‘BECOME A TEAM’
Vols begin on-field work under Pruitt
KNOXVILLE — Gone are the calls over a megaphone between practice periods, the building-sized banners with team slogans written on them and the other hallmarks of the Tennessee football practice field under Butch Jones.
Jeremy Pruitt directed his first practice as the Volunteers’ new coach Tuesday with rain whipping across Haslam Field and players adapting to the feel of a new regime.
“It was exciting to get out there on the grass,” Pruitt said.
Tuesday’s was the first of 14 practices before the Orange and White Game at Neyland Stadium on April 21. Tennessee’s players wore helmets and practice jerseys — no pads yet — and ran through drills under the direction of a new coaching staff that has formulated a new set of goals.
“The first thing is we want to become a team,” Pruitt said. “We think that’s important for us. We want to learn how to practice. We want to see how much knowledge we can retain at each individual position. We want to see who the competitors are. We want to see who handles adversity.”
The Vols struggled with adversity on their way to a 4-8 final record in Jones’ final season as coach in 2017. Pruitt was hired in December and just completed his coaching staff last month.
Pruitt took the staff through a walk-through of Tuesday’s practice before the players took the field, and he developed a provisional plan, just in case the practice had to be moved indoors because of rain.
It did rain, but with no lightning in the area Pruitt kept the practice going outdoors. He said afterward that there was only one noteworthy hiccup in the practice plan.
“It’s new for everybody,” he said. “It’s new for the coaches; it’s new for me. It’s new for the training staff, the strength staff. But I thought overall that everybody in the organization tried to do what we asked them to do. It’s going to be a learning process in how we practice. Our guys will get used to it.”
Phillip Fulmer strolled along the sideline during practice — not as a former coach invited back to watch — but as the athletic director who hired Pruitt. Seven players signed by Pruitt in the 2018 recruiting class were listed on a roster distributed Tuesday, and the rest had a new slate from which to make their case for playing time.
“To me, getting to know them is getting to know what kind of player they are,” Pruitt said. “I think you find out a lot about somebody’s personality and their competitive spirit out there on the practice field. There’s plenty of time to build relationships and all that. But at the end of the day this is a performance-based industry, so you must perform on the field. Then I think over time, the relationships will take care of themselves.”
Pruitt’s practice philosophy is to give every player on the roster the same number of repetitions and never have players standing around on the field. He made a vow to be demanding.
“We’re going to confront them if they don’t do it the way we expect them to do it,” he said.
Practices will gain intensity over the coming weeks as the players are allowed to wear full pads. Pruitt’s early reflections on the first practice were positive.
“I think our guys did a nice job today,” he said. “We’ll watch film, and we’ll see what the first day looks like. But I know this, and I told the kids this, you get 15 practices. Today was our first day, and we’re never going to get it back.
“So I hope everybody that’s out there on the field took advantage of their opportunities.”
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress. com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/ volsupdate.