CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Some of Tennessee's freshman defensive backs received a baptism by fire against West Virginia's lethal passing attack on Saturday afternoon.

Yet Jeremy Pruitt remains undeterred in his confidence in those young players.

The Mountaineers and quarterback Will Grier picked on a couple of Tennessee's freshman defenders during West Virginia's third-quarter onslaught, and some of the more experienced players the Vols have in the secondary didn't play well either in the 40-14 season-opening loss at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.

Pruitt was unwavering in his confidence in the young trio of cornerbacks Alontae Taylor and Bryce Thompson and safety Trevon Flowers and took some of the blame for what went wrong after Grier torched the Vols for 429 yards and five touchdowns through the air.

"We played some young guys, and those guys deserved to play," Pruitt said. "They performed the best in fall camp. They've done some good things today, but there's lot of lessons that they got taught today, too, and that's part of football, that's part of growing up. I knew this would happen, but I also know in October, they're going to be a lot better. They've got to learn from it, they've got to grow up and I think they will, because they're made the right way.

"I've got to do a better job of coaching them, too. I put them in a couple of bad spots, and that's my fault. I'll help them out a little bit more the next time, hopefully."

Two plays early in the third quarter illustrated the mismatch West Virginia's receiving weapons presented for Tennessee's young secondary.

On third-and-7 on the third play of the third quarter, Grier threw a dart on a slant to Marcus Simms, who got inside leverage on Thompson before breaking free from Thompson's grasp to turn the short pass into a 32-yard gain.

David Sills got behind Flowers a play later for a 33-yard touchdown pass that extended West Virginia's lead to 20-7.

Tennessee linebacker Darrin Kirkland Jr. said the freshmen's teammates were trying to pick their spirits up on the sideline between series.

"Just tell them everything is a learning experience," Kirkland said. "I played as a true freshman, so things that you learn in your first game are definitely challenging to deal with emotionally, but you've got to build off those and continue to stay consistent in practice and in your technique."

Neither Baylen Buchanan nor Micah Abernathy had banner days either, the former fortunate West Virginia's receivers couldn't complete a couple of touchdown catches with him in coverage and the latter missing a tackle that turned an intermediate gain into a 59-yard touchdown for Alabama transfer TJ Simmons in the first quarter and failing to find the ball in the air on another deep pass in the second half.

Nigel Warrior also was a step behind Jennings when Grier dropped his best pass of the day over the top for a 28-yard touchdown that made it 27-7 midway through the third quarter.

Sills and Gary Jennings combined for 253 yards and three touchdowns on 13 catches and no one in Tennessee's secondary could cover them in the second half.

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TrevonFlowers

And on the occasions the Vols did have good coverage, Grier and those receivers simply made excellent plays, and Pruitt was especially impressed with West Virginia's quarterback.

"I'll tell you something about him that really impressed me," he said, "our offense kept the ball in the first half. I think we had like 20 minutes to their eight minutes in the first half, and I thought he'd done a really good job of not being impatient. He let the game come to him, which shows maturity, which shows that he's very well-coached, and when he got the looks that he was looking or, he took advantage of it, and he executed.

"Those guys have done a nice job and made a couple of really nice catches, great throws and nice catches into the right coverage.

"To answer your question," he added he's really good."

Pruitt thinks the same of Tennessee's three freshman defensive backs are as well, even after Saturday's bruising welcome to college football.