Jeremy Pruitt comments on Tennessee’s QB shuffling following win over Vanderbilt
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Tennessee’s nightmare losing streak is over as the Vols went on the road and dominated Vanderbilt 42-17 on Saturday.
With the win, Tennessee snapped a six-game losing streak and improved to 3-6 on the season.
True freshman signal-caller Harrison Bailey got his second consecutive start of his career in this game but was replaced in the game by JT Shrout after a turnover near the goal line. Bailey had completed all seven of his passes when he was replaced.
Bailey finished the game completing 14 of 18 passes with 207 passing yards and two touchdowns. His lone turnover came on a fumble. Shrout finished six of 13 for 90 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.
Following the game, the first question Jeremy Pruitt received had to do with Tennessee’s shuffling of the QBs against Vanderbilt:
“We kind of went with a feel for it there. Let me tell you, Harrison is not gonna do anything but improve, right? The fumble there, lots of things that he needs to work on, it’s not knowing what to do, where to go with a ball, it’s how fast that he plays. And that’s normal for a guy that’s going into this league.
“We had a plan to play JT because he’s played really well last week and just to see where what he would this week. We thought he did well. We decided to go back with Harrison at halftime and gave them both opportunities.”
Pruitt on what’s changed to give Harrison and JT nearly all the reps at QB:
“Well, for Harrison, it’s just opportunity. Based off the circumstances of our fall camp, I mean, he got no chances. Nothing he had control over so we wouldn’t want to put him in a situation where he didn’t have a chance to have success.
“JT did get a lot of opportunities in fall camp. He didn’t already have the same circumstance. But with the extra practices and the extra reps and having these two or three off weeks during the season has given both of them an opportunity. So, I mean, it’s hard to hard to go play and play at a high level, at quarterback, if you don’t get a chance to take a lot of reps.”
Pruitt on Bryce Thompson’s pick-six interception: (Tennessee was losing 10-7 prior to the play and the Vols scored 28 consecutive points starting with Thompson’s big play.)
“First off, Bryce pulled his hamstring last week and that’s happened to a couple of guys to stop start part of it, so that’s why don’t we played on third down. I thought it was a really good call by Coach Ansley there. We got pressure, quarterback got out of the pocket, we had the next guy that was there. Bryce made a great play and there was two or three blocks there. That helped him get in the endzone.”
Pruitt on how important this win for him and his future at Tennessee:
“Well, the wins and losses are really, the losses are about me, and the wins are about the players. I didn’t play any play tonight. These guys went out there, worked hard, they worked hard all week. It’s good to see them get a chance to be on top.
“I thought our coaches have done a really nice job keeping them kind of moving in the right direction. We’ve got a really young team. These guys, the way they practice and compete, they’re going to, they’re going to continue to improve.
“Nobody wants this to be their last game at Tennessee, I’m talking about players, they want to play, they want to play for a long time so as long as we keep having games, it gives them an opportunity to improve as a football player.”
Next week, Tennessee is scheduled to finish the season at home against No. 5 Texas A&M.
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
