JACKSONVILLE – Jeremy Pruitt capped off his second season as Tennessee’s head coach with a 23-22 victory over Indiana in the 2020 TaxSlayer Gator Bowl.
The Vols finished the 2019 season with six consecutive wins as Pruitt continues to build Tennessee’s program back to a championship level.
Following the Gator Bowl, Pruitt discussed the Vols’ 2019 seniors and how they will be remembered.
“I think everybody that’s been coming to the games, they see what kind of football players these guys are,” Pruitt said if the seniors. “These guys all had phenomenal years. What I like to say is what I think about them as people. When you talk about trusting somebody, these guys are easy to trust because they’re dependable. You can count on them. They have character. They represent the university and themselves, their family in the right way. They’re really, really good football players, and we’re going to miss them, you know, and these guys are going to have an opportunity to play some more football, and I hope they get to play for a long time.
“But I’ll never forget them. I’ll never forget them because they hung in there when they didn’t have to. They hung in there when it wasn’t easy to do, which says a whole lot about them.”