KNOXVILLE — Jeremy Pruitt enters his third season as head coach at Tennessee.
Tennessee ended last season on a six-game winning streak that has provided momentum for the program.
Tennessee’s program has even more momentum this offseason as the Vols have the current No. 2 nationally ranked 2021 recruiting class.
Pruitt’s collegiate coaching career began in 1999 at West Alabama when he served as defensive backs coach for the NCAA Division II Tigers.
At West Alabama, Pruitt coached defensive back George Bates to a 1999 USA Football All-American Second Team selection.
Bates is currently the head coach and athletics director at Center Point High School in Birmingham, Alabama. He joined the show “Tennessee Two-A-Days,” co-hosted by Valdosta High School head coach Rush Propst, to discuss Pruitt and the Tennessee program.
Bates discussed how he is not surprised with Tennessee’s recent recruiting momentum under the direction of Pruitt.
“To me they are a program on the rise,” Bates said of Tennessee. “It does not surprise me at all because with the COVID-19 pandemic going on, with all campuses being shutdown, no official visits being handled, no spring evaluations by the coaches – deep down in this day and age kids love the flash.
“Who has the biggest pool table in the locker room, who has the most flat screens, they go off a lot of the eye candy and right now nobody is seeing that. It is not allowed. You have to go off your gut, your instincts and the genuine bond that you have with that particular school and coach. With Coach Pruitt, this is him true and true. He is a football guy. I know Tennessee has great facilities like other schools have, but that is not him. As a football guy, he wants to talk about football. He is allowing him to shine even more.”
Bates also discussed that going forward, Tennessee will be a force to be reckoned with in the SEC.
“He is the perfect guy for Tennessee because he has been around multiple successful programs, multiple successful head coaches,” Bates said. “Now being the guy that he is, that is a grinder, he is taking all of those experiences and I think Tennessee is something that is about to have happen (for them) that has not happened in a long time. He is a force to be reckoned with in the East and ultimately the SEC as a whole.”
The entire podcast can be listened to here or below.
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