Oct. 27, 2018 - that was the last time Tennessee played a game against South Carolina in Columbia. A lot has changed with UT in the less than two years since.
The Jeremy Pruitt era has now entered its third season. The Vols went from its technical worst season in program history to a six-game winning streak and top 20 spot in the AP Poll.
Of course, a lot has changed off the field since then as well.
On Saturday, Tennessee will begin what will be an unprecedented conference-only season as the SEC and college football attempt to play through the COVID-19 pandemic.
There are no guarantees this year. Players may have to isolate or quarantine. Games may be postponed or declared no-contest, but as Pruitt stepped to his familiar podium on Monday afternoon to speak with the media (via zoom of course), he made one thing clear.
"Our guys are really excited about getting a chance to play this week."
On the quarantining numbers going into this week:
"One thing with this COVID and the contact tracing, we've really tried to be very transparent. You know, our, our medical staff has done a fantastic job. You know, just keeping everybody safe within our program. You know, we have supreme confidence in Dr. Klenck, and Jeronimo and everybody associated with our medical staff there. You know, when it comes to, you know, what our numbers will be for Saturday, I'm not sure that it's fair for the kids that are going to play to release that just from a competitive standpoint. So we're not going to release each week, the exact numbers, but our team is working hard to be at our best on Saturday, and we'll continue to do that."
How excited are you for the season to get started:
"Yeah, you know, I'm excited for our players, everybody in our organization has worked really hard to get to this point. We've got to continue to to to create momentum as the week goes."
On preparing for South Carolina starting quarterback Collin Hill:
"You know, Mike Bobo has always done a fantastic job coaching the quarterbacks. Hill will do, he's a guy that's been in the system there for five years, this might be a sixth year. So he's a guy who's going to be very familiar is going to get them in and out of checks, keep them out of bad plays. So it's a guy that we've got to find a way to to create confusion and try to possibly create some turnovers."
Has a backup quarterback been established:
"Yeah, it's still open ended headed into the weekend. We'll make a decision over the next couple of days and see who gives us the best opportunity you know with with Harrison (Bailey) and Brian (Maurer) both of those guys have have missed practices you know, for different reasons during fall camp so JT (Shrout) is obviously had had another opportunity to take more reps, but we're giving both of those guys a chance."
Any indication on if the SEC will rule on the status of Cade Mays before the opener:
"Well, we, we've got no indication as of yet I'm sure that they will, it just makes too much sense not to and we've planned all along for Cade to be able to play. You know, if you, if you look at what went into the waiver process, it's pretty evident that the young man needs an opportunity to play or deserves an opportunity to play."
How do you feel about your football team as you get ready to play Saturday:
"Well, I feel like we got really good leadership all over our team. There's lots of unknowns until you go out there and play and play together, but I think there's a willingness there to fight and find a way and it's something that we've got to continue to kind of develop that personality throughout the season, there's going to be adversity, there'll be adversity on Saturday, and we've got to be able to overcome it and find the answers."
How much different is Jarrett Guarantano going into this opener:
"Well, the second go around with an offensive coordinator for Jarrett, this will be the first time so you know, when you do the same thing over and over, it creates confidence. So I would suspect that he's got to have a lot more confidence heading into this season, as opposed to maybe the previous season just because the terminology is the same, the people around him are the same. So and I feel like that he's demonstrated that at practice."
What did you learn from last season's season-opening loss to Georgia State:
"Well, if you turn the ball over five times and only get one turnover, you're not going to win. That didn't matter if that was the opener or the last game that's the bottom line, you can't make mental mistakes. You've got to be able to get off the field on third down, you've got to score touchdowns in the red area, you've got to keep them from scoring touchdowns in the red area. So it's the same thing with every week."
Is there even more importance to having a second and third-string quarterback ready to play this year given contact tracing:
"You know that's a position that the ball goes through their hand every snap. So you know, being able to have a number two and number three, is absolutely always important. So I don't think this season would be any different and we've got to continue to grow and develop those guys behind Jarrett."
Eric Gray and Ty Chandler fall camp:
"I think both of these guys have had good camps. Eric obviously missed some days during the camp, but you know, Ty's been there the whole time and you know, you continue to see improvement those guys compete with each other, compete very hard every day. It's good to have both of those guys back there. They're good leaders for the other guys."
On his relationship with South Carolina offensive coordinator Mike Bobo:
"Well, I mean, Mike, he's a competitor, you know, playing against him in college, coaching against him, coaching against him every day at practice, playing golf against him, shooting pool, I mean, he's a competitor. Wants to win at everything that he does. You know, he's gonna have a great, great gameplan, his kids are going to play hard. They'll play together. So it'll be a challenge for us."
On the status of running back Carlin Fils-aime:
"Carlin graduated this summer and he's sitting out this year. He possibly may come back in January, but we've yet to decide that yet. When that time comes, we'll get together and decide that, but he's a guy that has done everything we asked him to do as a player since I've been here. Unfortunately, he's had some injuries that's kept him off the field but has been a great student, role model, good teammate and we would love to have him back for sure."
On the impact of this year's freshman class and how many of them will travel as part of the group of 70 allowed at road games:
"I don't know the exact number. I felt like last year's class really contributed a lot, especially down the stretch, so it'll be the same this year, you know, one thing with freshmen, you don't want to put unrealistic expectations on them. There'll be some guys that will play very little in this game, that possibly might be the difference in the next seven games. You know, there's lots of things that have went on that they had no control over, you know, but there's no doubt, you've got to be able to practice to, to create confidence not only in yourself, but in the coaching staff and the players around you and unfortunately, we've had some of those young guys that have missed a lot of practice time and that'll probably, at least for this game, probably be a contributing factor to how much they actually do play, not as much about their ability, but the fact that they didn't get as much practice time, maybe they needed to be prepared. So 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."
If there has been separation with the tight ends:
"No there's still three or four guys that were working there. We'll see how this week goes, we'll obviously settle on somebody for the game, a one or two, but that's going to be a position that we're going to continue to challenge and to create competition and that's a good thing because we've got competition there so the guys continue to push each other."