Orange defense
Blood runneth orange in my veins
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Vol calls: How Pruitt recruits during the season and more
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Orange defense
Blood runneth orange in my veins
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HOUSE QUESTION FROM JOHN FROM KENTUCKY
Question/comment: “Hey, Coach, I was just wondering how much stock you guys put into recruiting, just being a fan you pay attention to a lot of the rankings and things like that, but how do you address this during the season and kind of balancing that with practices and things like that?”
Bob Kesling: “Now, he’s from Kentucky, but he is wearing orange, so we’ll make sure we get that out there.”
Pruitt: “That’s a good thing, I was going to go over there and lock the Anderson Center up before I left. You know, we try to recruit every single day, whether it’s evaluating high school prospects or whether it’s talking on the phone or texting. I have a group of guys that I try to text every single day. I try to watch film of at least five guys a day, usually Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays are my big days to when I watch film. On Wednesday nights and Thursday nights, try to talk to prospects. You get one phone call a week. We kind of divvy it up, but our whole staff, like on Wednesday nights, as soon as practice is over with, we devote an hour to watch tape for that week. If you’re not recruiting every day, then you’re probably getting behind, so it’s just kind of the way the business works now. You have to kind of have a good plan and you have to go execute the plan.”
On how the Early Signing Period has sped up recruiting:
Pruitt: “I think it has sped it up. Right now we’re six weeks till signing day. You think about, six weeks from signing day used to be about Christmas. You thought you could get a lot done from Christmas till signing day, if you needed to catch up on somebody or go find somebody. I think if you’re not careful, as an assistant coach, it can slip up on you. You’ve got to do it every single day, because the time is now. The days of when the season’s over with you now start recruiting, those days are over with. When the season’s over with, it’s signing day.
"… It does (require more people), and the NCAA continues to try to cut down the (number of) people, so it’s amazing who makes the rules, probably somebody that’s never even played football or recruited. But yeah, you have to bring people in (for visits) in the offseason, whether it’s April or May or June. You can do that, or you bring them in during the season and the bad part about it is is the official visit used to be the most important visit, because it was a 48-hour visit. Now you got guys that want to come in during the season because they get it paid for, right? So a kid from, let’s say the state of Texas or Florida or anywhere can jump on a plane on a Saturday morning, be in Knoxville and catch a game and fly out on Sunday. You’re talking about 24 hours, so you don’t get to spend, as a coach we’re going to coach the players on our team right now. You don’t spend a whole lot of time with them. You’re talking about it’s a very small window on Sundays, but it’s why one thing that does give us an advantage is our fan base, to see the Vol Walk, to see the passion of the fans and how important football is to the state of Tennessee and this University. That’s a positive.”
Since the early signing period has sped up, I think these coaches have to work even harder now. Seems like they have to recruit with less coaches, if I read Pruitt right?
Question/comment: “Hey, Coach, I was just wondering how much stock you guys put into recruiting, just being a fan you pay attention to a lot of the rankings and things like that, but how do you address this during the season and kind of balancing that with practices and things like that?”
Bob Kesling: “Now, he’s from Kentucky, but he is wearing orange, so we’ll make sure we get that out there.”
Pruitt: “That’s a good thing, I was going to go over there and lock the Anderson Center up before I left. You know, we try to recruit every single day, whether it’s evaluating high school prospects or whether it’s talking on the phone or texting. I have a group of guys that I try to text every single day. I try to watch film of at least five guys a day, usually Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays are my big days to when I watch film. On Wednesday nights and Thursday nights, try to talk to prospects. You get one phone call a week. We kind of divvy it up, but our whole staff, like on Wednesday nights, as soon as practice is over with, we devote an hour to watch tape for that week. If you’re not recruiting every day, then you’re probably getting behind, so it’s just kind of the way the business works now. You have to kind of have a good plan and you have to go execute the plan.”
On how the Early Signing Period has sped up recruiting:
Pruitt: “I think it has sped it up. Right now we’re six weeks till signing day. You think about, six weeks from signing day used to be about Christmas. You thought you could get a lot done from Christmas till signing day, if you needed to catch up on somebody or go find somebody. I think if you’re not careful, as an assistant coach, it can slip up on you. You’ve got to do it every single day, because the time is now. The days of when the season’s over with you now start recruiting, those days are over with. When the season’s over with, it’s signing day.
"… It does (require more people), and the NCAA continues to try to cut down the (number of) people, so it’s amazing who makes the rules, probably somebody that’s never even played football or recruited. But yeah, you have to bring people in (for visits) in the offseason, whether it’s April or May or June. You can do that, or you bring them in during the season and the bad part about it is is the official visit used to be the most important visit, because it was a 48-hour visit. Now you got guys that want to come in during the season because they get it paid for, right? So a kid from, let’s say the state of Texas or Florida or anywhere can jump on a plane on a Saturday morning, be in Knoxville and catch a game and fly out on Sunday. You’re talking about 24 hours, so you don’t get to spend, as a coach we’re going to coach the players on our team right now. You don’t spend a whole lot of time with them. You’re talking about it’s a very small window on Sundays, but it’s why one thing that does give us an advantage is our fan base, to see the Vol Walk, to see the passion of the fans and how important football is to the state of Tennessee and this University. That’s a positive.”
Since the early signing period has sped up, I think these coaches have to work even harder now. Seems like they have to recruit with less coaches, if I read Pruitt right?
Orange defense
Blood runneth orange in my veins
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DAYTON, TENN.
Question/comment: “Hey, good evening. Coach Pruitt, so glad you’re there to add a little bit of color since Brad and Brent have a problem with that. But, anyway, long story short, Coach, it’s been documented very well that you love coaching defensive backs. What characteristics do you look at when you’re trying to recruit an elite defensive back?”
Bob Kesling: “We thank Heath for his first and only appearance on ‘Vol Calls.’”
Pruitt: “Three things: Can they play the ball in the deep part of the field? Can they play man-to-man? And can they tackle in space? If you can do those three things, you can play and you can really play any position, so that’s what we’re looking for.”
Hilarious...
Question/comment: “Hey, good evening. Coach Pruitt, so glad you’re there to add a little bit of color since Brad and Brent have a problem with that. But, anyway, long story short, Coach, it’s been documented very well that you love coaching defensive backs. What characteristics do you look at when you’re trying to recruit an elite defensive back?”
Bob Kesling: “We thank Heath for his first and only appearance on ‘Vol Calls.’”
Pruitt: “Three things: Can they play the ball in the deep part of the field? Can they play man-to-man? And can they tackle in space? If you can do those three things, you can play and you can really play any position, so that’s what we’re looking for.”
Hilarious...
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Makes ya appreciate a guy like Wright last year. He wouldn't say nuthin' so we didn't have false hope just hope.... Maybe we flip a guy or two, it can go both ways. What I have not heard is this years Henry recruit. Anyone know a national guy we are targeting that may come down to the wire? The Tennessee 4*s seem to be the only news...
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