Jeremy Pruitt 'ticked off' after UT Vols defense gets its tail kicked

Jeremy Pruitt walked into his press conference a little late and admittedly "ticked off" Tuesday evening.

At first, the first-year Tennessee football coach couldn’t fully peg the source of his displeasure after his team’s fourth spring practice – “an interesting day out there for me,” he said. He speculated it came from the way “the offense kicked the defense’s tail” or possibly the way the entire team practiced.

Then the longtime defensive coordinator nailed it down as part of the new experience of having to care about the success of both sides of the ball as a head coach.

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“I don’t know how much they whipped (the defense),” Pruitt said. “I just don’t like giving up plays. That’s probably the first thing for me. Everybody asks me what the difference is between being a head football coach. I’m always used to pulling just for one side. I think I’ve got to realize that sometimes the other side needs to win, too.

“I will have a little better understanding when I get in there and watch the tape and see exactly what happened.”

Pruitt is almost a third of the way through his first spring football campaign as the Tennessee coach.

He has talked about the plans for his first spring game, coming up with a practice plan based on the coaches he has worked under and the overall picture of the roster through the first 10 days of spring football.

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He said Saturday he is starting to like the team the Vols have, but he had a much different tone Tuesday.

“One thing I did notice was that we had a lot of guys that had two days off and did not respond the right way,” he said. “We have to fix that. We need to be having spring practice every day. I wish we had 30 of them so we could, but we only get 15. I’m not sure everyone took advantage of their opportunities. We will watch the tape and see if that’s right or not.”

Pruitt emphasized repeatedly the need to evaluate the film after Tuesday’s practice to properly analyze what took place. But when it came to the way the offense handled the defense, he already held an early belief as to what led to the defensive problems.

He knows the challenges that come with the heavy, rapid installation of new schemes on both sides of the ball. He thought there was a lack of carryover from the meeting room to the field defensively, which led to too many mental lapses.

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“Sometimes, you get beat because the other guy is better than you,” Pruitt said. “Sometimes, you get beat because you don’t execute the right way. If the other team beats us because they are better than us, that’s one thing. When you make mental errors, it’s another.

“We made a lot of mental errors out there (Tuesday). It was not very focused in the meetings. We did not take what we went over in the meetings onto the field. That probably contributed to some of it.”

Pruitt didn’t name any players who made big plays for Tennessee’s offense Tuesday. When asked specifics, he pointed to the ability for the skill players to make plays when the offensive line effectively does its job. He said the offense was more “on the same page” than the defense was, leading to the showing.

Pruitt, who three days earlier said the defense should be ahead of the offense at this point, said the two sides of the ball have been “pretty even.” But the Vols still are chasing a sense of consistency and getting “all 11 guys to do what they are supposed to do.”

“You try to create a standard, be detailed about what we want to get done and try and get the guys to do it over and over again,” Pruitt said. “Lot of our guys are trying to figure out exactly what the standard is. We’re improving and they’re willing, but we’ve got to continue to make strides, and we’re not good enough to go backwards during a day.”