How would you compare this staff to Tennessee’s previous staff?
Coach 1: Pruitt, that guy, I had nothing to do with him. I saw him one time over here. I’ll leave it at that. He told one of our kids who played for him, who started a lot of games for him, that he couldn’t win with kids from our school and needed some dogs from Georgia. I was not a big fan at all. He didn’t think he could win with Tennessee kids, and it’s true that you can’t win with just Tennessee kids, but you better get the best from here, and there’s plenty you can get. He didn’t do that. And to be honest with you, I thought he was a low-class human being. We had kids on that team, we had managers, and just the stories about him, he didn’t sound like someone I’d really want to have anything to do with.
Coach 4: Jeremy Pruitt never talked to me one time. Now, I mainly dealt with (wide receivers coach) Tee Martin, and he was fantastic. And I’ll say this on Pruitt, we didn’t really have players who could play for him during that time, so I don’t have any hard feelings. I think the best thing the last staff did, we have six to eight players now who can play in the SEC, and the new staff knew that coming in. So someone from the last staff must have told them to look at us, because (offensive coordinator) Alex Golesh, he recruited us hard from Day 1. It was, “Hey, as soon as I can be on the road I’ve got to get there, send me tapes.” Very impressive.
Coach 8: A lot of the small part is when the new staff was coming in and calling and touching base, they weren’t trying to recruit a certain kid. They were just trying to lay a foundation and build relationships with high school coaches. And that’s the way I felt on my end. It wasn’t just they were going after certain schools. They were trying to reach out to a majority of everybody across the board. The previous staff did a good job. We’ve had some kids with Tennessee offers and knew quite a few guys on that staff. I just don’t know if there was as much relationship-building as much as pure recruiting.
For as long as you’ve been dealing with UT, what has changed from staff to staff?
Coach 1: Well, I never saw Derek Dooley. I mean, I never saw him once. Butch (Jones) got the job and was here within a week of getting the job, sitting in my office, and I thought he did a really good job of drawing in the high school coaches in Tennessee. He put on some clinics. I don’t know what kind of coach he was, but he did a good job from that perspective. It’s important to make high school coaches feel important.
Coach 5: Oh man, there’s been a lot. Been too much change, honestly. But some are a little more personable and try to build a relationship with the kid on the recruiting side and get things done, and some are more insightful. We’ve had players through the years that have gone there, but when Coach Jones came in, we had a little gap there. They did an OK job with contact, but they didn’t do a good job in closing on a lot of guys in the area. But Coach Pruitt did a good job recruiting Memphis and getting guys on board. Coach Heupel seems to be on that same train.
Coach 6: Pruitt was a little more, “We’re going after the guys we need to go after and we aren’t wasting time with anyone else. We’ve got to get players.” With Heupel it seems to be more, “The state of Tennessee matters.” And look, there are different philosophies all over the place, and I’m certainly not one to judge any of them. But from the outside and from what I’m hearing on the inside, it sure seems like Tennessee is doing it how it should be done right now.
Coach 7: The way they communicate. Some will say, “Hey, this is me. I’d love to hear from you.” And that’s it. Others will say, “Hey, this is me. I’ll call you in the next couple weeks and see how things are going. If you need anything, let me know.” And they actually follow up. It just depended on the recruiter, really. More the individual person and not really the staff and how personable and intentional they want to be.
Coach 8: Everybody has their own differences. Head coaches approach relationship-building differently. … (Former tight ends coach) Joe Osovet was unbelievable. We felt like our staff here had a great relationship with him. (Former offensive coordinator Jim) Chaney got us over there a couple times. Everything in the last 18 months you have to throw out because nobody could have people on campus. It really wasn’t fair because it wasn’t available to anybody. But those guys stood out on the old staff. On the new staff, they’ve extended things quite a bit with Coach Elarbee. That’s who I have the most experience with and have gotten to know. We’re certainly building some relationships with those guys.
