Pruitt Shares Reasoning Behind Star DB Thompson's Move to Safety Against South Carolina

Jeremy Pruitt moved his star cornerback to safety on Saturday night, and he explains the reasoning here.

Jeremy Pruitt has been as successful as any defensive back teacher in the country. During his time at Alabama, Florida State, and Georgia, he recruited and developed some of the premiere defensive backs in America. 

Then, he arrived in Knoxville to coach at Tennessee, and he moved two coveted athletes in Alontae Taylor and Bryce Thompson to cornerback, and the duo quickly became stars in the Tennessee secondary. 

So, when Jeremy Pruitt had Bryce Thompson start and play a solid portion of the game at Safety against South Carolina, it was almost impossible to question his tactics. 

"Jaylen McCollough didn't really get to practice, he got cleared and going through getting him back to make sure that everything was okay with him we wanted to go into the game with a plan if we played him to really be in the second half. Kind of the same with Warren Burrell. They both have been in quarantine for quite sometime, just getting the guys back. To move guys around, Bryce is a guy that has been in our system for a couple of years so from a conceptual standpoint, we felt like that was the best thing to do," Pruitt told local reporters on Monday.

During the post-game press conference Pruitt noted that the Vols were a "skeleton-crew" in the secondary, and they pieced it together. 

Shawn Shamburger was absent from the game for undisclosed reasons, which put Tennessee down another starter. 

It is unclear how the Vols secondary will look this week, but it does not appear Shamburger will be back for the Missouri contest, as of today, from talking with various sources. 

Pruitt did note, "We talked about last week from a standpoint of COVID and everything going on, I just don't think its fair to the players to put out exactly why they're not there. Hopefully, if everything works out, we can get these guys back very soon."

Pruitt would add on the depth of the secondary, "Theo Jackson is a guy that really can play all the spots, and we went into the game trying to play him at STAR. It's really not what he plays, he's really more of a safety but just so we had depth in the game and to be able to have answers if somebody got hurt that is the way we decided to go."

The Vols are scheduled to host Missouri at Neyland Stadium on Saturday at Noon ET on the SEC Network.