Tennessee football: 5 positives signs for Vols Jeremy Pruitt’s first year

5. No excuses

From a data standpoint, this doesn’t seem like a big deal. But after five years of Butch Jones, Tennessee football seemed to be in much better hands immediately with Jeremy Pruitt simply because of the fact that he didn’t want to make excuses for the poor play of his team. In fact, he often called them out.

Now, before we get started, there were a few exceptions to this. Pruitt did say last year that, by virtue of it being his first season, it would likely be his worst year. He also defended the poor play of his offensive line in the opener against the West Virginia Mountaineers, but even then, he sounded apologetic for making the excuse even though he had the right to do so since the line was thrown together in a week due to injuries.

But what was more common was the way Pruitt called his players out and challenged them. Against the Alabama Crimson Tide, he gave them a halftime warning about doing things the right way. Don’t forget that he also had very public verbal altercations with Deandre Johnson and Drew Richmond at different times throughout the season.

Then, even as he would defend his team and even as they won big games, they weren’t beyond reproach. Pruitt emphasized mistakes they made in all of their wins. Simply put, nobody was a life champion, there were no mental reps in practice, and five-star hearts were not a measurement. Brick by brick is no longer a slogan either, and this is all a welcome addition.