It would be somewhat hypocritical if Jeremy Pruitt publicly stated he had an issue with the NCAA transfer portal. Tennessee’s coach has a reputation as a coach and recruiter that keeps things on the level when speaking to his players and high school prospects and his stance on one of the biggest storylines of the offseason will only continue to perpetuate that reputation.

Pruitt started his college football playing career at Middle Tennessee State before leaving the school as a transfer to finish out his playing career at Alabama. Considering he made the most of his opportunity to play college football at its highest level, he understands better than many coaches what some of these players are going through when they decide to explore their options.

During his recent appearance at the SEC spring meetings from Destin, Pruitt was asked to share his thoughts on the NCAA transfer portal.

“I don’t see it as a negative, I see it as a positive,” Pruitt said from Destin in a YouTube video posted by the Knoxville News Sentinel. “We’ve had very few [players] that’s went in it. Your talking about someone like myself, who transferred, you know? So I spent two years at a place I really loved at Middle Tennessee. I left there not because I was not happy or because I wasn’t playing, I left there because I had a dream of doing something else.

“So I was able to do that. I look at it as, you know, somebody comes to your school and maybe things don’t work out the way they see fit, they have an opportunity to figure it out somewhere else.”

That’s all players are looking for, a path to the field or an opportunity that’s better than the one they currently may find themselves in. That’s something Pruitt can relate to and will continue to support having been in those shoes himself during his collegiate career.