Saturday’s win at Auburn was a big one for Jeremy Pruitt on multiple levels. The Alabama native, former player and longtime Crimson Tide coach surely has a healthy dislike of the team in orange and blue. Just because he’s Tennessee’s coach now doesn’t mean he’s let that go.

If you need proof, you need not look much further than at the Tennessee coach’s post-game comments on the first SEC win of his head coaching career — in a 30-24 win on The Plains. While acknowledging every conference win on the road is tough to acquire, Pruitt smiled when he delivered this comment.

“Well, I’ll tell you what, it’s always fun to beat Auburn. Especially to beat them at Auburn,” Pruitt said.

One of the keys to Tennessee’s win was the play of quarterback Jarrett Guarantano. The Tennessee QB finished the game with his first 300-yard performance of his career and he completed eight of 14 passes for 232 yards and both scores on passes targeted 10 or more yards past the line of scrimmage. Guarantano also completed 11 of 14 passes on third downs.

The breakout performance came after offensive coordinator Tyson Helton moved from the press box to the field for the first time this season. Pruitt noted that it is easier to call a game from up above but the staff felt the need to move Helton to the field for this game. The decision obviously paid off big time in this one.

“I think it’s easier to call the game from the press box, I do. My whole life I did in the press box calling the defense,” Pruitt said after the game. “But there comes a point in time when you have to look the people on the sideline in the eyes and you get a lot better feel. Sometimes you can look at somebody and they don’t have to say nothin’, you know the look.

“So I thought it was important to have him on the field, to get him closer to Jarrett. The quarterback position, the ball goes through his hands on every snap, so it’s important that he makes really good decisions. He’s in control, he understands and I think it’s something that helped us today. I think it helped us in sideline organization… I think it was a good move for our staff.”

Based on the results, it’s safe to assume Helton will be on the sideline more often, particularly when the team travels on the road.