Pruitt offers intriguing message on roster number, freshmen who will play Week 1 vs. South Carolina
Take a deep breath, Vol fans.
Game week is finally here, which means Tennessee football is almost back.
With a loaded freshman class, one might expect that the Vols will see several new faces on the field at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday.
But according to coach Jeremy Pruitt, that might not be the case.
Pruitt held his first game week press conference of 2020 on Monday, and he took plenty of time to address the Vols' wide array of young talent.
"The thing with freshmen is that you don't want to put unrealistic expectations on them. There will be some guys that will play very little in this game, that possibly might be the difference in the next seven games," Pruitt said.
"Unfortunately, we've had some of those young guys that have missed a lot of practice time and that will probably, at least for this game, be a contributing factor to how much they actually do play. It's not as much about their ability, but the fact that they didn't get as much practice and maybe they needed to be more prepared. We're excited about this freshman class. We feel like a lot of these guys will contribute this year and we'll see as the year goes on"
In reading that statement, one can easily see that some freshmen might not hit the field as soon as expected.
Still, Pruitt's statement on freshmen comes in distinct contrast with one he made earlier in the press conference -- specifically, when discussing the Vols' travel roster and number of guys who will play against the Gamecocks.
"You only get to travel 70 guys, so the 70 that you take need to be able to contribute whether it's on special teams or on defense," Pruitt said. "We'll play 70 guys on Saturday."
For reference, 70 is the typical number allotted for a team's travel roster. One would think that number might be diminished given the pandemic, but the Vols will take a full amount to Columbia.
According to Pruitt's statement, though, all 70 will also play. That would mean that any freshman listed on the Vols' travel roster will take the field.
It's certainly a confounding bit from this afternoon's availability.
Whoever gets ample playing time on Saturday, though, we know one thing for sure: this freshman class will be fun to watch in 2020.
Tennessee and South Carolina are set to kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday in Columbia, and the game can be viewed on the SEC Network.
