Jeremy Pruitt previews Missouri week

Jeremy Pruitt previews Missouri week.

KNOXVILLE — No. 20 Tennessee (1-0, 1-0 SEC) will host Missouri (0-1, 0-1 SEC) in Week 2 at Neyland Stadium.

Kick off is slated for noon EDT and the contest will be televised by SEC Network.

Ahead of the matchup, Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt opened game week and discussed preparing for Missouri. The Tigers hired Eliah Drinkwitz as its head coach during the offseason. Missouri lost to Alabama, 38-19, in Week 1.

Both Tennessee and Missouri played night games in Week 1, as the Vols were victorious at South Carolina, 31-27. Pruitt discussed if he had a chance to watch Missouri’s first game against Alabama since playing South Carolina.

“When we play late games like we did on Saturday night, when we get back it is probably three or four in the morning for our players,” Pruitt said. “We really focused yesterday on cleaning up the last game, making sure that we get all the corrections done from that game trying to fix ourselves before we try working on an opponent.

“We recruited the rest of the night — we had a walkthrough last night. We are taking today off with our players and we will really focus on the rest of our game plan today.”

Sep 26, 2020; Columbia, South Carolina, USA; Tennessee Volunteers head coach Jeremy Pruitt celebrates after a touchdown against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Williams-Brice Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports

Pruitt discussed what stood out to him with his team after re-watching the South Carolina game.

“I didn’t realize how poor we were during third down, offensively,” he said. “There were probably three offensive possessions that we had which could have given us the chance to end the game or put some distance between us and them, that we didn’t do when we had good field position. We’ve got to do a better job of closing out.

“Defensively, we have to get more turnovers. We got one turnover during the game. The ball was on the ground with a minute before the half. We had a chance to recover a fumble which would have been huge, and we didn’t.”

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