KNOXVILLE – Jeremy Pruitt and Tracy Rocker both spoke on Monday and addressed the same topic. All that separated the two Tennessee football coaches was their perspective.
Pruitt, UT’s head coach, considered the defensive effort that went into last Saturday’s 20-10 victory over Mississippi State during his Monday press conference more in terms of execution and how the performance projects long term. A foreboding challenge looms on Saturday with a visit to No. 1 Alabama for a 9 p.m. kickoff.
“We are changing the line of scrimmage a little bit more,” Pruitt said. “Are we where we need to be? Heck no. We’ve got a long way to go before we stay on the other side of the line of scrimmage and control blockers and have a good understanding of exactly how to play it up there, but we are improving.”
Rocker, Tennessee’s defensive line coach, addressed the Knoxville Quarterback Club. While reviewing the Vols’ performance, he stayed true to a belief that he shared in August during his lone media session, namely the importance of buoying players’ confidence. The former All-American defensive tackle at Auburn recalled for Monday’s audience how then-Tigers coach Pat Dye emphasized playing above all else before games.
“One thing he told us before we left that locker room: All the mistakes belong to me. You just go play,” Rocker said. “And I never forgot that.”
Contrasting the words of Pruitt and Rocker on Monday wasn’t as dramatic as this summer. Days before Rocker’s lone media appearance two months ago, Pruitt had appraised UT’s defensive linemen as having an elementary school student grasp of their work and compared it to driving with your eyes closed.
Rocker wasn’t as caustic with his analogy, saying instead: “It’s like a roller coaster. It will start and you’re like ‘oh we’re going to have a great one’ and then it all comes down and goes back up.”
At the time, the difference in their tact recalled for yours truly the synergy between former Lady Vols basketball coach Pat Summitt and her assistants. Summitt was the demanding taskmaster while the assistants picked up any pieces of shattered confidence.
Last Saturday amounted to a stunning upswing on the roller coaster ride. The defense had seven sacks and 10 tackles for lost yardage. Three of the sacks and 5.5 of the TFLs were recorded by Rocker’s linemen.
“The effort and toughness were not an issue,” Pruitt said.
Safety Nigel Warrior related the defense’s performance to Rocker’s encouragement.
“Coach Rocker said, ‘when we were younger, we all had that little boy that just wanted to play football no matter what,’ ” Warrior said. “We came out to play like those little boys.”
Defensive end Matthew Butler on Tuesday offered his interpretation of Rocker’s message.
“When Coach Rocker says that he just means don’t go out there worried about what might happen or being coached the next day,” Butler said, “or worried about how tired you may get. Some people played every snap. Some people played five of them.
“When you’re a little kid, you get out there and your first snap, it could be your only snap. And you go back home and you tell your mom, ‘Hey I got one snap. I played great.’ That’s what that was about.”
Butler appreciates what Pruitt and Rocker both are trying to convey. Wedding exuberance with execution is, well, elementary in terms of improving performance.
“We’re playing a much better team this week,” Butler said. “So when we’re technically sound as far as fitting hands, fitting gaps, things like that, we can make big plays versus better teams.”
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Dan Fleser is a 1980 graduate of the University of Missouri who covered University of Tennessee athletics for the Knoxville News Sentinel from 1988-2019. He may be reached at danfleser3@gmail.com.