Tennessee (3-6, 3-6 SEC) plays host to No. 5 Texas A&M (7-1, 7-1 SEC) Saturday at Neyland Stadium.
Kickoff is slated for noon EST. ESPN will televise the contest.
Tennessee will play its regular season finale as the early signing period concludes. The 2021 signing class is Jeremy Pruitt’s third as Tennessee’s head coach.
The season has not went the direction that Pruitt would like during the 2020 10-game, SEC-only campaign due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Tennessee ended a six-game losing streak last week with a 42-17 victory at Vanderbilt.
Pruitt began his coaching career at Alabama in 1997 as a graduate assistant working under defensive backs coach Curley Hallman.
Hallman played defensive back at Texas A&M from 1966-68 for head coach Gene Stallings. He would later serve as an assistant at Alabama, Clemson and Texas A&M before becoming a head coach at Southern Miss (1988-90) and LSU (1991-94).
After his time at LSU, Hallman coached Pruitt as a player at Alabama and then had the current Vols’ head coach work directly under him in the secondary.
With the Southeastern Conference having three head coaching changes at South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Auburn during a season taking place in a pandemic, Hallman understands first-hand how pressure can mount leading a program in the SEC.
During his time at LSU, the Tigers compiled a 16-28 record (10-21 SEC).
“I keep up with all of the people in this occupation that I was associated with,” Hallman told Vols Wire as Tennessee prepares to play his alma mater. “The occupation is tough, but I try to keep up with Jeremy and Tennessee as close as I can.
“Of course this weekend, they play my Texas A&M Aggies, so naturally I’ll be pulling for A&M. I was a former coach there, and offensive coordinator Darrell Dickey I hired years ago, but that’s where I went to school and played for Coach Stallings.”
Hallman understands that at a place like Tennessee, the program has expectations, a passionate fan base and big money boosters that make pivotal decisions.
“When you are trying to rebuild something, it takes a little longer than maybe what the fans and the big money supporters are looking for,” Hallman said. “Naturally it takes recruiting, talented athletes, and I go back to my situation at LSU, there are two things there that I’m very proud of. We recruited our fannies off and made some progress, but it never quite showed. The other thing there, I started a scholarship fund for any former player.
“The bottom line is, doing those things in recruiting, there’s got to be chemistry. We never could get that quite going at LSU like we did at Southern Miss. We developed football team chemistry at Southern Miss, and not sure if that has quite gelled for Jeremy at Tennessee, but I know he is going to recruit hard, work hard, he is going to care for his players and be tough on them. Scheduling is also important. In Jeremy’s situation at Tennessee, with the pandemic going on, and not having some lesser opponents, the fans want to see a big game every game and all that, but to develop young talent and to be able to play a lot of people, sometimes you need that scheduling. I just know one thing, that Jeremy Pruitt is going to recruit and stay positive – and what you need on a football team is one or two true difference makers. I’m not sure how many difference makers Jeremy has.”
Director of Athletics Phillip Fulmer, a former Tennessee player, assistant and head coach, hired Pruitt nearly three years to the date of the 2020 regular season finale.
No matter the outcome of the Tennessee-Texas A&M game, Hallman believes that Fulmer can show his confidence in Pruitt by stressing that the third-year head coach is continuing the Vols’ rebuilding process.
“I just hope, no matter the outcome of this next game is, that Coach Fulmer, who understands the game in every aspect, that he will motivate those people to work forward and have confidence in what Jeremy knows how to get it done,” Hallman said. “When you are at a great program like the University of Tennessee, a lot of times there is very little patience with the fan base. Tennessee has tremendous love and loyalty to their school, especially the football program, so there is a lot of negativity that runs left and right, that feeds fuel to the fire. Tennessee is one of those fan bases, where in modern day time, people do not have a lot of patience.
“Jeremy is going to be a tireless worker, and I just hope those people backup and say this is three years of trying to get the talent level where it needs to, and it’s Jeremy’s job, his staff’s job and those players. It’s complicated explaining what the team chemistry is. If you ever get that going in a positive direction, then some day they’ll line up and be competitive in every game and win a great majority of those games. I think the athletic director, born and bred in football, I know Phillip understands that, and they will stay with Jeremy through this rebuilding and trying times.”
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