Ad Disclosure
Jeremy Pruitt at UT ‘has bigger job, bigger title, making more money, but same person as he was in Hoover’
Published:
HOOVER — Jeremy Pruitt hit the ground running at Tennessee having only 10 days on the job to assemble part of his coaching staff and put together the early stages of his first recruiting class.
Pruitt’s work ethic and being able to handle any task at hand is nothing unusual for people close to the new Tennessee head coach.
Recently retired Hoover High School athletics director Myra Miles will tell you that Pruitt “has jet fuel in the bottom of those shoes.”
If so, he put it to good use when Pruitt went nationwide to build the early pieces of the 2018 recruiting class, having 13 overall signees: eight from Tennessee, three from California and one from Florida and South Carolina.
Miles is not surprised about his recent success.
“The thing that puts Jeremy over the top is that he is relentless in his pursuit of excellence,” she told SDS. “Whether it’s breaking down film and him sleeping in the office at night after he watched film at Hoover, going after the best players in the country, or X’s and O’s.
“I am so incredibly happy for him. I know he was happy where he was at (Alabama), but he has been wanting to be a head coach for a couple of years and there is nobody that deserves this opportunity than him.”
Miles served as athletic director at Hoover High School from 2008-2014 and also taught and coached at Hoover from 2002-2007. She was at Hoover during Pruitt’s tenure from 2004-2006, when he was defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach under head coach Rush Propst.
It was an unusual coaching search for Tennessee with a change in athletics director from John Currie to Phillip Fulmer, but the program seems to be on stable grounds now.
“He has a bigger job, bigger title, making more money, but he is the same person today as he was back in his Hoover days. I always knew that he was going to be a special coach …”
Retired Hoover High AD Myra Miles
Pruitt had to handle not only the first Early Signing Period, but he was heading back to Alabama to finish the job he has as Alabama’s defensive coordinator in the College Football Playoff.
Miles says that Pruitt going back to Alabama to finish the job shows his loyalty to his players and Nick Saban’s coaching staff.
“It is why he said he was going back to Alabama because he genuinely sits down in the living room with players’ parents and made a commitment to them,” Miles said. “What you see is what you get with him and he is a special person.
“He has a bigger job, bigger title, making more money, but he is the same person today as he was back in his Hoover days. I always knew that he was going to be a special coach one day at the highest level because of his work ethic and watching his ability to connect with all of the kids and how they react to everything he asked them. I saw how he connected with them in the hallways and how he checked on them in the classroom, he was just that father figure that demanded a lot from them and those kids would run through a wall for him at the same time.”
His loyalty to others also carries over to others being loyal to him. That is apparent as he assembles his initial staff at Tennessee. Will Friend (offensive line) and Tyson Helton (offensive coordinator) are coaches who spent time at UAB when Pruitt was coaching nearby at Alabama.
Other coaches who will be on staff go back to Pruitt’s Hoover days in Kevin Sherrer and Todd Watson under Propst.
“(When) you look at that staff he is putting together, these people that he has around him have been loyal to him when they were together,” Miles said. “To see all three of those guys now coaching together again is unbelievable.”
The loyalty and respect that Pruitt has from other coaches along with players he recruits and develops stood out to Fulmer. It’s a key reason he handpicked Pruitt to get Tennessee back to its winning ways.
Miles said Fulmer’s respect for Pruitt “speaks volumes about Jeremy’s reputation as a man and a leader of young men along with his ability to coach.”
Pruitt’s boundless energy and enthusiasm while maintaining standards parallels Fulmer and iconic Lady Vols basketball head coach Pat Summitt’s traits.
“I have some friends that played for coach Summitt and they ask me what to expect from Jeremy and I tell them you will love his passion, his expectations, his commitment to the team, staff and to the University,” Miles said.
“I know that coach Fulmer and coach Summitt had a ton of amount of respect for each other and when all the craziness was going on for Tennessee I thought privately that if Pat was still alive, this craziness would not be going on and would have them straightened out. I’m really proud this transition went well with Fulmer and Pruitt.”
Miles isn’t the only connection to Pruitt. Former Hoover player and VFL John Propst played at Tennessee from 2010-2013. Pruitt was his defensive coordinator during his first half of high school. Sherrer replaced him as Pruitt went to Alabama.
Propst told Saturday Down South that he is “extremely excited to have coach Pruitt leading the Tennessee program” and that he “truly believes he will be successful.”
“I expect him to compete with anyone right off the bat,” Propst said. “He is going to set a high standard early on and have an aggressive style of play. The current players better be ready to work. What is evident from his staff so far is they are going to focus on winning the recruiting battle in the Southeast, which I believe will lead to success.”
A big part of Pruitt’s success working his way from Hoover to coaching on staff under Saban, Fisher and Richt is his ability to learn but stay true to his roots.
“Coach Pruitt is real,” Propst said. “He is the same guy today as he was 10 years ago. He is going to tell it like it is and I think that is a big reason he forms such a connection with his players. They trust him and want to play for him.
“I believe that is something Tennessee has been missing the last few coaching staffs. He is a competitor and no one is going to outwork him. His knowledge of football is unmatched. As a person, he has a way of making you feel like the most important person in the room. That characteristic is what makes him such a good recruiter/leader. I think his style of coaching/leadership is exactly what the program needs right now.”
Dan Harralson covers Tennessee football for SaturdayDownSouth.com. Follow Dan on Twitter @danharralson.
