The immediate message from Jeremy Pruitt following his first Orange & White spring game was loud and clear, the effort wasn’t good enough from his team.

In his post-spring game press conference, the Tennessee coach challenged not only his players but some of Vol Nation that failed to show up and watch the program’s spring game in Neyland Stadium. He believed some of his players quit during the game and mentioned that again in his Sunday afternoon appearance on Knoxville-based Sports Radio WNML radio program The Nation.

After voicing his displeasure with the way some of his players responded after getting down big in the spring game, Pruitt was asked what exactly his message was following the game.

“We want to be the best. If we are going to be the best, we can’t talk about it, we gotta try and do it in everything we do,” Pruitt answered on the show.

The Tennesse coach was then asked to discuss how long it would take for him to create the competitive environment necessary in Knoxville to turn the Volunteers into one of the nation’s elite programs. In his answer, Pruitt suggested the additional players arriving this summer should help.

“I think it’s hard to put a timetable on it,” Pruitt answered. “I think getting in 14 guys coming in from this last recruiting class. There’s 12 players on our current team that didn’t participate in the spring game and there possibly could be more there. Close to 30 guys when you add to what was out there yesterday that could create competition itself.

“When you talk about the expectations of how to go about your business every day, to me it’s when people are invested in what they are doing, they have no problem confronting people that aren’t. So, I don’t know when that timetable will be but it will happen — the sooner the better.”