First-year Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt want his players to work on building trust this summer, before the challenges of preseason practices and the season arrive.ATLANTA – As Alabama neared the end of a 17-year national championship drought at the conclusion of the 2009 season, then-Crimson Tide defensive coordinator Kirby Smart called a blitz drawn up by a low-level staffer most people had never heard of.
The Crimson Tide suffocated Texas in the BCS national championship game, and at least part of the credit for the dominating performance went to Jeremy Pruitt.
Tennessee’s first-year head coach, who will make his SEC Media Days debut Wednesday, held the title of director of player development at Alabama in 2009. He was drawing up defensive calls, even though that wasn’t in his job description.
Smart, now the head coach at Georgia, saw Pruitt’s talent then, he said Tuesday, though it would be several more years before Pruitt landed his first defensive coordinator job and began receiving national recognition.
“He was a big asset for us early on at Alabama that people didn’t realize,” Smart said. “I think people didn’t really recognize Jeremy until he went to Florida State and did it on his own. But I recognized early.”