Tennessee got its first shutout win of the Jeremy Pruitt era on Saturday, beating UTEP 24-0 in Neyland Stadium but immediately after the game, the Volunteer coach could not take solace in the impressive performance of his defense — his mind was on how average the offense performed during the game.

The Volunteers were only up by 10 entering halftime but did come out and score almost immediately in the second half, thanks to an 81-yard run by Ty Chandler. Pruitt was asked how the offense came out and proved to be more efficient in the second half.

He didn’t appear to be in the mood to give many pats on the back.

“Well I don’t know, we had one play break free for 80 yards, and we put one drive together in the second half,” Pruitt said. “I give UTEP credit, they done a good job creating negative plays for us and we didn’t put a lot of plays together. Had one drive and one big play.”

Here’s what Pruitt had to say on Chandler, who proved to be the offense’s main spark on the day.

“Well, he broke that one long run, so he does have the speed to finish,” Pruitt noted.

It was a good showing for Chandler, who missed the ETSU game after leaving the season opener against West Virginia due to injury. Chandler rushed for 158 yards on only 12 carries and the one score. As a team, Tennessee rushed for over 300 yards in the game.

Finally, Pruitt was asked about Tennessee’s upcoming SEC slate. Based on his response, he is not prepared to look ahead to Florida just yet.

“Well, the focus is going to be like it always is — on Tennessee. We got enough to fix just between us before we start worrying about somebody else,” he noted.

If Tennessee is going to start off SEC play with a win over Florida next weekend, the offense will have to do its part against the Gators.