Considering the mess he inherited in Knoxville, Jeremy Pruitt understands the Tennessee program has a ways to go before reaching the championship standard he is accustomed to as a college football coach. Having known only success during his decade of college coaching, Pruitt clearly knows a winner when he sees one.

Now coaching in his first spring on Rocky Top, Pruitt is undergoing the process of determining how many winners he has on his roster. The Tennessee coach offered up his thoughts on his spring practice schedule and what he’s evaluating from the players he’s mostly inherited during his Monday appearance on the SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum Show.

“We’ll have eight practices then we’ll scrimmage for the first time,” Pruitt said on the show. “You can find guys that can do well in drills, you can find guys that do well in 11-on-11 then you find guys that do well when you get in the stadium in scrimmage and really show up and you find guys that disappear.

“So we’ll have two scrimmages in practice nine and practice 12. To me, the real test is the spring game because we are actually going to play a game. I want to see how guys respond. Hopefully, we’ll have the stands full — so they’ll be some added pressure there, some excitement. See how guys respond that way.”

Pruitt was then asked about the progress of Tennessee’s quarterbacks to their new offensive system. It’s worth noting that Stanford graduate transfer quarterback Keller Chryst, who has already signed with Tennessee, has yet to arrive on campus.

“So far this spring, our guys have done a nice job trying to lead by example,” Pruitt continued. “The big thing we are harping on is taking care of the football. One thing about playing quarterback, it takes the other guys to do their part also. So the offensive line has to protect, the wide receivers have to run the correct routes, the running backs have to be involved in protection. We are asking guys to do things in the run game.

“It’s a little bit different from what they’ve done in the past but they are headed in the right direction.”