The Tennessee Volunteers lost to the Arkansas Razorbacks Saturday night 24-13.
The Vols fell to 2-4 on the season, and the Hogs outscored the Vols 24-0 in the second half. It was another overall frustrating game for Pruitt, his coaching staff and the players, as the lack of halftime adjustments were evident.
Tennessee has now lost 4 games in a row after having the SEC’s longest winning streak entering the Georgia week earlier this season.
Following the loss to Arkansas, Jeremy Pruitt spoke to the media, and below is everything he said:
Opening Statement
“You know, when you look at this game, first of all you have to give credit to Arkansas. They really outplayed us in the second half. Outscored us. In fact, shut us out the second half. Not a very good job there. We have to do a much better job coming out at halftime. But if you look at this game, to me there are lots of things that we have to do, obviously, to correct. First thing is we have to play a lot cleaner game. That starts with me. Starts with the coaching staff.
“We didn’t play very good in the second half at times. Gave up a couple big plays defensively. Again, just, reverse in the first half. They bolted a guy and a guy crossed the middle right there. Again, in the first half. Sixteen (Treylon Burks) catches the ball down the sideline on a busted play, when they had all day because we don’t rush. Our outside backer doesn’t rush there. So the quarterback held the ball for a long time. But you should still should be able to match the patterns there. Gave up a nine ball when we got a guy double covered. We got to play better technique. So I thought defensively, even though those things happened, I thought the kids fought, trying to finish. There are four balls on the ground, we get zero of them.
“Then offensively, just first half, we just controlled the ball, knocking them off. But there’s two or three plays in the first half where we don’t do very well on first down. Whether it’s not blocking the right guy or not finishing on the right guy, where we end up having to kick field goals. Where if we just stay on the guy, we got a chance to end up with 21 points instead of 13. So you have to score touchdowns when you get down there close. And we didn’t do that.
“Second half, obviously Jarrett (Guarantano) got hurt, wasn’t able to finish the game. And just didn’t get nothing going there (on offense).”
On not kicking the field goal while down 11 in the 4th quarter
“We wasn’t close enough, didn’t feel like. So we felt like we had a good play there. We just didn’t get it done.”
On Jarrett Guaratanto’s health
“The doctors just said he’s out of the game. So we’ll obviously see that over the next couple days.”
On replacing Brian Maurer with Harrison Bailey
“Brian came in and Brian ran around a little bit, but couldn’t get nothing going there. So we went with Harrison there.”
On getting outscored in the third quarter
“Just looking back, obviously when you have an off week you have a lot of quality control, right? Just trying to figure out. You know, it seems to me we’ve had more penalties in the third quarter. We’ve had more turnovers in the third quarter. That’s from an offensive standpoint. And tonight we got a penalty the first time we got the ball, that puts us in I believe it was second-and-15 or second-and-210, one of those two. Then we punt the ball, it’s a fourth-and-4 or fourth-and-5. We made up the yards to gain (before the penalty), but we just can’t shoot ourselves in the foot there. We’ve done that several times. It was a motion penalty. That’s one of the big things. Tonight you look at it, defensively, I mean just two explosive plays throwing the ball. They did put together a really good drive there to start the third quarter there, running some hat plays, getting the tight end inside on our backers there. So we’ll have to go back and look at it and fix it.”
Worried about a mental carryover from another loss?
“I don’t think so. I think one thing that our players know is — we have a lot of smart guys, right? — when we make mistakes, they can recognize it. They know what it takes to execute. We’ve done it at times pretty good. But we’ve not done it consistently the entire year. That’s obviously something that we’ve got to get to if we’re going to be able to beat guys in our league.”
On Alontae Taylor’s status
“Alontae’s been hurt, pretty much the entire year. He hurt his hamstring back in fall camp and he’s worked really hard, I know he’s frustrated trying to get to where he can play full speed.”
On where the team is mentally right now after losing 4 in a row
“Well, you know, I just talked to him and I told them, ‘I’m not discouraged, I’m not disappointed with with where we’re at, I’m pissed off, where we’re at, obviously.’ But it’s just like I told the players, I’ve been a part of really good programs I know how to get there. We have to learn to play at a higher level on Saturdays.”
Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.
