week on UT's 27-13 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs.
Pruitt sat down with Dawg Nation's Mike Griffith this week to discuss the Georgia/Tennessee game and the rest of the action from this past weekend.
"Tennessee has been able to get off to fast starts this year, [but] Georgia got some stops," said Pruitt when asked about UT's loss this past weekend. "Georgia put points on the board early [and] created some explosive plays."
"It was a game that was probably not as close as the score indicated," added Pruitt. "A lot of Tennessee fans probably wouldn't like me and you (Griffith) saying that. But I kinda go back to Tennessee playing Florida. That score was a one-score game. That score was not near as close as the final score. Tennessee dominated that game. And I think that was kinda the same way in this game."
Pruitt also pointed out that Georgia's fans did a lot to impact the game, saying "I feel like the fan base was probably worth about 7 to 10 points".
As for the fallout of the game?
Well, Pruitt feels like the Vols are in a pretty good spot moving forward.
"But you look at Tennessee, I feel like they control their own destiny," said Pruitt. "They win out, I see a one-loss Tennessee team making the playoffs. So they can't let this game affect the next game."
"And I don't think they will. You look at Josh Heupel's comments after the game, it was very constructive. Talking about the things that they need to worry about that they can control. You see some of the comments coming out of Knoxville today, I believe they're heading in the right direction."
"It's a noon kickoff in Knoxville, which is not near like a night game there," added Pruitt. "They've got to get off the mat and play a dangerous Missouri team. A Missouri team that can play pretty good defense. You never know in this league so Tennessee's gotta be ready to play."
Fans might not like Pruitt after his failures at Tennessee, but his analysis is pretty much spot-on here.
Pruitt, like him or not, knows Xs and Os as well as anyone. And despite the way things ended with the Vols, he's been more than fair to Tennessee this season (and quick to praise Josh Heupel) during his weekly interviews with Dawg Nation.
Featured image via Caitlyn Jordan/News Sentinel, Knoxville News Sentinel via Imagn Content Services, LLC
