Redshirt sophomore quarterback J.T. Shrout appeared in his second game of the 2020 season Saturday against Florida.
Shrout was 12-of-14 for 121 yards and one touchdown in Tennessee’s 31-19 loss to the Gators. His other appearance this season came against Kentucky, going 0-for-1 and one interception.
Following the Florida game, third-year Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt discussed why Shrout has not received more opportunities to play this season.
“After the Kentucky game, we’ve had those Sunday night scrimmages, or what we call opportunity periods after practice,” Pruitt said. “We’ve continued to do that up until the last couple of weeks. We’ve not done it the last couple of years. Based on that, we felt like there was a time that we wanted to go with those guys.
“It kind of came back around to J.T. It happens that way sometimes. I think he’s taken advantage of the opportunities that he’s had. The last 10 days were really good for him. Unfortunately, it looked like he hurt his arm a little bit, but he played okay with it today.”
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Freshman quarterback Harrison Bailey started for Tennessee against Florida.
Pruitt detailed the Vols’ game plan with Bailey and Shrout leading up to playing Florida.
“J.T. really had two weeks of really good practice, and then on Wednesday, he was throwing a ball and then his shoulder popped,” Pruitt said. “We didn’t really even know if he could play going into today, but he felt like he could. We had a plan to play both of the guys going in if J.T. could. We went with Harrison to start and were rocking along okay. I know we didn’t create a ton of explosive plays, but we were kind of changing the momentum of the game there and then gave up a drive right before halftime.
“As the game went in the second half, there were a couple plays that I thought maybe we could have been a little more aggressive on. J.T. is, from an experience standpoint, two years older than Harrison, so just getting him out there and going, I thought he did a nice job at the end.”
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