Fences mended? Jeremy Pruitt on Quart’e Sapp: ‘Everybody makes mistakes’
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Coming off a humbling 47-21 defeat at the hands of Florida, Jeremy Pruitt and his Tennessee program are facing a significant climb just to become relevant in league play. The Tennessee coach met with the media for his weekly press conference from the Ray & Lucy Hand Digital Studio on Monday.
The first question posed to Pruitt regarded his linebacker Quart’e Sapp, who was asked to leave the field by the Volunteer coach after refusing to go in — according to Pruitt. In response, Sapp issued a statement on Sunday indicating he did not refuse to go in and still wants to remain a member of the team.
Here’s the latest on the situation from Pruitt.
“Well, it’s like I said after the game, Quart’e’s been a great ambassador for our program,” Pruitt said on Monday. “He came and saw me yesterday and it’s like I told y’all after the game, once me and him sat down and talked, it would be between us — we’ll keep it in-house. I will say this, I said it the other night, and I said it to our players, since I’ve been here, he’s been a really good ambassador to our football program, to our team and has been a good leader to our team.
“One mistake don’t… Everybody makes mistakes, so we are going to move on from there.”
Pruitt was then asked a follow-up on Sapp’s status with the team.
“Yeah, we sat down and talked yesterday and here’s the thing guys. I’ve coached at a lot of places, and I’ve seen things like this happen before,” he continued. “I’ve seen guys not show up to practice on Tuesday, I’ve seen guys not show up to practice on Wednesday and when you are dealing with 18- to 22-year-olds, there’s a lot of things going on. Things happen, again, Quart’e has been nothing but a great ambassador for our program and a really good student and a really good leader for our team.”
While he didn’t quite confirm that Sapp was still and active member of the team, based on those comments, it would appear Tennessee is keeping the linebacker active and available heading into next weekend’s game at Georgia.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
