KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The accolades are rolling in for Tennessee football after Saturday's 41-21 win over South Carolina. For the first time in 25 years the Vols have won both the SEC offensive and defensive player of the week awards.
Jauan Jennings shared the offensive award with Kentucky's Lynn Bowden Jr. (a wide receiver who has played quarterback the last three weeks). Jennings reeled in seven catches for 174 yards and two touchdowns, becoming the first Vol since Donte Stallworth in 2001 to have more than 150 receiving yards and at least two touchdowns in an SEC game.
"It goes to show you that when you get second chances, sometimes people make the most of them, and Jauan Jennings has made the most of his chances here this second time around," head coach Jeremy Pruitt said at his Monday press conference.
Jennings was dismissed from the program in November 2017 after he went on a profanity-laced rant on instagram live, ripping the previous coaching staff. That happened a couple of weeks after Butch Jones was fired, while Brady Hoke was the interim head coach and John Currie was the athletic director.
"I didn’t know anything about Jauan Jennings. I knew him as an opposing player on another team. When I got the job, there were some details about what all happened here, and I asked a lot of people in the building what they thought, and most of them that said they wouldn’t let him come back, they don’t work here anymore. The people that said to let him come back; they all work here. When you start talking to the players that played on the team, the Trey Smiths, the Daniel Bitulis, and they say, ‘Coach, we want this guy on our team.’ So, I knew enough about those guys in recruiting to know that they knew what was right and what was wrong, so then we gave him an opportunity, we set out some things there that we required him to do, and he’s done everything that we’ve asked him to do," Pruitt said.
"To me, that’s old news. The news now is, what a leader, what an ambassador he’s been for the university. He’s getting his degree, the passion that he plays with on Saturdays, the toughness, and I’ve seen it every day at practice. What you all see on Saturdays is what we see every day so we need a team full of Jauan’s. He’s helping to shape a lot of other guys on our football team by how he goes about his business, how he competes, because it’s contagious. It’s great having him here, and I’m thankful that I’ve had a chance to coach him for the last two years,” Pruitt said.
Jennings has at least one reception in every game since Pruitt took over as head coach, pulling in 72 catches for 1,090 yards and ten touchdowns. He is now in the top ten in program history in each of those three statistics.
Linebacker Daniel Bituli was named co-defensive player of the week with LSU's JaCoby Stevens. Both players went to high school in Middle Tennessee, along with Jennings. Bituli recorded 15 tackles and blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown.
“We were in punt safe. We did have Bituli firing on that and they didn’t block him, so if they don’t block you it’s not unusual to get a block in that situation. It’s happened before. I’ve coached on a team and seen it happen where we gave up a blocked punt because we were in punt safe and they rushed four guys and somebody relaxes and thinks they’re not going to rush, but then a guy runs back there and blocks the kick. In fact, the last time that happened, Bill Clark was the coach on the other team in the 2006 (Alabama high school) state championship game and we ended up losing the game by one score. It’s funny how you don’t forget that stuff. But, I’ve seen it happen and it happened Saturday. We had guys like Greg Emerson get good push in there and Aubrey Solomon did what he was supposed to do. They had enough guys in there to block us, but somebody made a mistake,” Pruitt said of the blocked punt.
The Bill Clark that Pruitt mentioned is now the head coach at UAB, Tennessee's next opponent.
The last time Tennessee won both the offensive and defensive player of the week awards in the same week was in 1994 when running back James Stewart and defensive end Ben Talley did it.
Redshirt senior center Brandon Kennedy was named the SEC offensive lineman of the week.
The Vols 20-point win over South Carolina was the largest margin of victory for Tennessee in the series since 1999.