Jeremy Pruitt’s first spring in Knoxville begins this week as Tennessee will host its annual Pro Day event Monday before spring camp opens on Tuesday. While the task at hand for Pruitt and his coaching staff may be daunting to begin with and the results won’t come overnight, the Volunteers have a chance to progress in the right direction this spring.

The first step in the process is installing the team’s new offense, defense, and special teams units this spring. During a Sunday appearance on Sports Radio WNML radio show The Nation, Pruitt was asked to share his spring installation plan.

“We are going to stick to the plan that all the guys that sit around the table, the coaches here, that we are accustom to. From a defensive standpoint, it’s always the middle of the field the first day,” Pruitt said on the air.

According to Tennessee’s new coach, the Volunteer staff will take around six practices to install their main systems, starting from the inside and working their way out before returning to teach the finer points of their systems.

“You just build it, have a teaching and progression plan and you have the same thing on special teams and offense that we are going to stick with. So, I guess you could say we are putting in everything (this spring),” Pruitt added.

When asked about the quarterback competition this spring, Stanford graduate transfer Keller Chryst has signed his letter of intent with Tennessee but won’t arrive until after spring football, Pruitt said every position on the roster is open for competition at this point.

“I think it’s going to be the same at every position. We have multiple drills going on at one time; we’ll be two-spotting so everybody in our organization will be getting the same amount of reps,” Pruitt continued. “Obviously, the people that are healthy need to take advantage of the reps they get. The people that are here need to take advantage of the 15 days that they’ll get. Everyone is going to get the same amount of reps. After each practice, we’ll evaluate each play, on each field, each rep and we’ll see who can do what we want them to do most consistently.”

Perhaps the most concerning position for Tennessee heading into 2018 is the offensive line. Despite having several talented prospect on the roster, the unit has struggled in recent seasons. Now with Trey Smith’s status moving forward unclear, he won’t participate on the field this spring, Tennessee is down its best offensive lineman.

The man tasked with fixing the issues up front is Will Friend. Pruitt acknowledged that Friend is one of his best friends, but that’s not why he was hired by the Tennessee coach.

“Having the opportunity to put a staff together here, he was the first guy that I was going to call. It had nothing to do with our friendship. I got other friends that’s in coaching, I didn’t hire them,” Pruitt said. “I tried to hire the best people and I feel like he’s the best OL coach we went against in the last several years. When I was at Alabama, we played him in 2012 when he was at Georgia. He does a nice job from a schematic standpoint. He makes it easy on the kids to understand. He’s very demanding and he’s technical and his guys play at a high level.”