Tennessee Vols morning report: Johnny Majors talks rebuild
The Tennessee Vols football team’s loss to the BYU Cougars and Johnny Majors discussing the rebuild lead our Volunteers news for Monday, Sept. 9, 2019.
It’s a very dark Monday for the Tennessee Vols. Another bad football loss over the weekend now has fans and media wondering just how bad this team can get. And quite frankly, it could get much worse if they aren’t careful.
Our morning update on Rocky Top is obviously going to lead with UT’s bad loss to the BYU Cougar to fall to 0-2 on the year. We’ll cover the postgame quotes from that matchup along with quotes from a former coach about rebuilding a program.
After that, though, we need to give some love to a few other sports that bring a bit more positive news. That includes volleyball, soccer, men’s tennis, and men’s and women’s golf. So there is plenty of weekend news to bring you, but let’s start with the football coverage.
Jeremy Pruitt addresses BYU loss – Grant Ramey, GoVols247
Tennessee Vols football coach Jeremy Pruitt spoke with the media after his team’s loss to the BYU Cougars. He criticized Jarrett Guarantano’s decision making and noted that it’s hard to see how they lost the game. Here’s a bit of what else he said.
"“Hey, we’ll go back. We’ll coach them up, get them where we understand situations better. We’ve got to execute. One thing I’ll say, there were some guys that were fighting out there on both sides of the ball. It was a helluva game. A competitive game. And we didn’t make the breaks there at the end.”"
Johnny Majors talk rebuilding – Dan Harralson, VolsWire.com
Former Tennessee football head coach Johnny Majors is no stranger to rebuilding projects. He was in a similar situation to Jeremy Pruitt back in 1977 when he took over UT. Recently, he discussed the nature of rebuilding football programs.
"Majors says “it was a tough decision to leave a great program we had at Pittsburgh,” but he returned to his alma mater that did not win any conference championships under the previous head coach Bill Battle (1970-76).“We struggled a couple of years”” Majors said of his head coaching tenure at Tennessee. “We needed talent and we were short on talent. I brought some of my coaches with me. It was a little more challenging than I thought it would be. We scrambled around and did some rebuilding.”"
Soccer beats Cincinnati – Ryan Schumpert, UT Daily Beacon
The Tennessee Lady Vols soccer team extended its winning streak to three games Sunday with a 3-1 win over the Cincinnati Bearcats. They have now moved to 5-1 on the year.
"Tennessee jumped on the Bearcats early, thanks to a fourth minute goal from Wrenne French. The goal came on a designed play off of a corner kick, senior midfielder Katie Cousins put a fantastic cross into the box and the junior defenseman finished it off with a header for her first career goal."
Tennis opens season in Champaign, Ill. – UT Daily Beacon
Pat Harper, Giles Hussey, Martim Prata and Adam Walton represented the Tennessee Vols men’s tennis team at the M15 Champaign Futures Tournament in Champaign, Ill. to open the season Sunday. Walton scored a two-set win over Lucas Horve of Illinois to advance to the second round.
"Prata earned a first-round bye as the fourth seed in the tournament and will face off against Joseph Rotheram of UC Santa Barbara. As for Walton, the Australian native is set to take on Stanford’s Neel Rajesh in the second round.Rajesh also earned a first-round bye as the No. 3-seed in the tournament."
Volleyball wins two of three at Spartan Invitational – UTSports
After dropping their first match to the Cincinnati Bearcats to fall to 0-3 on the year, the Tennessee women’s volleyball team rebounded with back to back wins. They first beat Miami (Ohio) in three sets Friday and then beat the Michigan State Spartans in five sets on Saturday.
"Over the last two matches, Tennessee has 21 service aces in eight sets played, which is 2.63 aces per set. Last season, the Lady Vols finished with 1.00 aces per set."
Women’s golf to open season at Cougar Classic – UTSports
On Monday, the No. 28 Tennessee Lady Vols golf team begins its season at the Cougar Classic in Charleston, S.C. They will be competing in a field of 18 teams, including five SEC teams.
"The Lady Vols are coming off their 14th appearance in the NCAA Championships and the 12th in the Judi Pavon era. Two players who were in the lineup at the NCAA Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas open up the 2019-2020 season in the lineup in senior Micheala Williams and sophomore Mikayla Bardwell."
Men’s golf finishes 9th at Carpet Capital – GolfStat.com
Rhys Nevin-Wharton tied for fourth place, and Spencer Cross tied for 15th place as the Tennessee Vols men’s golf team finished ninth place overall in the Carpet Capital Collegiate to open the season. UT shot 29-over par.