KNOXVILLE – The Tennessee football staff was going through the team’s 2017 statistics one day this past week while establishing goals for the upcoming season.
For each category, the staff noted Tennessee’s 2017 performance, where it ranked in the Southeastern Conference, where it ranked nationally and who the leaders were in the category.
It was a sobering reminder of what Jeremy Pruitt is inheriting.
“We wasn’t very good, obviously,” the Volunteers’ first-year coach said Saturday. “I think we’re trying to stress that with our players.”
Through the first week of spring practices, Pruitt saw that message resonating with a roster full of players who experienced the program’s first-ever eight-loss season in 2017.