The Alabama Crimson Tide pounded Tennessee yet again Saturday 48-17 in Neyland Stadium.

Quarterback Mac Jones threw for 387 yards, while running back Najee Harris rushed for 96 yards and scored 3 touchdowns. Alabama rolled up 587 yards of total offense and held Tennessee to just 163 total yards.

Following the loss to Alabama, Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt discussed Saturday’s game with Alabama and how he believes the gap is closing between the Vols and Tide:

  • “With Alabama, offensively, their offensive line is really good and there is no doubt they came off and hit us with more thump than some teams we have played before and we didn’t get a lot of pressure on the quarterback. And a lot of that goes to play action trap passes, seven-man protection and we’ve got to win some one-on-ones there and do a better job covering them in the back end. Obviously very disappointed.”
  • “To be honest, they have been better than us. Plain and simple. If we were better than them and lost the games I would say that. They have been better than us. We’ve played with them in spurts, but from an execution, finishing standpoint, we have not been able to sustain and do that. When I look at our team, I really like our makeup. Got a lot of young guys that have the chance to be really good for us. And as they grow and develop, we’ll continue to close that gap.”
  • “As a fan and as a coach, no it shouldn’t. I promise you I don’t want it to be that way. For us to beat these guys today, we needed to play really clean football and have a couple of things to go our way. That’s the truth of the matter. I think a great indication of talent level when you look at your team is look and see who gets drafted. We have a lot of young guys on our team and we’ve got some older guys on our team that are continuing to improve. We have to execute at a higher level on both sides of the ball to give ourselves a chance. The last half of this season will be a great opportunity to see where we’re at as far as these guys doing that.”
  • “I was on the other sideline three years ago. You think I didn’t see that? I can assure you that the gap is closing. It might not show on the scoreboard today, but the gap is closing. I can assure you that. That’s one thing that is frustrating to me and it is frustrating to our players. There are times that we have done some really good things as a team, whether it is the offense playing really well or the defense playing really well or special teams. We’ve not put any of that together and that’s what elite teams in our conference do. They don’t have many bad plays and they don’t make many mistakes. They make the other team beat them. There have been times where we have done that this year, but we haven’t done it for a whole game, even the games we have won. This will be a great opportunity this next week to go back and see where we are at this point and where we have improved. From that we’ll have an opportunity to fix some things moving forward.”
  • “I was here three years ago when I walked in the room the first day. I know the people that are on their sideline and I know the people that are on our sideline. I think I’ve got a pretty good idea and have been around some pretty good football teams to know when I see one and know when one is getting closer.”