Tennessee football: Five best signs from Jeremy Pruitt’s second year with Vols

2. Six-game winning streak to end the season

You can tie the development of the talent to the strong finish. We all know about it now. Tennessee football started the season 0-2 with two home losses to Group of Five teams. That then turned to 1-4 and eventually 2-5. But they won their final six games, including their bowl game, to finish 8-5 and complete a dramatic turnaround that has things rolling again.

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Jeremy Pruitt deserves a lot of credit for that turnaround, and that’s not just because he developed the talent. When UT was 1-4, they easily could have thrown in the towel. Four of their final seven games were against teams who would eventually reach bowl eligibility, and this was a young team that likely lost all confidence and all motivation to really prove anything.

However, this team never wavered. They willingly got better and continued to show a high level of excitement to play every game. That included putting up a fight in a road loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide and then responding from that loss to blow out the South Carolina Gamecocks with a strong second half. These guys never quit, and that’s a reflection of Pruitt’s coaching.

Early on, it looked very easy to throw in the towel. Pruitt refocused these guys, and nobody ever questioned the effort after their loss to the Georgia State Panthers. Handling that level of adversity is a major testament to Pruitt and what he may be able to do long-term. That’s a very good sign for Rocky Top.