{"id":5224,"date":"2019-03-07T20:14:53","date_gmt":"2019-03-08T01:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/?p=5224"},"modified":"2019-03-07T20:14:59","modified_gmt":"2019-03-08T01:14:59","slug":"tennessee-head-coach-jeremy-pruitt-press-conference-transcript","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/2019\/03\/07\/tennessee-head-coach-jeremy-pruitt-press-conference-transcript\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee Head Coach Jeremy Pruitt Press Conference Transcript"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

 Opening statement:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely a lot of carry over defensively from last fall. We have a lot of guys who are back, so you could obviously see a comfort zone there. I thought that our offense did a really good job today. It was probably the first time all year that we finished practice early. The offense sets the tempo for the practice, so I thought that was really positive. We have a few guys that aren\u2019t participating in the spring. Darrin Kirkland is getting some work done on his knee, just from a rehab standpoint, and Eric Gray had shoulder surgery. Tyus Fields had a little procedure done back during Christmas. He could possibly be back. Chris Akporoghene is going to miss the first couple of days of spring practice. Kurott Garland will be back out there soon. So, we\u2019ve got a few guys out, but not as many as we had last year. I thought the tempo was good today. With the first day of practice, we\u2019ve got new guys out there and we have to teach them how to practice. We\u2019ve got to stay off the ground. The ball for the first day is probably on the ground too many times, with just simple quarterback center exchanges. We need to be able to fix that, and offensively it starts with the snap, and if you can\u2019t do that, it\u2019s hard to have success. I thought for the first day, there was some juice out there, and our guys competed pretty well, and I\u2019m excited about that. I think there\u2019s some guys that changed positions that have done a nice job in the offseason learning a new position. So, we\u2019ll watch the film, and we\u2019ve got a bunch of high school coaches in here, we\u2019re excited about that. With our coach\u2019s clinic, it\u2019s an opportunity for us to spend time with people that came to our clinic. It\u2019s a big deal for us, so we\u2019ll work on our corrections tomorrow and we\u2019ll go back at it on Saturday and hopefully we\u2019ll improve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the difference from spring practice last year to spring practice this year:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can\u2019t remember what I ate last week for breakfast, so I sure can\u2019t remember last spring\u2019s first day of practice. We\u2019ve practiced 300 times since then. So, we were better today than we were last year because mostly everybody on the team has been through the system one time, as opposed to last year when nobody knew the system. So now, there\u2019s probably ten guys that are here for the first time, and at least the other guys have an idea of what they\u2019re supposed to do. Last year, nobody knew what to do. So, it obviously should be better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the smoothness of the offense today despite new coaches:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think from an experience standpoint with Jim (Chaney) coming in here, I think he\u2019s done a really nice job with our staff. He\u2019s very efficient with his time. He\u2019s a very good teacher. I\u2019ve sat in lots of meetings, and he\u2019s simple to understand. There are a lot of similarities, and we\u2019ve kept a lot of things, from a conceptional standpoint, that are probably very similar. So, I think our guys have done a really good job with working hard to figure out what they\u2019re supposed to do. The guys come here for two reasons: to get a degree and to play football. So, some of it is on them to learn what to do on their own, and I think our guys, for the first day, have done a really good job. Now, you install the first day for probably two weeks, and now you\u2019re fixing to start the second practice and you install one time and here we go. Are we willing to spend that much time and be able to balance everything that goes in with that and retain the same knowledge as the first practice? I don\u2019t know, we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On responding from last season:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had our shots last year, that\u2019s over with. There\u2019s nothing we can do about it, so I\u2019m not going to talk about it anymore. We\u2019re worried about next year. That\u2019s the only thing that we have control over and everybody on our football team has a plan to improve as a player this spring and as a unit, and I think our guys are going to start working hard to do that. We\u2019ve done a good job so far, we had a good first day of practice and we\u2019ll see where it goes tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Quavaris Crouch starting the spring at inside linebacker:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInside linebacker, first of all we have a lack of depth there with Darrin Kirkland Jr. not going through the spring. JJ Peterson is a little banged up, he should be back probably next week. So, we have a depth issue there. It\u2019s also from a standpoint of having a better understanding of the defense, it\u2019s easier to learn it from inside out instead of outside in. I think he\u2019s a guy that can play all four positions, so we started him there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Jeremy Banks\u2019 position during the spring:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJeremy is going to start off at running back. If you look at our running back with Ty Chandler, Tim Jordan and Carlin Fils-aime, even Eric Gray, they\u2019re all probably between the 195 and 205 range. We need a big back, that\u2019s