KNOXVILLE - All the offseason equity Jeremy Pruitt put into developing relationships with his players seems to be paying off at the right time.
With his first season as football coach of the Tennessee Volunteers in the books by the end of last November, Pruitt reassessed the program, which had finished 5-7 and failed to qualify for a bowl for the second consecutive year. He had been brought in to replace Butch Jones after he was fired during a 4-8 campaign in 2017, and Pruitt admitted prior to the season that he had spent so much time worrying about other aspects of the program, he'd failed to focus on the part of the job he liked the most: building relationships with players.
So, with the help of his wife Donna, that's what he started to do.
"So I'm sitting there last night, and it's like midnight, and my wife wakes me up and I'm like, 'What do you want?', and she goes, 'Hey, I'm going to feed some guys this week. Who do you want me to feed?' Pruitt recalled on Aug. 26. "So it's been just kind of continuous, just going throughout the season, just to build relationships, get to know guys and have an influence on them."
Why was that important? Because Pruitt is an intense coach.
Players were going to have to understand that the way he is during a game is just his nature, and that when he was coaching, he was doing it out of a passionate yet loving position. Perhaps nobody knows that better than quarterback Jarrett Guarantano, who famously had his facemask pulled by Pruitt after a miscommunication on a play call led to a fumble and a 100-yard fumble return by Alabama's Trevon Diggs in the Crimson Tide's 35-13 win over the Vols on Oct. 19.
Since that moment, Guarantano has redeemed himself, completing 65% of his passes for 491 yards and five touchdowns while coming off the bench to lead the Vols to wins over South Carolina, the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Kentucky.
"Coach Pruitt and I have a good relationship," the redshirt junior said after the Nov. 2 homecoming win against UAB. "Even today I made a stupid mistake in the red zone, and I was throwing off my back foot trying to avoid pressure and it was stupid, and he got on me and rightfully so. I expect him to coach me hard as I want him to, and it's not a love-hate thing, it's always love with him and me."
Pruitt came to Knoxville with a reputation for being a players' coach - one who can both relate to them and fight for them. It was one reason why when Aubrey Solomon decided to transfer from Michigan, the only place on his mind was Tennessee, where both Pruitt and defensive line coach Tracy Rocker were waiting.
"He cares about you becoming a man, becoming a father, stuff like that," Solomon said on Nov. 5. "That, to me, really showed me he really cares about you beyond football, beyond the X's and O's, and the same thing with Coach Rocker. I was like, this is a no-brainer."
Pruitt made it clear earlier this season he would back up his players, standing beside defensive back Bryce Thompson as Thompson faced a misdemeanor assault charge (later dropped) related to an Aug. 24 incident. He did so again when linebacker Jeremy Banks was under fire for his comments after being arrested on an outstanding warrant. Banks had been pulled over for a traffic violation in the early hours of Sept. 15, the morning after the Vols beat the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga 45-0, and was later dismissed from the team after video of an incident of him threatening a woman was posted by TMZ.
The Vols have responded to their coach, and four wins in their past five games have them at 5-5 overall and 3-3 in Southeastern Conference play coming off their second open date and heading into Saturday's 7:30 p.m. EST game at Missouri (5-5, 2-4), where both teams will be trying to secure bowl eligibility.
So while his style may not always look good from the outside, the players have received the message: Pruitt is obviously concerned with building a quality football program, but he's equally concerned with building young men.
"I've said this numerous times - the reason I got in this business was to have a positive impact on young people," Pruitt said last Wednesday. "I watched my father (Dade County High School football coach Dale Pruitt) do it for 40-plus years. Some of the most influential people in my life were my coaches. So it's something for me that when you come to work every day, that it's not work for me. I enjoy being around our team. The last two days I've been recruiting, which I enjoy doing. But I haven't gotten a chance to see our football team for two days, so immediately this morning when I got in I wanted to go to the weightroom and speak to some of them since I hadn't gotten a chance to see them."
Now he hopes they have a chance to spend some extra time together this season by securing a game beyond the Nov. 30 regular-season finale against Vanderbilt.
"I believe that we are a really good team," Pruitt said. "I've said this before - I think we are a really good team as far as coming together and being for each other and caring about our teammates. Our guys have really focused on that, and to me that's definitely showed the last several weeks. I'm excited about the opportunities that we have to finish this season. But the one thing about it is that time's ticking. There's not a whole lot of time left, we still have a lot to prove and everybody associated with our program knows that."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.