Jeremy Pruitt may have unintentionally given Georgia football some bulletin board material.
Jeremy Pruitt is excited about his team, but he’s got a big challenger waiting for him next week.
The Tennessee Volunteers are 2-0 on the season with wins over the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Missouri Tigers. Though those are two games they should have won anyway, Tennessee seems to have a good thing going with its ground-centric attack offensively. However, Pruitt may have given the slightest of slights to Kirby Smart‘s Georgia Bulldogs heading into Week 6.
“The last two years we’ve played them, they’ve had a really good football team,” said Pruitt. “I’ve not even watched them, but I’m sure they’ll have a really good football team this year. They’ve got good players, they got good coaches. But we do, too. That’s why I came to Tennessee, that’s why these players came to Tennessee, is to play in a game like this, so we’re looking forward to it.”
Jeremy Pruitt should know Georgia is better than South Carolina or Missouri
Though the Dawgs still have a tough Week 5 opponent to wrangle in the cross-divisional Auburn Tigers, Georgia will be favored over the Vols, regardless of what happens Between the Hedges on Saturday night in primetime. A top-seven team will suffer its first defeat of the season, and Tennessee still has to play both of these SEC juggernauts before the end of the year.
Tennessee may have the longest active winning streak in the SEC, but the Vols haven’t taken care of business vs. their three biggest rivals of late in Alabama, Florida and Georgia. The Dawgs have won the SEC East each of the last three years and haven’t suffered a defeat to the Vols over that span. Pruitt and offensive coordinator Jim Chaney have been Georgia coaches in the last five years.
Georgia may have its issues in the passing game, as the Dawgs needed to go to Stetson Bennett IV late in the first half to avoid an embarrassing road upset at the Arkansas Razorbacks. However, “The Mailman” delivered on Saturday en route to what eventually became a lopsided victory for the Dawgs over the Hogs. Pruitt must know Georgia has arguably the best defense in the Power 5.
Being able to pound the rock with Ty Chandler and Eric Gray over a rebuilding Mizzou team is one thing, but they’re both not going to go off like this did against the Tigers vs. the Dawgs next week in Athens. Smart will force Jarrett Guarantano to beat his elite secondary with his arm, and that’s not exactly a recipe for success with the erratic quarterback of the Volunteers.
If Georgia gets past Auburn and Smart sees this quote from Pruitt, good luck with that, Rocky Top.
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