KNOXVILLE - It may take Jeremy Pruitt a few recruiting classes to correct Tennessee's football talent deficiency, but Saturday's scrimmage at Neyland Stadium revealed at least one thing the first-year coach believes can improve right away.
"I could've turned my head when the ball was being snapped and not watched the play and then look back around, and I could've told you what happened without looking at the down and distance, all based off body language," Pruitt said. "That's not a good thing."
The Volunteers, coming off a 4-8 season and facing a brutally difficult 2018 schedule, likely have adversity on the horizon. Pruitt wants his team to start a habit now of reacting properly to tough times.
"There's going to be situations where things don't go our way," he said. "How are we going to play, how are we going to respond?"
Pruitt seems to believe those answers will be dictated by the team's leadership. Captains were selected on a weekly basis last season when Butch Jones was coach. Pruitt has not said whether Tennessee will have rotating or permanent captains in 2018.
On Saturday, he said the coaching staff needs to "figure out what kind of team we have."
"Do we have guys that have leadership that can affect everybody else that way?" Pruitt asked. "Do they even know how to do it? And if they don't, we have to be the ones that teach them."
Pruitt said he has coached for teams with one clear leader who could motivate players on both sides of the ball. He has also coached teams with multiple players as leaders.
Other teams Pruitt has been part of in his career were led by coaches, he said.
"And we won national championships with those teams," he said. "The coaching staff had to say 'Let's go.'
"Football's a physical game, and everybody's trying to impose their will and make the other team quit and all that. A lot of times you can see the look in their eyes. You're having a great year, things get tough, sometimes it's easy for guys to say, 'We've had a great year,' and they kind of start accepting the fact that they're defeated. And I've seen staffs that I've been on that kind of bring guys out of that and find a way. When they couldn't find a way, we helped them find a way."
Norwood to MTSU
Howard School defensive back Joseph Norwood committed to play for Tennessee on signing day in February and was set to blueshirt for the Vols in 2018, meaning he would enroll and join the team this year but not go on scholarship until after the start of preseason camp (allowing him to count toward next year's signing class).
But according to a report from 247Sports.com, Norwood is headed to Middle Tennessee State University. Norwood's Twitter profile has been updated to indicate he will play for the Blue Raiders.
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.