It’s Vanderbilt Week on Rocky Top and this year’s game holds more significance than any matchup between the two in-state rivals in many years as both programs are fighting for the right to go to a bowl game. A win and they are in, a loss and they will be spending the holidays at home.

Looking ahead to his team’s trip to Nashville, Jeremy Pruitt met with the media on Monday to discuss the final SEC game of the season for the Volunteers.

Here are the highlights of what Pruitt had to say:

  • on Vanderbilt game: This is a very important game for people in this state.
  • We need to find a way to improve our team this week, tackle better and make explosive plays.
  • on Emmitt Gooden: I think he played as well as anyone on the defensive side of the ball. Emmitt played as good as anyone we had on Saturday.
  • on Ty Chandler not getting the ball as a receiver lately: Well, he hasn’t gotten a ton of snaps. What we was doing two weeks ago was working…
  • on Jarrett Guarantano and Marquez Callaway: He will be day-to-day this week, the same for Callaway.
  • on the run game running into heavy boxes: We have to take advantage of everything that’s given to us and we haven’t done a good job of doing that this year.
  • on defending Mizzou’s run game: When they got fitted up on us, we didn’t get off of them. If you are going to be good defensively, that’s what you are looking for. You have to get off your blocks and we didn’t do that Saturday.
  • on head injuries, what is his protocol: I’m not a doctor so I have confidence in our medical staff, they’ve done a great job since I’ve been here. But you are probably asking the wrong guy about that.
  • on defending RPOs: when I was a high school coach, my team was doing them then. We’ve been around them a long time, played them pretty well.
  • on Callaway’s injury: He will be in a black (no-contact) jersey. He has a bruise to his chest. He is a tough guy, he’ll be out there and ready to go.
  • on what he’s thankful for, given the Thanksgiving week: My family, the opportunity I have here at Tennessee. Our players, our staff.
  • on big game coaching: I talked about it with our staff this morning, this is the first time that I wasn’t coaching for Playoff or championships. We have been played for pride. You can talk about playing for championships all you want but playing for pride is as big as it gets.