Jeremy Pruitt might be taking Tennessee football back to the future. If so, he’s off to a good start with two tried and true Volunteer trademarks — win games in November and crush Kentucky.

On Saturday, the Vols knocked off the visiting Wildcats 24-7.

The Vols were a 4.5-point underdog to Kentucky despite having not lost to the Wildcats in Knoxville since 1984. In a second quarter that saw Tennessee score 14 points while Kentucky gained a single yard, Tennessee football began to look a lot like it used to.

Meanwhile, Kentucky’s season to remember became a season to forget in Knoxville.

After an early season that sparked plenty of firsts and “since then” kind of conversations, Kentucky has had seven days to forget. The team that was getting traction as the potential SEC East winner last Saturday morning is now licking its wounds. A week after being thumped by Georgia, UK got its clock cleaned by the Vols.

After the teams traded empty possessions to open the game, Tennessee drove the ball to the Kentucky 2-yard line before settling for a 19-yard Brent Cimaglia field goal with 5:02 to go in the first quarter. Kentucky responded with its best drive of the half, but missed a 51-yard field goal wide right.

The game remained 3-0 through most of the first half, but UT took a six-play, 81-yard drive into the end zone on a 3-yard Tim Jordan run with 2:05 remaining in the half.

Kentucky then went three and out, punted, and watched the Vols move down to the UK 39 on the final play of the first half. Tennessee promptly threw a pass into the end zone, which Marquez Callaway caught for a touchdown, increasing UT’s lead to 17-0.

Tennessee scored on its second possession of the third quarter, finishing an 85-yard drive with a 2-yard pass from Jarrett Guarantano to Dominick Wood-Anderson. Guarantano continued his recent streak of solid play, setting a program record for most consecutive pass attempts without an interception late in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, Kentucky struggled greatly on offense, taking until late in the third quarter to crack 100 total yards for the game. The Wildcats finally ended the shutout on a 19-yard pass from Terry Wilson to C.J. Conrad with 1:56 to play in the third quarter.

Tennessee moved to 5-5 on the season and will need a win next week at home against Missouri or the following week at Vanderbilt to achieve bowl eligibility. Considering the obstacles that Pruitt has faced in his first season in Knoxville, that would be an impressive feat.

Kentucky will finish its season at home against Middle Tennessee and then against Louisville. That Louisville game might be particularly interesting, as the Kentucky offense seems incapable of scoring and the Louisville defense equally hopeless at stopping anyone.

Something will have to give.

Meanwhile, the Tennessee loss devastated Kentucky’s hopes of a New Year’s 6 bowl appearance.