why we moved Princeton Fant there. We\u2019re gonna keep Jeremy on offense, we have to have a 225-plus pound guy in there, at least one guy. We\u2019re going to keep them over there and see how they work for the first six to eight days, let coach Chaney and David Johnson get a good look at them and then make a decision from there. They both can play multiple positions and they\u2019re learning the offense conceptually, so I think they\u2019re both doing a good job as far as offseason conditioning, I don\u2019t know about today\u2019s practice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Alontae Taylor\u2019s growth as a defensive back in the past year:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor one, he wants to be a defensive back now. When we moved him last spring, he probably didn\u2019t. When you want to do something, you put more time into it. I think that he\u2019s probably done that, he\u2019s put a lot of time in in the offseason with coach Ansley. I see those guys watching tape a lot. So, I think that there will be improvement just with being comfortable with the position. He’s never played corner, he played defensive back, but he really went back there and stood and played safety during high school. He didn\u2019t get up there and play the different techniques that you have to play at corner in this league. Him along with the rest of the guys, they all should improve now that they have a year under their belt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Brandon Kennedy\u2019s recovery:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBrandon would be clear to go if we were playing right now, but there\u2019s no need to rush him back. He\u2019s going to do some things this spring and it\u2019ll be day-by-day, but if we were playing a game right now, he could play.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the progress through the offseason:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think with the offseason it takes everybody in the program, it starts with our weight room staff with Coach Fitz and all his guys. They have done a really nice job training and our nutrition staff has done a great job. Rachel (Pfister) and everybody associated with her, the people in Smokey\u2019s where our guys eat every day, working with Rachel and her crew. Getting the guys on a good diet and I think the guys have done a nice job of getting some rest and I think it takes a little of that too. Nathan Niehaus has gained 40 pounds in a year, Riley Locklear has probably gained 25 or 30 pounds and Marcus Tatum has gained 25 or 30 pounds. They need it and some of them could gain 25 more but I think it will help them and offensive line is a developmental position so when you sign a scholarship to play offensive line in the SEC and you weigh 260 pounds, it\u2019s probably going to take you three years before you can actually play. A lot of these guys are in their third year or starting their fourth and they are big enough now to be effective I think.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On what the staff needs to see from the defensive line this spring:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not many guys that have played a lot of ball, I think as a group the guys have worked hard in the offseason but until you learn how to go out there and strain and do it over and over again and not make mental errors and learn how to play, how to practice and do it the right way, we have very few guys that have done much of that. Emmitt Gooden played more than the rest of them, John Mincy was getting an opportunity to play and he got injured last year. Kurott Grarland played four games, Kingston Harris played in four, so they played enough to be redshirted. I think that was good for them, good experience but we\u2019ve got a long way to go there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the early enrollees:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think these guys have done a really nice job in the classroom. Lots of times when you go to college everybody gets overwhelmed, there is so much thrown at them. I haven\u2019t seen that with them, I think these guys come from really good football programs and good schools. I think they have been prepared academically, athletically and programs that have worked really hard and have had a lot of success. They have jumped right in and fit right in, they haven\u2019t looked like freshman which is a good thing. Obviously, they are mid-year guys so they have to be pretty strong academically. I saw more of the defensive guys but I thought they had a good understanding of what we were tying to do for the first day so it was really positive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On what appealed to him the most about Jim Chaney:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s done it a bunch of different ways and has had a bunch of success in this league which I think is important. Unless you\u2019ve coached in this league against some of these guys that you\u2019re going to go against, it takes a little while to get used to what they\u2019re going to do on defense. He\u2019s done it throwing it a bunch of times in a game, he\u2019s done it with balance and run oriented. He figures out who his best players are and finds ways to get them the ball. I think he\u2019s a very good evaluator and coaching against him, he\u2019s very hard to defend.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tennessee Head Coach Jeremy Pruitt – 2019 Spring Practice No. 1
\nMarch 7, 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":5226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennessee-vols-football"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/files\/2019\/03\/12D5FA3D-ED8E-45AD-90CD-553D3EE3AF55.png.jpg?fit=999%2C513&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5227,"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5224\/revisions\/5227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.volnation.com\/freaknotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}