Tennessee football: Referees, no clarity on quarterback lead Vols Monday media session

As he spoke to the media on Monday, Tennessee football head coach Jeremy Pruitt had no updates on the Volunteers quarterback situation.

Following a 35-13 loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide, Tennessee football now has a 2-5 record and 1-3 SEC record. The Vols also have to prepare for the South Carolina Gamecock heading into Knoxville this Saturday.

Ahead of the game, Jeremy Pruitt met with the media Monday. He hit all the notable talking points, with a little help from questioning, that Vol Nation was curious about. And while trying to be diplomatic, controversial topics were still discussed.

Most of those included recaps of what happened against Alabama, and yes, there were plenty of things to discuss there. Here are some of the biggest takeaways from what Pruitt said at Tennessee football’s Monday media session. You can watch the full press conference by clicking on the video above.

Officiating is still a sore subject.

Jeremy Pruitt as as diplomatic as he could be. He said all the right things, including expressing his support for Steve Shaw and the staff, and he noted that there were some calls in the game that he thought were bad but then realized were right after seeing them on film. One call he defended was the targeting call that got Daniel Bituli ejected, although he also defended Bituli.

However, he also hit the inconsistency of them calling targeting on Bituli but ignoring other times he thought targeting could have been called. And he brought up the holding penalties and ineligible receiver downfield when Tennessee football was in the red zone, noting that holding can be called every play and the ineligible receiver penalty can be called on every run-pass-option play.

Pruitt ignored the inadvertent whistle when the Vols were in the wildcat, but he kept noting calls that came on a few “critical plays” in the game. The most notable one that he brought up was the unnecessary roughness on Darrell Taylor that came after the Vols got a third down stop down only 21-13.

“The call on Darrell Taylor was absolutely not a penalty,” he said, noting they would have punted if it were not made.

Quarterback situation is still in limbo.

After being knocked out of Saturday’s game for the second straight week, Jeremy Pruitt had no update on Brian Maurer Monday. He noted that they expected to know something later in the week, though.

“I trust our medical staff,” he said. “There the ones that make decisions on things like that.”

More from Vols Football

• How to Win a GUARANTEED $200 Bonus Betting Just $5 on the Vols vs. Florida!
• Tennessee Football at Florida: Five Keys to a Vols Victory
• Week 3 SEC Power Rankings: Did Tennessee Football’s Win Help At All?
• Week 3 AP Polls: Why Did Tennessee Football Drop in the Polls?
• Tennessee Football: Top Five Performers in 30-13 Win vs. Austin Peay

Without Maurer, Pruitt said there is open competition to start at quarterback for Tennessee football between Jarrett Guarantano and J.T. Shrout. So the status of the whole situation is in limbo at the moment.

“We’ll get the other guys ready to play,” he said, noting that it is no different than they’ve done all year.

Mistakes are still too common.

One of the things that opened the competition up between Jarrett Guarantano and J.T. Shrout is the fumble Guarantano had on the quarterback sneak that was returned 100 yards for a touchdown, turning a potentially 28-20 game in the fourth quarter at Alabama into a 35-13 game. We all saw Jeremy Pruitt come down on Guarantano for that.

However, as he noted, that’s not the only mistake that was made in the game. Pruitt also hammered mistakes like not being in the right formation defensively, and while these things are subtracting in numbers, they continue to be big issues. Pruitt said they have to cut down on all of those issues.

“There’s lots of mistakes that were made in that game,” he said. “I made more than anybody on our sideline.”

Trenches are improving dramatically.

We all saw it, and so has Jeremy Pruitt apparently. Tennessee football is getting much better on the offensive and defensive line. Pruitt said it’s the best the o-line has played all year, and he touted the drive they had that ended in Jarrett Guarantano’s fumble.

“On that drive, our offensive line took the game over, and that was good to see,” he said.

Pruitt noted that just more experience is the reason for improvement. On offense, injuries to Jahmir Johnson and Riley Locklear combined with Trey Smith and Brandon Kennedy coming back slowed the development. Meanwhile, the defensive line just had too many new players who never played for UT before this year, including Aubrey Solomon, Greg Emerson and Darel Middleton.

“They’re going to get better the more they play,” he said of the defensive line. “It goes back to how hard they worked in practice.”

South Carolina will test the Vols’ development.

As Tennessee football gets set to host the South Carolina Gamecocks this weekend, Jeremy Pruitt noted its the fourth straight game the Vols have against a physical team. And while UT develops in the trenches while trying to cut down on turnovers, Pruitt noted that Will Muschamp’s team knows how to exploit all of that.

“You can count on Coach Muschamp’s defense to be physical, to be tough, to be sound,” he said. “They play in your face, lots of man-to-man.”

Pruitt noted that Muschamp’s team is physical, forces turnovers, and may be the best defensive line the Vols have faced all year. So while they try to fix what happened at Alabama, there are plenty of things for them to work on to prepare for South Carolina. And as he insisted in the presser, they have to move forward, so that has to be their focus.