CHARLOTTE, N.C. – For those who tend to overreact to such things, who insist on basing their entire opinion concerning the future of Tennessee football under new coach Jeremy Pruitt on a single game, the final score against West Virginia on Saturday was a wee bit worse than Las Vegas had projected.
Predicted to lose by 10.5 points, Tennessee instead fell by 26 as the 17th-ranked Mountaineers won 40-14.
For a coach who has built his considerable reputation on defense – as Pruitt long had as an assistant – losing his first- game as a head coach by that margin probably stung more than it might have if the Volunteers had lost by 7-6 or 10-7. Making matters worse, West Virginia amassed 541 total yards and 26 first downs in addition to all those points.
Noted Pruitt afterward, his voice rather unemotional but his words filled with frustration: “They played 60 minutes. We played 30.”
In some ways, this rather defenseless defensive performance even had to call to mind the previous defensive coordinator the Vols lured away from Alabama. Some guy named Sal Sunseri.