COLUMBIA — Tennessee opened the 2020 season with a 31-27 win at South Carolina.
Following the contest, third-year Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt met with media and discussed the Vols’ win.
“I’m tickled to death that we won,” Pruitt said on a Zoom call with reporters. “I want to really compliment the way South Carolina played, the way they competed. They never quit. It’s just the ball bounced our way a couple of times, and it’s a shame right now that, with what all these young men are going through, that there has to be a winner and a loser.”
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, 15,009 were in attendance at Williams-Brice Stadium.
In a 2020 campaign that has been altered by COVID-19, Pruitt discussed how it “was a win” for players to be able to compete after uncertainty hovered over the sport if a season could actually be played this fall.
“I’m glad that we got a chance to do that,” Pruitt said of playing Saturday. “I’m proud of our players. I’m proud of our staff, everybody in our organization.
“When you start thinking about what all these young men at every college has done since March, they go home, some of them were called back in June, some of them were called back in July, depending on the university. Maybe some of them were called back in August, but when they came back, they were facing something that we knew nothing about. The courage that it took for these young men to come back, not knowing what tomorrow holds, the faith that they’ve had in all the institutions that they represent.”
Tennessee will host Missouri in Week 2 at Neyland Stadium.
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