Wiedmer: UT's Jeremy Pruitt already sounds like a veteran SEC football coach

Tennessee head football coach Jeremy Pruitt waits for officials to review one of the many plays agains Auburn in the second half of the game on Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018. (Photo: Patrick Murphy-Racey)
Tennessee head football coach Jeremy Pruitt waits for officials to review one of the many plays agains Auburn in the second half of the game on Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018. (Photo: Patrick Murphy-Racey)

KNOXVILLE - Alabama versus Tennessee. The Third Saturday in October. Bear Bryant versus Doug Dickey, then Johnny Majors. Phillip Fulmer versus a bunch of folks Alabama fans would prefer to forget ever darkened the head coaching door of Houndstooth U.

That's what 100 past football games between these two border rivals will get you.

So many memories. There's the old joke that Alabama fans have been able to recycle more than once. You know the one about the dog that does backflips every time the Crimson Tide beats Tennessee. When someone asks the owner what the dog does when Tennessee wins, he replies: "I don't know. I've only had him 11 years."

photo Tennessee head football coach Jeremy Pruitt gives instructions in the huddle during a game against Auburn on Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018. (Photo: Patrick Murphy-Racey)

For Volunteers fans, there's the priceless story someone told at the late, great John Ward's funeral this past June regarding the UT win at Birmingham's Legion Field that broke one of those long Tide winning streaks when Peyton Manning was a sophomore.

That game having become a rout, the Vols about to win 41-14, the Vols' radio crew was understandably giddy. Trying to remain professional, which he always was, Ward told the crew more than once that there was no cheering in the press box. But near the end, the victory secure, he also reportedly said, "Who am I kidding? We're all Big Orange fans tonight."

This is the background that 44-year-old Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt came of age in. He was less than five months old, a resident of Rainsville, Alabam, when Bama won 28-6, a fourth straight Tide victory in a winning streak that would reach 11. He was 8 years old when Tennessee shocked the world by beating Bryant's final Bama bunch by a 35-28 score in Majors' sixth season on Rocky Top. He was 21 when Peyton ended a nine-year drought in 1995. He was coaching at Hoover High School just south of B'ham when Tennessee last walked off the field a winner in a rivalry that will reach its 101st meeting Saturday at 3:30 p.m. EDT on CBS when the Vols host the top-ranked Tide.

That 2006 season, not so coincidentally, was also the last year Nick Saban wasn't working the Crimson Tide sideline.

So even if he hadn't spent eight of the last 11 seasons working under Saban, which he did, Pruitt knows what this weekend is all about. How much it means to both sides, especially all those old enough to remember Bear and Dickey, and for a few lucky folks, Gen. Robert Neyland, who went 12-5-2 against Bama.

"It's a very important game, not only because it's the next one, but because of the tradition that comes with this game," Pruitt said Monday. "I think we've got to do our part to create this rivalry again. It's not been much of a rivalry the past few years. We have to uphold our end of it."

But it was what he said after that, words that only a football coach from the South can seem to deliver and almost make you believe him, that most bear repeating.

For instance: "I've watched their offense on film. They've had to try really hard not to score 100 in a couple of games."

There was also this: "I started watching tape on them last night on offense. After watching a couple games, I was afraid to look at the defense."

And this, concerning the power of that offense, which is averaging a preposterous 53.6 points per game more than midway through the season: "I'm not sure how many times we need to be working on our punt-return unit. We probably need to be working on our punt unit a whole lot."

Close your eyes and it could be the Bear himself poor-mouthing. Or former Georgia coach Vince Dooley. Or Saban.

Odds are that Bama keeps rolling. UT's point differential through six games between offense and defense is a positive 1.4 per game. The Tide's average point differential is a positive 38.5. In terms of offense only, this might be the best Bama team ever, and Alabama claims 17 national championships.

Yet as Tennessee proved Saturday, albeit against an increasingly dysfunctional Auburn, the Vols are a far cry from the team that was overmatched against West Virginia in the opener and self-destructed against Florida a month ago.

"I think everybody knows what we're about to go into," Vols wideout Marquez Callaway said. "It's a home game, so I know we'll have our home crowd with us and it'll be an advantage."

The bigger advantage might be this: Two times in the past decade the Vols have used the benefit of an off week before this game to play eventual national champion Alabama teams to within five points. In both incidences (12-10 in 2009 and 19-14 in 2015) Bama was playing its eighth straight game, as it will be Saturday.

And while UT isn't directly coming off an off week this time around, the Vols were off two weeks ago and do have real momentum for the first time all year after toppling Auburn.

Or as center Ryan Johnson, a Nashville native, noted Monday: "This game is 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical. This is the kind of game I dreamed about as a kid. This is the kind of game I'd scream 'Rocky Top' at the top of my lungs as I sat in Neyland Stadium."

Someone then asked him if he had a victory cigar ready, just in case, since that has long been the traditional method for celebrating a win on the Third Saturday in October.

"Yes, sir," Johnson said, smiling. "Always."

Regardless of what happens this time around, that attitude is how these Vols can do their part to make this a true rivalry again.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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