Coach 1: Pruitt, that guy, I had nothing to do with him. I saw him one time over here. I’ll leave it at that. He told one of our kids who played for him, who started a lot of games for him, that he couldn’t win with kids from our school and needed some dogs from Georgia. I was not a big fan at all. He didn’t think he could win with Tennessee kids, and it’s true that you can’t win with just Tennessee kids, but you better get the best from here, and there’s plenty you can get. He didn’t do that. And to be honest with you, I thought he was a low-class human being. We had kids on that team, we had managers, and just the stories about him, he didn’t sound like someone I’d really want to have anything to do with.
Coach 4: Jeremy Pruitt never talked to me one time. Now, I mainly dealt with (wide receivers coach) Tee Martin, and he was fantastic. And I’ll say this on Pruitt, we didn’t really have players who could play for him during that time, so I don’t have any hard feelings. I think the best thing the last staff did, we have six to eight players now who can play in the SEC, and the new staff knew that coming in. So someone from the last staff must have told them to look at us, because (offensive coordinator) Alex Golesh, he recruited us hard from Day 1. It was, “Hey, as soon as I can be on the road I’ve got to get there, send me tapes.” Very impressive.
Coach 8: A lot of the small part is when the new staff was coming in and calling and touching base, they weren’t trying to recruit a certain kid. They were just trying to lay a foundation and build relationships with high school coaches. And that’s the way I felt on my end. It wasn’t just they were going after certain schools. They were trying to reach out to a majority of everybody across the board. The previous staff did a good job. We’ve had some kids with Tennessee offers and knew quite a few guys on that staff. I just don’t know if there was as much relationship-building as much as pure recruiting.
For as long as you’ve been dealing with UT, what has changed from staff to staff?
Coach 1: Well, I never saw Derek Dooley. I mean, I never saw him once. Butch (Jones) got the job and was here within a week of getting the job, sitting in my office, and I thought he did a really good job of drawing in the high school coaches in Tennessee. He put on some clinics. I don’t know what kind of coach he was, but he did a good job from that perspective. It’s important to make high school coaches feel important.
Coach 5: Oh man, there’s been a lot. Been too much change, honestly. But some are a little more personable and try to build a relationship with the kid on the recruiting side and get things done, and some are more insightful. We’ve had players through the years that have gone there, but when Coach Jones came in, we had a little gap there. They did an OK job with contact, but they didn’t do a good job in closing on a lot of guys in the area. But Coach Pruitt did a good job recruiting Memphis and getting guys on board. Coach Heupel seems to be on that same train.
Coach 6: Pruitt was a little more, “We’re going after the guys we need to go after and we aren’t wasting time with anyone else. We’ve got to get players.” With Heupel it seems to be more, “The state of Tennessee matters.” And look, there are different philosophies all over the place, and I’m certainly not one to judge any of them. But from the outside and from what I’m hearing on the inside, it sure seems like Tennessee is doing it how it should be done right now.
Coach 7: The way they communicate. Some will say, “Hey, this is me. I’d love to hear from you.” And that’s it. Others will say, “Hey, this is me. I’ll call you in the next couple weeks and see how things are going. If you need anything, let me know.” And they actually follow up. It just depended on the recruiter, really. More the individual person and not really the staff and how personable and intentional they want to be.
Coach 8: Everybody has their own differences. Head coaches approach relationship-building differently. … (Former tight ends coach) Joe Osovet was unbelievable. We felt like our staff here had a great relationship with him. (Former offensive coordinator Jim) Chaney got us over there a couple times. Everything in the last 18 months you have to throw out because nobody could have people on campus. It really wasn’t fair because it wasn’t available to anybody. But those guys stood out on the old staff. On the new staff, they’ve extended things quite a bit with Coach Elarbee. That’s who I have the most experience with and have gotten to know. We’re certainly building some relationships with those guys.
