Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt met with the media on Thursday via Zoom to discuss a variety of topics in his football program. Topics from player dismissal, to black jersey’s, cultural awareness/education and more.
JORDAN GONE
As we noted in the war room last week, running back Tim Jordan is not a part of Pruitt’s program.
Pruitt confirmed that on Thursday announcing that Jordan will not be returning and is no longer a Vol.
Jordan was arrested in May in his home state of Florida on gun and marijuana charges. A year ago, Jordan was the Vols best pass protector from the running back position and he rushed for 428 yards on 104 carries. Pruitt said his running back room has plenty of depth to manage the loss of Jordan.
“We have plenty of guys that are very capable," Pruitt said. "Start with Ty Chandler, he is a guy that has played a lot of ball here. Eric Gray will be in his second year. Carlin Fils-aime is a guy that was a running back early on in his career, we moved him and he suffered an injury last year. He is a guy who has experience. Tee Hodge and Jabari Smalls and Len’Neth Whitehead, guys that we signed that are in here and working. We have guys there at that position that will get an opportunity. we have confidence in those guys.”
CULTURAL CHANGE/JERSEY CHANGES FOR KENTUCKY GAME
Tennessee wide receiver coach Tee Martin is heading a cultural committee in Pruitt’s program. A committee created for conversation and change as a result of everything that our country is dealing with.
“It’s been really good. It’s something Tee has done a fantastic job heading up getting our players involved and getting feedback,” Pruitt said. “Once he gets the feedback it’s us acting on it. We started today getting all of our players registered to vote. That’s a start. There’s lots of things when students get back on campus in terms of speakers we have planned to come in here.
“During the season one of the things we want to do is when we play the Kentucky game we want to wear black jersey’s and when the game is over with find a way to auction the jersey’s and raise money for Black Lives Matter. That’s one thing our kids have talked about. It’s something that’s going to continue to be stressed within our staff. With Tee’s leadership and the guys in our program, there are lots of really good ideas and ways we can help improve and use our platform for change.”
Pruitt marched in civil protest/awareness in downtown Knoxville earlier this month. Pruitt said the first thing he and his staff did when the players returned was to sit down and not just talk, but really listen.
“We started with really just sitting down with our team and really talking about it. Giving the floor to a lot of our players to share experiences so that everyone within our program would have a better understanding. From a communication standpoint, I think this is the first time in my lifetime that I can ever remember that with all the things that are going on not only with our country but from the entire world, there’s conversation about how to put measures in to create change. I absolutely want to be an advocate of that, support our players and use our platform at Tennessee to help create that.”
SOME PLAYERS TO RETURN IN JULY
Not every scholarship player is back with the team in Knoxville. Pruitt didn’t get specific on names, but acknowledged that some would not be back till July for a couple of reasons.
“We have a few guys who aren’t back yet. Some of it is circumstances of where they are located. Some of it because of Father’s Day. There was no reason to come back then turn around and go back home. Then we have a group of walk-ons that will come back to town in a couple of weeks. We will have the entirety of our team (120 players) here in July.”
NO POSITIVE TEST. MORE TESTING?
Pruitt reiterated on Thursday what he said a week ago which is that no player in his program has tested positive for COVID-19. Tennessee did have a graduate assistant test positive who has been quarantined for two weeks. When asked on Thursday if his program would test on a regular basis or only when someone presented with symptoms Pruitt was non-committal deferring to his medical staff.
“When it comes to testing all of that goes through Dr. (Chris) Klenck (team physician) and Jeronimo Boche (Sr. Associate Director of Sports Medicine) and all of our people on the medical side. I’m no expert when it comes to testing they are.”
