Watch: Tennessee Returns to the Practice Field on Tuesday to Prepare for Kentucky

Watch: Tennessee Returns to the Practice Field on Tuesday to Prepare for Kentucky

Tennessee returned to the practice field on Tuesday to prepare for their match-up against SEC East Rival Kentucky. On Monday, Jeremy Pruitt had plenty to say about the Wildcats and Saturday's loss against Georgia.

Pruitt opened the press conference with the following statements:

“You know going back and looking at the game on Saturday, to start offensively, didn’t execute at a very good level at all. Done a very poor job of communicating. Lots of times we had the wrong MIKE spot, who we’re pushing to on our points, running the football in protection – gotta do a much better job of that. It’s hard to have success if you don’t understand who the MIKE is. Gotta play faster on the perimeter, gotta do a better job of protecting the quarterback, gotta establish the run game and obviously gotta take care of the football. Too many penalties on offense, didn’t take care of the football – never got in a rhythm of being good at anything that we wanted to do on Saturday. We threw a couple of balls down the field that created a couple of explosive plays there, but because of the penalties, getting behind the chains really kept us from being able to get in rhythm. You have to give them (Georgia) credit for that. Lots of things we have to improve on there. Defensively, there were a lot of guys that played really hard, but we didn’t always play smart. Made a lot of mistakes on third down – kept them on the field. Had a couple of penalties there that they converted on, but a lot of positives to me there we can clean up and grow on from the game. Special teams had one return there on kickoff that missed a tackle on the 15-yard line. Had a couple of guys who didn’t get off blocks and that was disappointing there. Lots of things we can learn from, from this game that we can improve on. The biggest thing is, it’s no different week in and week out, No. 1 is you have to be able to care of the football. Defensively, we did get two turnovers, a turnover on downs twice. That was much improved there. But, the most penalties we’ve had the entire season, which is disappointing. We’ve got to work hard to improve that and our kids will.

“When you look at Kentucky this week, Coach (Mark) Stoops has done a fantastic job there. They’re one of the best teams in the conference when it comes to running the football. They do a nice job – very creative in the run game. They use their quarterback running the football. They have a stable of running backs and a bunch of guys running the ball well there. They have an experienced offensive line. Defensively, they’ve always created issues in our league the last three or four years. Really good in the red area. A lot of blitzing, varieties in coverages there, so you gotta do a nice job. They’ve always done a nice job at special teams. Just looking at this week, we gotta get back to work. Our kids will have a positive attitude and we’ll go back and do that.”

Tennessee will host Kentucky at Neyland Stadium at Noon ET on Saturday. The game will be featured on the SEC Network.