[jwplayer 7MVgGU4b]
JACKSONVILLE — Tennessee took part in its first bowl practice in Jacksonville, Fla.
The Vols will play Indiana Jan. 2 at 7 p.m. ET in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl.
“We had nine really good days before we came down, really before the Christmas break,” Jeremy Pruitt said. “We got a lot of work in, a lot of physical work in, so it was good for our guys.
“We kind of kept the practices short and had a lot of competition with the ones, twos, and threes. The guys responded the right way. We really spent the last two days working on Indiana. We’ve had good work there too.”
Pruitt also discussed the meaning of the contest against Indiana and the outcome of the matchup heading into the offseason.
“The last five games we have played really well,” the second-year UT head coach said. “Before that, we kind of started moving in the right direction. We want to finish. We are going to remember this game for a long time and we have some seniors on our team that have really worked hard to turn this program in the positive direction and we want to send these guys off the right way.”
Pruitt did mention that redshirt senior offensive lineman Brandon Kennedy is a game-time decision against the Hoosiers.
“He’s practiced a little bit the last couple of days,” Pruitt said of Kennedy. “We’ll see, it’ll really be a game-time decision.”
The Vols’ offensive line also saw Ryan Johnson and Marcus Tatum transfer this month as graduates.
“Those guys have done a good job for us – graduated and really good for our program,” Pruitt said. “It was an opportunity for them. They didn’t get to play as much as they wanted to play. They want to play.
“We had guys that had performed better this year, that gave us a better opportunity to have success and they understood that it’s part of football.”
Another element of Tennessee’s offensive line is junior Trey Smith and his future. Pruitt mentioned that the two have already discussed Smith’s future and will revisit it during the offseason.
“It’s something that we’ll sit down, when this game is over with and talk about again,” Pruitt concluded.