Brick By Brick: The Jeremy Pruitt Edition

Hell has frozen over. Somehow, some way, the Tennessee Vols won a conference game.

Despite being terrified to throw the football for most of the game (they only attempted 14 passes), they were able to run the ball for 190 yards and benefited from their best defensive performance of the season (3 interceptions, 7 sacks). They held SEC leading rusher Kylin Hill to 13 yards on 11 carries, and most importantly (and shockingly), scored the game-clinching touchdown on a 9 play, 91 yard drive, their best offensive series of the season.

I’m not going to overreact here now and start expecting Tennessee to run the table or anything, because let’s be honest, Mississippi State is not a good team, and this was a sloppy game. Brian Maurer threw two interceptions in the endzone, and when he left the game due to injury and was replaced by Guarantano, Jeremy Pruitt would’ve rather been lobotomized right there on the sidelines than let JG throw. Mississippi State was even worse; they’re really bad offensively if they can’t get the ground game going, and the Tennessee defense was more than happy to let Tommy Stevens and Garrett Shrader sit back and throw the ball right to them.

There are enough athletes on this Vol team for them to be 4-2, or at least have the capability of putting a quality product on the field every week. The only thing holding them back seems to be the lack of consistent quarterback play. There are still questions about the coaching staff (they’re still just 2-4 guys), but if the quarterback play was better today, Tennessee wins 34-10 and we feel even better now than we already do. Of course, if the quarterback play was good against Georgia State and BYU, they’re 4-2 and we’re thinking about a potential berth in January Bowl Game. Like I wrote yesterday, there’s a lot of pressure on incoming freshman Harrison Bailey to be the guy immediately for this team next year, because Jeremy Pruitt, even if this team rallies and gets to 6-6, will have a lot of pressure to win on him going into 2020. As in, he probably needs to go 8-4 to keep his job. Betting on Bailey being the guy as a true freshman is a lot to ask.

Regardless, today was a nice win. I’m happy I don’t have to come on here once again and rip everything about the program. I did have a little “uh oh” moment when Mississippi State scored to cut the score to 13-10. We’ve all seen Tennessee lose games like this a million times. You know, the ones where they have a double digit lead, but really could be up by more, and because they didn’t take advantage of their opportunities earlier in the game, the opposing squad scores twice late and wins. You could feel the energy in the stadium change when the Bulldogs scored that touchdown. I could feel the inevitable choke job coming. But then that 91 yard drive happened, completely unexpectedly honestly, particularly since, again, Pruitt would’ve rather swallowed a live grenade than let JG throw.

I can accept “Brick by Brick” if all the building eventually leads to Tennessee returning to prominence and living up to expectations. It still remains to be seen if that’s where this is going, but for today, we can celebrate the fact that the rest of our weekends aren’t ruined by another Tennessee meltdown.