OPENING STATEMENT

“You have to congratulate Georgia. We pushed them a little bit there in the first half. They do what good teams do. They found a way to stop us in the two-minute (drill) before the half. We missed a field goal and then we didn’t keep them out of the end zone, so they score with nine seconds (left in the first half). That’s two years in a row they’ve done that to us. We’ve got to do a better job managing the clock and keep them where they don’t get the ball there at the end.”

“I thought in the first half, offensively, we created some explosive plays. Thought Brian (Maurer) did a really good job. We done a nice job protecting him. We competed hard running the football. Our skill players made some nice catches for him out there, made some runs after the catch. For a while there, it was a good back and forth there.”

“Defensively in the first half, we couldn’t get them stopped. Some of that had to do with Georgia, some of it had to do with us. One of the first things you have to do to be a good defensive team is you have to make the other team earn it. And sometimes tonight we didn’t make them earn it. We had just a couple hiccups and, you know, with their quarterback (Jake Fromm) he’s not going to miss them. He’s going to take advantage of it. And they did that.”

“Second half, defensively, I felt like we didn’t give up as many plays. Some of it might have been because of the score in the game, but for a long time there we’re down 12, then we’re down 15 points and it’s a two-score game. And I think there were three opportunities for our offense to cut into that. And I think all but one of them we moved the football a little bit. And we just didn’t capitalize.”

“There are lots of things Brian is going to learn from this game that will help him moving forward. I thought Jarrett made some good throws while he was in there, did a nice job coaching Brian while he was in, what a true leader does. We’ve got to learn from this, ok, because we did play one of the better teams in the country. And there are lots of plays that we won on. There’s more that we lost on. We’ve got to figure out why we lost those plays, as a team and as a coaching staff, and figure out how to improve on it. I did feel like for a while there that did feel like the best total game we have played for a while, but it still wasn’t good enough. We’ve got to improve there.”

ON WHAT HE LIKED FROM MAURER

“He stood in there and made some throws down the field in the first half. He kind of went through his progressions, he kept his poise. Kept his eyes down the field. Made some nice throws and it enabled us to create some explosive plays that softened them up a little bit so we could run the ball some. There is probably, I don’t know, eight to 15 plays in the game that he’s going to learn from and learn a lot of lessons from. That maybe we had an opportunity somewhere else, or maybe worked the wrong side of the field. That’s part of maturing and it will be interesting to see moving forward how much he learns from this game and makes adjustments because that’s important to do. You can’t make the same mistakes over and over. But I thought that was some of the things that he did (well).”

ON NOT BEING ABLE TO PRESSURE GEORGIA QB JAKE FROMM

“This is the third time I’ve coached against Jake Fromm. It’s hard to fool him, even though we did one time and kind of manned up, kind of a false start. But I thought we done a nice job of mixing it up. Normally he keeps a clock in his head. In my opinion, it’s boom, boom, boom and if it’s not there he’ll throw the ball away. I know one time it was third-and-5, we dropped eight. That’s unusual for us. They were running mesh routes and crossers and felt like it was a good call. We made a mistake on the backend. Normally we take flat players through as a corner, Cover 2, but this week we weren’t going to do that. We made a mistake in the backend, when the X (receiver) ran under. There’s nobody in the back half, right, so the back safety rolled the post. But we changed how we were playing this week. Made a mistake and he comes back and throws the ball over the top. We end up giving up three points, which wasn’t good. But sometimes when you’re playing against a guy like this, you have to call the game backwards to give yourself an opportunity. Or you have to get up there and guard them, right? So one time we got up there and guarded them and they threw a 65-yard corner route. So if you’re going to bring pressure and create one-on-ones, you have to win one-on-ones. We didn’t win many one-on-ones tonight. I guess that answered your question.”

ON WHAT MAURER DID TO EARN THE START

“There are lots of things that kind of went into that. Sometimes change, for one, when we put Brian in, and to let Jarrett (Guarantano) come out, it takes a little bit off Jarrett. I think Jarrett had probably been pressing a little bit. I said before we were going to play Jarrett tonight and Brian got off to a fast start. So we kept him in there. When Brian came out, Jarrett makes a great throw right over the middle there to extend the drive. But we just felt like it gave us the best opportunity moving forward for this game. I thought it worked well. But with our team, we’re so young and inexperienced at certain positions, that we have to go out and practice, and practice like a game, at least twice a week. To get the right quality of reps. And we have to earn, the players have to earn, who plays during that time. And that’s what we’ve tried to do since we got here.”

ON MAURER’S IMPACT

“He made some good throws early on. We had some chances there to put some more points on the board. I thought he did well for a half. First half was much better than the second half, right?”

