Fulmer acknowledged that Tennessee’s “passionate” fans “want to win,” but he said “it’s going to absolutely take time and a lot of effort” to get the Vols’ program back where they want it to be.
“They want to win just like we want to win,” Fulmer said of Tennessee’s fans. “I get it. I’ve been there, OK?
“I know what a coach looks like. I know what a team looks like when they practice. We’ve had to learn how to practice here. And we do. We practice well now, and that took us awhile. And then physically we didn’t have a whole lot of 300-pounders and hardly anybody that benched 400 pounds. Now we’ve got a bunch of those guys on each side of the ball, so we’re getting there.
“But it’s going to take time. It’s going to absolutely take time and a lot of effort, and you can bet Jeremy Pruitt is as bought in as anybody could possibly be bought into the University of Tennessee.”