JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Tennessee Vols play in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl for the seventh time in program history on Thursday night. The official bowl press conference took place on Wednesday morning.
Head coach Jeremy Pruitt spoke to media members about Tennessee's season and their preparations for Thursday's game against Indiana.
Players Darrell Taylor, Marquez Callaway, Nigel Warrior, Daniel Bituli and Jauan Jennings spoke as well.
Here's what Pruitt had to say on Wednesday morning.
Vols respect what Indiana brings to the table:
The Indiana Hoosiers are in the midst of their best season of the 21st century. They finished the regular season 8-4 and earned a spot in the AP poll late in the season. It was the program's first time earning a top-25 ranking since 1994.
"They have kind of won some games a lot of different ways, but they have a very good imagination when it comes to their offensive philosophy," Pruitt said. "I think they have got big men up front who can lean on you when you run the football and they do a nice job protecting the quarterback."
The Hoosiers finished second in the Big Ten in yards per game, behind Ohio State.
"I think [Indiana head coach] Tom [Allen] and his staff have done a phenomenal job. When you look at them, you look at the body of work that they do. They are very well-coached. They are sound. When you talk about fundamentals, you know, these guys, just the ABCs, blocking, tackling, playing with effort, toughness, they do that all of the time, not some of the time," Pruitt said.
The Vols believed in themselves after slow start:
The Vols were 1-4 in early October. The ESPN football index gave Tennessee less than a 10 percent chance to make a bowl game. But, as we all know by now, the Vols won six of the remaining seven games and earned a bowl bid for the first time since 2016.
"It's easy to always point the finger to somebody else, and the men on our staff, the men on our team did not do that," Pruitt said about the locker room after the 1-4 start. "They figured out, how can each one of them improve specifically and that's something that we did and we stuck together..."
Pruitt defends Jauan Jennings:
Senior wide receiver Jauan Jennings is suspended for the first half of Thursday's game due to an incident that occurred in the regular season finale against Vanderbilt. After making a tackle, Jennings stepped on a Vanderbilt player's head while getting up. Fans speculated whether the action was intentional or accidental. Some Vanderbilt fans attacked Jennings's character on social media.
"Jauan Jennings has done nothing but do everything exactly the way we want him to since I've been the head coach at Tennessee. The guy's graduated, competed, been a great leader," Pruitt said in defense of the senior receiver. "[SEC] Commissioner [Greg] Sankey made a decision on that and we're going to support it and in no way does that depict who Jauan is or the circumstances around it."
The TaxSlayer Gator Bowl kicks off at 7 p.m. on ESPN on Thursday. Follow along on @Vol_Football's trip to the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl.