While the vast majority of Tennessee fans may be tired of hearing about the growing pains necessary a program often needs to experience before achieving success on the football field, that’s what occurred on Rocky Top in Year 1 under Jeremy Pruitt. Now the big question in Knoxville is how far can the second-year coach elevate his program having been through a season of growing pains?

Pruitt now has arguably the best set of assistant coaches in the Southeastern Conference heading into spring football and his program just signed a top 15 recruiting class filled with players that are expected to come in immediately and contribute in some capacity.

During a recent appearance on “The Paul Finebaum Show” on the SEC Network, Pruitt offered up plenty of commentary on his expectations heading into Year 2 on Rocky Top.

on the upcoming start of spring football:

“It’s pretty exciting times for everybody associated with our program. This time last year, there wasn’t as much familiarity with our roster. During the spring, we had guys moving from offense to defense, defense to offense, tight end to running back, just back and forth. In the second year, we have a very good idea of where everybody needs to start. We have a plan for the guys we recruited and the guys that are coming in. You would like to see a lot of development, when it comes to the players, when it comes to the next five to six weeks of spring ball.”

on what Pruitt learned in Year 1:

“Getting here in January of last year, there were lots of things we wanted to change, whether it was in the weight room or nutrition, as far as how we are dressing, facility wise, there are lots of things you are trying to establish in Year 1. For the coaching staff to get used to, for the players to get used to. In the second year, we haven’t had to do any of that, we’ve been able to focus on our players and their development.”

on what Pruitt has personally learned:

“I think it’s important to delegate. You’ve got to trust people to do their job and I think we have really good assistant coaches. We’ve made a few changes this offseason and I’m excited about the changes that we have made when you look at our staff. Our staff has been a part of 16 national championships and I think that says a lot about their ability to develop players wherever they have coached and it gives you an opportunity to recruit to these guys in the future.”

on adding Jim Chaney and Tee Martin to his staff:

“Jim has experience in this league, which I think is important. He has done it a bunch of different ways. If you go back to his days at Purdue, he probably threw it 90 percent of the time. When he was at Tennessee previously, he was very balanced, in his years at Georgia, they were probably a little more run-dominant, so that tells me he is a guy who figures out who his best players are and finds a way to utilize them in his offense.

“Tee is a guy that’s very familiar with the University of Tennessee, obviously won a national championship here as a quarterback. Has a great reputation as a coach. I had an opportunity to coach against him when he was at Southern Cal, he did a tremendous job as a recruiter, he has done a fantastic job over the years at developing receivers.”

on the progress of his offensive line:

“Well, we have two guys that are actually mid-year enrollees in Wanya Morris and Chris Akporoghene. Chris had a little procedure he had to get done on his knee, may miss the first couple of days of spring ball but he will be back. We added five guys up front. We need depth there but I think if you look, what our strengths staff has done in a year’s time, there are several guys that have put on 30 and 40 pounds in a year. It gives us an opportunity to compete and have some depth there.”

on how the success of the basketball team has affected his football program:

“It’s definitely helped us in recruiting. It’s been very positive when you are in the home and our basketball program is playing on ESPN every night and really having a lot of success. It’s an opportunity when you have a home game and you can bring prospects in and they can experience the atmosphere like we had this past Saturday (against Kentucky). You got 21,000 fans and (the recruits) can see and feel the passion of the University of Tennessee, it definitely helps recruiting.”