Tennessee football: Jeremy Pruitt gets emotional after Vols loss to Georgia

Tennessee football head coach Jeremy Pruitt got emotional after the Volunteers lost on the road 38-12 to the Georgia Bulldogs Saturday afternoon.

If you look on paper, Tennessee football is showing no signs of encouragement. The Vols are 2-3 on the year, 0-2 in the SEC and 0-3 against Power Five opponents, losing all three games by exactly 26 points.

However, they have been willing to fight and show consistent toughness in each game, not giving up. Jeremy Pruitt has been seeing that, and he consistently acknowledged it throughout each post-game press conference.

But on Saturday, the fiery head coach took it to another level. Pruitt may be very tough on his players in practice and in games, but he once again defended them to the public. He choked up while defending their fight on Saturday.

Now, Pruitt is right in that Tennessee football did not show this fight in their 40-14 loss to the West Virginia Mountaineers. But even in two straight blowout losses filled with mistakes, it is true that they haven’t quit in their first two SEC games.

Against the Florida Gators, after falling behind 33-3, the Vols fought back to make it 33-13 and 40-21. If the lack of depth on defense hadn’t cost them, they could have overcome those six turnovers in the game.

Then, against the Georgia Bulldogs this week, the Vols fell behind 24-0. The defense failed to recover four fumbles it forced, and the first was recovered and run in for a touchdown in a fluke play. So these guys had every reason to quit. But they fought back and made it 24-12 before, once again, the lack of depth on defense began to show.

The Vols should be excited about their future. Players keep chugging along, despite what they’re facing. And Pruitt deserves credit for motivating his guys to be able to do that. Going into the bye week, despite their 2-3 record, this is just the morale they need.