Tennessee football: Jeremy Pruitt deserves credit for class he showed when talking Vols

The same week former Tennessee football assistant Brian Niedermeyer seemed to relish in the Vols losing out on Carnell Tate, the man he worked for took a completely different approach. Earlier this week, Pruitt went on the Crain and Company podcast.

Naturally, he was going to be asked about the SEC and his experience as a head coach. All of it was positive. He simply reflected on the great experience of being a head coach in the league, and he had nothing but nice things to say about the Vols.

That included praising what Josh Heupel has done with Tennessee football and what Hendon Hooker’s potential is. In fact, Pruitt went as far as to name the Vols one of his potential breakout SEC teams for the 2022 season. Here’s a look at what he said.

Let’s be honest, Pruitt didn’t have to be that respectful. Here’s a guy who’s legal team went nuclear on the Vols late last year to try to get back some of the money lost when Rocky Top fired him for cause in January of 2021.

Although he may have been wrong for that, and although not publicly trashing the program was a low bar to clear, he didn’t have to be so complimentary of UT. You would think he’d avoid discussing the program altogether and try to find another SEC team to tout.

Instead, Pruitt gave his honest opinions, and that involved touting the Vols. You could make the case that this was somewhat reflective of him. After all, he did sign Hooker, who had transferred from the Virginia Tech Hokies, just before he was fired.

In fact, probably 80 percent of the players on the first team of this year’s depth chart will be players he signed, and an even greater number will be players he coached since there are still some players Butch Jones signed on Tennessee football’s roster. Still, Pruitt deserves credit for the class he showed on this podcast, and hey, he does deserve lots of credit for the roster.