KNOXVILLE - University of Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt walked inside the Ray and Lucy Hand Digital Studio on campus Wednesday and wiped sweat from his face with a white towel.
The scowl remained.
Pruitt moved part of his team's third practice of the week indoors after heavy rain swept through the area, but heat and humidity still took its toll on the Volunteers.
"We've got some guys on our team that I think are good leaders," Pruitt said. "But to be a leader, you have to be able to confront your peers. Right now, when you're out at our practices, the only one that does any confronting is the coaching staff. The last time I checked, there's not any of these coaches out there playing in a game. So we've got to continue to improve that."
Pruitt's pointed post-practice demeanor differed from his usual calm candor. The Vols (1-1) host the University of Texas at El Paso (0-2) at noon Saturday in a final tune-up before beginning Southeastern Conference play next week against Florida.
"Today the temperature is up, it's hot, it's muggy," Pruitt said. "It affects everybody on the team. There's a couple of guys you see it don't affect. We let external factors affect how we practice."
Pruitt did not offer the names of players he wants to see improved leadership from - he suggested singling them out would be unfair - but he said getting to where Tennessee wants to be at the end of the season will require more player leadership.
"I think that the guys on our team that do things the right way, they do it the right way most of the time," Pruitt said. "So if they're going to do it the right way, then they need to hold their teammates accountable to do it the same way. When we get that, we'll be where we need to be. But we've got a long ways to go there."
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.