What Pruitt says is Vols’ No. 1 task this summer

KNOXVILLE — Volunteers head football coach Jeremy Pruitt counts five types of players on Tennessee’s roster this summer.

There are players who participated in spring practice, and there are players who were on the roster this spring but did not participate because of injury.

Then there are three types of newcomers: freshmen, junior-college transfers and graduate transfers.

Uniting those five groups into a cohesive unit is the biggest task for the Vols before preseason camp opens Aug. 3, Pruitt said.

“A lot of the guys, when you sit in a room, they don’t know each other,” Pruitt said last week during an appearance on the “Erik Ainge Show” on WNML.

“We’ve got to get to know each other. We’ve got to be able to call upon each other. “We’ve got to believe in each other. “It’s going to be important that we create a team, a oneness. I feel like if we can do that, that will help us tremendously this fall.”

Those comments mirrored what Pruitt said a week earlier at the SEC spring meetings in Destin, Fla.

Asked what the biggest question his team must answer this summer is, Pruitt quipped that the Vols face a lot of questions and “we could sit here and talk about that for a while.”

But then he zeroed in on the idea of team cohesiveness.

“I think that’s going to be important,” Pruitt said. “When you get a group of guys that are kind of pulling in the same direction, you seem to be able to accomplish more. We’ve got to figure out the guys that have athletic ability and they have influence on their teammates and try to create some leadership within our team.”

The Vols said goodbye to leaders like Kendal Vickers, Ethan Wolf and Brett Kendrick off last year’s team.

This year’s roster will feature graduate transfer quarterback Keller Chryst and running back Madre London, plus 12 seniors.