Tennessee football: 4 things Jeremy Pruitt has to fix with Vols

1. Tennessee football must be tougher under Jeremy Pruitt.

This is a huge one, and it has many layers. We already talked about the mental toughness with the way Butch Jones set the standard in Knoxville. Well, on top of that, the Vols need to be physically tough.

This first starts with strength and conditioning. Injuries were a big part of what cost Butch Jones, but a lot of that blame has to fall on his strength and conditioning program. There’s no other way to explain the massive rash of injuries he had for two straight years.

But on top of that, the Vols need to be better on the line of scrimmage. The SEC is a line of scrimmage league. Phillip Fulmer appreciates that.

As a result, Tennessee football should never struggle to get into the end zone if they get a first down inside the one-yard line. But too often during Jones’s tenure, that’s exactly what they did.

Failing to score from there flies in the face of everything Tennessee football has stood for over the last 100 years. The Vols are supposed to be a physical, tough SEC team.

Losing battles up front is never excusable. Pruitt has to make sure he does whatever he can to fix that issue along with the issue of players getting hurt. The Vols need to get back to the program that they had the tradition of being for decades. Otherwise, fans will continue to rightfully show frustration. What’s clear, though, is Pruitt appears to fit the mold of the guy to fix these issues.