KNOXVILLE — As Jeremy Pruitt goes through his first spring practice season as Tennessee’s head coach, numerous VFL’s have been around the program and taken in practice to see the new coach at work.

Among the most notable observers: Former UT player, assistant and head coach Johnny Majors.

“I have been to a couple of practices and to me, like any other situation with someone new in any business or any sport, time will tell,” Majors told Saturday Down South. “But I think he has a very good background and has a very good chance to be successful at the University of Tennessee.”

Majors’ background is similar to Pruitt in that both were raised in a football family.

Majors played high school football for the Huntland Hornets of Franklin County (Tennessee), winning the state championship in 1951 under his father, Shirley, who was the head coach at Huntland from 1949-1956 with a record of 70-1-1. Shirley later became the head coach at the University of the South, Sewanee, from 1957-1977.

Majors is the oldest of four brothers who all played football for their father at Huntland.

“My father was the high school coach for four of us Bill, Joe, Larry and me, we all four played for him,” Majors said. “Bill, Larry and I went into the coaching profession and we have a pretty good idea what good coaching is after being coached by a great coach in our Dad and we have been around some outstanding people. He (Pruitt) has a background that is very solid and he has every possibility to be successful because of his background.”

Pruitt’s father, Dale, has been a high head coach of 34 years in Alabama and had a two-year stint in Marion County (Tennessee), compiling a 283-133 overall record in 36 seasons. Jeremy’s brother, Luke, is serves as their father’s current defensive coordinator at Albertville High School in Alabama. Luke also played for his father in high school.

“His father has been an extremely successful coach in high school and he grew up with it,” Majors said of Pruitt. “He has also coached with some outstanding head coaches that he has been an assistant under and has been very successful at Florida State, Georgia and Alabama.”

After meeting with Pruitt, Majors realizes the first-year UT head coach has the ability to succeed at Tennessee. Majors said he will be around as much as Pruitt wants him to be.

“We had about a 35-minute talk in his office and I told him if there is anything I could do to help without sticking my nose in his business, I would,” Majors said.

“He is very straightforward and certainly I hope he is successful, I have a strong belief that he will be because of his background of his father and on up to who he played for in Gene Stallings and Boots Donnelly; those two college coaches are very good friends of mine and were very successful head coaches. Good coaching maximizes your talent and he has the making to be successful here.”

Pruitt has assembled an experienced coaching staff with a winning pedigree and familiarity with each other. That recipe is ideal for Pruitt being a first-time head coach. Majors also had a solid coaching staff for his first head coaching job at Iowa State in 1968.

“I had some outstanding coaches that I chose carefully and so many of them became head coaches,” Majors said. “My first staff I had Jimmy Johnson, Jackie Sherrill, Larry Lacewell (Arkansas State, 1979-1989) and Ollie Keller (Northeast Louisiana) who became head coaches.”

Regardless, Pruitt still faces a learning curve. His background, as well as his staff’s, will help ease the transition.

“It was a continuous learning process because I never failed to ask people questions that I respected,” Majors said of what helped him. “My foundation was built on having an outstanding background from great coaching. My father in high school and Tennessee coaches Harvey Robinson, Bowden Wyatt, George Cafego and Frank Broyles at Arkansas. I built my first coaching job on people that I learned from at Tennessee, Mississippi State and Arkansas.

“I didn’t have many reasons to be a failure because of the background I had and I attribute a big part of my success to the people I played for, coached for, and was raised by. I continued to try and learn through the years when I was an assistant coach and I never felt that I was too proud to learn and I was always anxious to learn anything I could from good people. So I think he (Pruitt) has a good background.”