Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt greets fans during the Vol Walk before Saturday's home game against Florida.KNOXVILLE - Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt said he asked Quart'e Sapp to leave the sideline Saturday night at Neyland Stadium "because he wouldn't go into the game when he was asked to go in."
Pruitt said the redshirt junior linebacker has been "a really good ambassador to our program" but refused to enter the Volunteers' 47-21 home loss to Florida. Sapp was Tennessee's fourth-leading tackler last season with 75 stops and began the 2018 season as part of the inside linebacker rotation.
"I don't know how things were done before, but when you tell somebody to go in and they refuse to go in, we're not going to do that around here," Pruitt said during his postgame news conference. "So I asked him to leave. He didn't do that on his own. I asked him to leave."
Jeremy Pruitt’s remarks on the Quart’e Sapp situation: pic.twitter.com/WWF9KHUGY6
— David Cobb (@DavidWCobb) September 23, 2018
Pruitt, who is in his first season as coach, did not elaborate on Sapp's future with the program after the game.
"I don't think right now is the time to discuss that," Pruitt said. "But there's no secrets. I mean, it is what is."
Sapp released a statement through Twitter on Sunday morning that read, in part: "I never was asked nor did I ever refuse to go into the game. There was a sideline confrontation (I'm sure will be resolved internally) that occurred and the other party involved had to be restrained. VolNation, I will continue to be fully committed and giving 'My All On For Tennessee' on and off the field."
— Quart'e Sapp (@Dedicated_2Work) September 23, 2018
Sapp made three tackles in Tennessee's season-opening loss to West Virginia but did not record any stats in Tennessee's second and third games. Pruitt said after Sapp did not play in the Vols' 24-0 victory over the University of Texas at El Paso on Sept. 15 that Sapp bruised a bone the week before.
"He probably could've played today," Pruitt said then. "It is the best he's been all week. Based off of the way that (linebackers) Will Ignont and Shanon Reid have practiced this week, we wanted to give those guys a chance, and we felt it would give us an opportunity to make sure we could get Quart'e back."
Ignont, a sophomore, rotated with starting inside linebackers Daniel Bituli and Darrin Kirkland Jr. against Florida. Pruitt appeared frustrated by a conversation with Ignont before kicking a white board on the sideline in the second quarter after Tennessee fell behind 23-3.
Sapp was one of the few players Pruitt permitted to speak with reporters during preseason practices. The former Milton High School standout from the Atlanta area began the 2017 season third on the depth chart at outside linebacker.
When injuries besieged Tennessee's defense, he finally got a chance to shine after battling injuries of his own throughout his first 2 1/2 years in the program. Sapp recorded 10 or more tackles in three Southeastern Conference games last year.
The Vols (2-2, 0-1) visit second-ranked Georgia (4-0, 2-0) this Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff.
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.