Tennessee kicks off conference play Saturday against one of its most bitter rivals, the Florida Gators.

The Vols are coming off of two home wins against lesser opponents, and will be looking forward to taking on another challenge.

Pruitt joined the weekly SEC Coaches Teleconference Wednesday to share his thoughts on Florida, Saturday’s game and what he’s noticed from his team so far.

Will Quart’e Sapp be available on Saturday?

  • Yes. He played special teams last week, he probably could only play a few plays based on the injury he’s dealing with and we decided to play him on special teams.

Do you watch the film from last season?

  • No. It’s a different coaching staff.

On FL-Tennessee in the 90’s:

  • Those teams were at the top of college football back then, it was always early, they were always undefeated and it was always the first marquee SEC game of the year. Who was going to win the East, if you lose that game you were probably out of it. Our goal is to play to a standard that when everyone plays Tennessee, that’s the game they mark on our schedule but we have a long ways to go before people start doing that again.

On Freddie Swain:

  • I think Freddie has really good toughness, instinctive. He has good hands, good with the ball in his hands, you can see that on the punt return.

On Swain’s special teams success:

  • Well, it’s not a surprise to me, Coach Mullen’s teams are always good on special teams. They have good kickers, good specialists and good players on that unit.

On first down:

  • It starts with having a good play call. If you are going to throw it on first down, you have to be efficient. I think our guys have done a good job of executing those plays and we have to continue to do that.

Thoughts on Run D:

  • Defensively, we are working hard to improve. We are nowhere where we want to be, our guys do everything we ask them to do and as we improve, so do our opponents so we have to raise the level of our play.

On the leadership of your team:

  • I think we have guys on our team that can be real good leaders. We had guys that didn’t play in spring, some of them were transfers… some of being a leader is influencing others and some haven’t had the opportunity to do that.

How many similarities did Mullen bring to FL from MSU?

  • I think over the years, he’s done what all good coaches do, he changes due to his personnel… They are able to run the ball, they convert on third down, they don’t turn the ball over, they convert in the red area and that’s a credit to him.

On Tennessee’s pass defense:

  • I think we have executed a little better. I don’t think the last two teams we have played have pushed the ball downfield… I think we will see as the season goes, just how much we have improved.

On the explosive plays on offense, do you have playmakers?

  • I think we have some guys, that if we put them in position can do that… when the opportunity is there, we have guys that can create explosive plays.