KNOXVILLE – The low point of Tennessee’s football season last fall became a pivotal moment for that campaign and perhaps the entire program thanks to the working relationship forged by Coach Jeremy Pruitt and his players.
The coach stayed calm and remained confident in the Vols after an embarrassing 1-4 start. The players responded, in turn, by trusting Pruitt’s stewardship. The Vols tightened their ranks and several veterans moved to the forefront with leadership.
Together, they managed a reverse pivot and steadily built momentum in the right direction, finishing with six consecutive victories.
The synergy created from the experience was on display Friday somewhere other than Neyland Stadium. The circumstances were the driving force behind this teamwork.
Ten football players along with Pruitt, defensive coordinator Derrick Ansley and director of player development Kerry Stevenson were among the crowd of approximately 1,000 people who gathered in downtown Knoxville at a Black Lives Matter rally held in conjunction with the death of George Floyd last week in Minneapolis.
According to a report in “The Athletic,” the players were unaware that Pruitt would join them at an event in which the passenger in a drive-by car serenaded everyone, regardless of color, with the N-word.
The players also didn’t know that they were going to speak. But when the floor was opened, they opted to make their way to the stage from the back of the crowd.
Offensive lineman Trey Smith pulled down his mask, which he was wearing as a precaution against COVID-19, grabbed a bull horn and cautioned against social distancing regarding empathy.
“We have to come together and understand each other,” Smith said. “Reach out to people who don’t look like you. Get to understand the struggle they come from. Without understanding, nothing will change.”
Fellow lineman K’Rojhn Calbert followed by dropping his mask and his guard in pleading, “We’re supposed to help one another. We’re supposed to love one another. We’re supposed to be there for one another.”
He equated the situation to Pruitt’s coaching, practice reps and doing “the small things correctly each and every day and each second, each minute.”
“Until we get the small things correct,” Calbert said, “the big things like this will keep going on.”
Pruitt concluded Tennessee’s time up front by thanking the crowd and saying that the event was an example of “doing it the right way.”
“This is what we have to do and we have to do it together,” he said.
Pruitt expressed an eagerness last week to address this issue with his players. They were returning to campus for offseason conditioning next week in accordance with health and safety guidelines mandated by the SEC and administered by the university. They lent their voices to a momentum that’s sweeping in its scope.
Consider the visceral reaction to comments made by New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees and his subsequent about face. He went so far as to contest a tweet from President Trump.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, in turn, released a minute-long video Friday night saying that the league was “wrong” for not listening to the players earlier about inequality and police misconduct and encouraged “all to speak out and peacefully protest.”
With each passing day, the narrative seems more like a sea change than a hot flash. Pruitt was smart to engage his players on the topic and support them with his presence on Friday.
It wasn’t a small thing but rather a big, healthy stride in the right direction for all of them.
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Dan Fleser is a 1980 graduate of the University of Missouri, who covered University of Tennessee athletics from 1988-2019. He can be reached at danfleser3@gmail.com.