Every die-hard Southeastern Conference fan knows the old adage of recruiting in the nation’s toughest league – always be recruitin’.

That’s something Jeremy Pruitt was well aware of long before he took over the Tennessee program but it’s a lesson that’s remained with him into the new decade as the leader of Vol Nation shared a simple message to anyone listening during his latest media availability.

If you missed it, Pruitt was a recent guest on Knoxville-based WNML’s program “The Nation” on Sunday and offered up the following comment when asked about his team’s strong close to the season and the support Vol Nation has shown his latest team, despite their slow start that had many nationally writing off Tennessee.

“Well, you know, for everybody that’s associated with Tennessee, that’s probably the expectation,” Pruitt said on the show. “But when you talk about recruiting, if you are sitting there as a recruit and you look and see how our players responded when we were 1-4 to finish 8-5, how our fan base stayed with us. How could you not want to be a part of this?”

It’s been stated here before but Tennessee rides into the offseason riding a six-game winning streak. The only Power 5 conference teams on a longer streak? The two teams set to meet in the upcoming College Football Playoff National Championship Game — Clemson and LSU.

Tennessee has not been associated with nationally elite programs in several years, but thanks to Jeremy Pruitt, they are beginning to make that climb once again. If the Vols are going to make that jump in the years to come, he’ll need some elite players to help him get there, which is why he will use any and every opportunity he has to recruit for his program.