ON WHAT POSITIVES HE CAN TAKE AWAY FROM THIS GAME

“I think this Georgia team is probably a little better than the one this time last year. I think our football team is a little bit better than this time last year too. You know, we just have to learn from it. Hey, nobody is looking for a pat on the back for playing hard. I’m not. I think our kids play hard. I don’t know, I have to watch the tape. I could be completely wrong. But I know there was a lot of straining going on on both sides of the ball. Those guys made us strain. They did. So we just have to learn from our mistakes in this game, improve on it and I think we will.”

ON IF THE SIDELINE HAD MORE JUICE TONIGHT

“I got headsets on. I don’t know anything about the juice over there. I’m listening to the coaches.”

ON WHAT CHANGED FOR GEORGIA DEFENSIVELY IN THE SECOND HALF

“We were moving the ball there, got a good drive going, we throw the Sluggo. When guys come out of the double move, they never really speed back up. Brian didn’t look the safety off, he throws it out there. Richard (LeCounte) makes a good play on it. He’s got to look the safety off. Hold him off. And he can’t lay it out there that far. It’s a different type route. You have to stick it on him. Or you don’t throw the ball there. Don’t throw the ball. That’s one deal. There are a couple times that he probably made some really good reads in the first half and he stuck the ball on folks, then he missed them in the second half. Might have been just handing the ball off on a  (run-pass option). I felt like a couple times we probably missed handing the ball off on the RPO. I thought our O-line played pretty hard upfront. We get the one penalty. I don’t know when we quit blowing whistles to end plays in football. I get that you’re not supposed to block them out of bounds, but I’m proud we’re finally playing to the whistle. We’re playing to the whistle, we don’t blow one, so we get a 15-yard penalty.”

ON IF HE SAW ENOUGH TO KEEP MAURER AS THE STARTER NEXT WEEK

“I have to watch film. I don’t know. I thought Brian competed really hard. I thought Jarrett did a nice job when he was in there. It was good for both of them. It was good for our football team moving forward.”

ON HOW MAURER IS PHYSICALLY

“Yeah, he’s fine.”

ON JAUAN JENNINGS

“You know, Jauan really has not been healthy since we’ve been here. He had two knee surgeries in the offseason, so he’s not had a chance to practice a lot of ball when we’ve been out there going full speed. All I know about Jauan, you know from a practice and from playing, is the guy is a competitor. I mean, he is an ultimate competitor. Competes everyday. And the guy loves the University of Tennessee. And we need more guys like that.”

ON HOW GUARANTANO HANDLED THIS WEEK

“Yeah, absolutely. I could hear Jarrett hollering out on the sideline. Watch cat, watch this, watch that. Trying to help him. Jarrett is a team guy, ok. Jarrett has busted his tail. I said today that he’s had lots of really good practices. I kind of put it like a basketball shooter. If you go cold, you kind of get in charge of yourself, sit down and watch it, come back out there. He comes in there, makes a great throw over the middle, you know? Jarrett is a guy that will help us win football games down the road, I guarantee you that, by his attitude and his work ethic.”

ON WHAT HE SAW FROM MAURER

“Well, we scored 14 points in the first half. Didn’t score any in the second. Threw an interception. We just probably wasn’t as clean, right? Until you watch the tape, it’s hard to see. It’s just kind of the big picture, looking at it.”

ON THE OFFENSIVE LINE AND THE HEALTH OF K’ROJHN CALBERT AND RILEY LOCKLEAR

“I’ve not had a chance to meet with the trainer yet. I think they’ll both be fine. I saw the (offensive line) on some folks at times, pushing and straining. We created some positive runs. I thought our back ran pretty good at times too. But some of it is about opportunity. That’s the one thing when you throw RPOs. It’s the good and the bad, right? Maybe your offensive line has a chance to do something there and the quarterback pulls the ball out and shoots it on the perimeter or something like that. So we’ll improve with that as we go. Our offensive line continues to improve. Playing two freshmen. Brandon Kennedy hasn’t played a whole lot of ball. Trey (Smith), the way we’re practicing now, is helping him a lot. And Riley Locklear has played a lot. I looked out there at the end of the game, I saw Marcus Tatum finishing on people. That’s the thing, do we finish? Do we play to the whistle blows? There are times that we did and I’m sure there are times that we didn’t. I don’t know until I watch the tape.”

ON THE DIFFICULTY IN EXPLAINING TO KIDS THAT THIS EFFORT WAS BETTER BUT NOT GOOD ENOUGH

“Our No. 1 goal is to win every game. Every game that we play. That’s our No. 1 goal. We don’t walk out there and say I hope we play good tonight, or I hope we play them good for the first half. Our goal is to find a way to win every game. That’s the bottom line. And that will always be our goal. Until we start doing that around here, we’re not going to stop. That’s gotta be the expectations. And so, hey, our kids hurt. They put a lot into it. But Georgia made more plays than we did. They probably done a better job coaching that we did. It all goes into that. It all starts at the top and rolls down. We’ll go back, look at the film and see what we need to do to improve.”

Click on the video below to watch Jeremy Pruitt’s full Georgia vs. Tennessee post-game press conference.