Alabama’s Pruitt is new coach at Tennessee
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt’s mission is to get the Volunteers back to the status they enjoyed when his new boss was roaming the sidelines.
Pruitt took over as Tennessee’s coach Thursday, capping a tumultuous search in which Phillip Fulmer replaced John Currie as athletic director. Tennessee is coming off one of its most disappointing seasons and hasn’t won the Southeastern Conference’s Eastern Division title since 2007, the year before Fulmer was forced out as coach.
“There was a time and place that this university was feared among the SEC teams,” said Pruitt, who has spent the past two seasons as Alabama’s defensive coordinator. “My goal as the head football coach at the University of Tennessee is to get us back to that point.”
The Vols opened this season in the Top 25 but finished 4-8 to set a school record for losses, as they went winless in SEC competition for the first time since the league formed in 1933. Those results led to the Nov. 12 firing of Butch Jones, who went 34-27 in five seasons.
Tennessee followed up its poor season with a tumultuous coaching search that grew more embarrassing as it dragged on.
Pruitt, who has been an assistant on four national championship teams, believes he can get Tennessee back to the heights it reached in the 1990s and early 2000s when Fulmer was coaching the team. This marks Tennessee’s fourth coaching search since Fulmer’s exit.
“Your expectations aren’t near what mine are,” Pruitt said. “I’ll tell you right now, my expectations are to win every game we play. That’s the expectation I have.”
Pruitt, 43, agreed to a sixyear deal that will pay him $3.8 million annually plus various benefits such as an expense allowance. He will spend this month working on his new job while also maintaining his status as Alabama’s defensive coordinator through the College Football Playoff.
Currie was close to hiring Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano as the new coach Nov. 26 before that deal fell through amid a public backlash. Reports linked Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy and Purdue’s Jeff Brohm to Tennessee’s vacancy, but both stayed with their teams. N.C. State’s Dave Doeren agreed to a new contract with the Wolfpack after speaking with Tennessee officials. Currie met last week with Washington State’s Mike Leach and was suspended the next day as Tennessee investigates whether it can fire him for cause.
Fulmer took over the search and eventually zeroed in on Pruitt. “His energy and his enthusiasm and his background and his intensity appealed to me greatly,” he said.
Pruitt has been Alabama’s defensive coordinator since 2016 after spending two seasons in the same role at Georgia. Alabama led the nation in scoring defense and ranked second in total defense last year. This season, Alabama again leads the nation in scoring defense and ranks second in total defense.