Jeremy Pruitt brings a lot to the table as the new head coach for Tennessee.

He has been a part of three national championships (2009, 2011, 2012) during his time on the staff at Alabama from 2007 to 2012, and was the defensive coordinator at Florida State when it won the 2013 national championship.

His background is well suited to turning around a Vols defense that gave up 500 or more yards four times this season.

Here are six things likely to be on Pruitt’s to-do list for improving the defense:

Fundamentals

Pruitt’s number one priority in spring practices will be getting back to fundamentals.

Pruitt will preach communication, tackling and simplifying schemes to lay down a foundation and culture to build on. Once that foundation and culture are established, Pruitt will instill a mindset of believing limitless results are attainable.

Playing to personnel

Pruitt has no issue playing different schemes, his only concern is to make sure he is putting his players in a scheme that suits them and gives the team the best chance to be successful. There will be times his defense lines up with three down linemen, and then other times it will employ four. His formations are determined based on what the opposing offense brings to the table, which allows his defense to adapt to any opponent.

“I think it’s important that you play the best personnel that you have,” Pruitt said during his introductory press conference. “If, for instance, offensively, you have three good tight ends, it’s pretty foolish to put two of them on the bench. It’s the same thing when you’re playing defensive football.

“If you’ve got two really good linebackers and five really good defensive linemen, then we probably need to be playing those five defensive linemen and those two really good linebackers.

“I think that’s part of it, especially with me having a high school background. There’s some years that the three-technique weighs 300 pounds and there’s some years that he weighs 150, but I’m going to tell you that in Rainsville, Alabama, they want to win regardless.

“You have to find a way to be adaptable, be flexible, and that’s what we’ll do.”

Passion and ownership

Much like the characteristics he displayed during the introductory press conference, Pruitt will stress passion from his players. He mentioned during the press conference that it is important for players to take on the personality of their head coach. He also stressed taking ownership in getting better, something that can help quickly turn around a suffering defense.

He said everyone needs to take ownership in everything that they do.

Positive energy

Pruitt addressed the roles he wants to see his players take as they transition into his program.

“It starts with positive energy,” he said. “We all have to be positive, we all have to be pulling in one direction, and if we do that and we’re all in, we’re going to get what we want.”

Perfection

Pruitt will makes his players perfect their craft by playing assignment football.

Former linebacker Bryan Matthew Jordan, who played under Pruitt at Hoover, tells Saturday Down South that the new Tennessee head coach won’t accept mediocrity.

“If we made a mistake, he would make us do it until we got it correct,” Jordan said. “Pruitt is a heck of a motivator and would have us ready to play to our full potential. He is very disciplined and won’t put up with any trouble from anyone.”

Handling the defense

With Pruitt taking the reins of his first head coaching job, questions surround how he will handle the defense on top of running the entire program.

“It’s important as a head coach to be involved in all the day-to-day operations, whether it be the weight room, nutrition or academics,” he said.

“My name will be on this program. If my name is on it, I am all in. Everything is going to go through me.

“On Saturdays, we’re going to know when it’s fourth-and-one at the 32-yard line. Not only are we going to know whether or not we’re going to go for it — because we have already talked about it — we are going to know what play we are going to run.

“It’s the same deal in the kicking game. When (the opposing team) scores a touchdown and kicks it off to us, we’re going to know what kind of return we are going to have. We are going to go through that, but I am going to be involved in everything.”