First-year head coach Jeremy Pruitt and Tennessee are making the rounds at SEC Media Days Monday. Pruitt is joined by senior defensive lineman Kyle Phillips, junior wide receiver Marquez Callaway and junior tight end Eli Wolf.
SEC Media Days is being held at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta this year, marking the first time the event has taken place outside the Birmingham area since its inception in 1985.
Pruitt says that offensive lineman Trey Smith will be on the field when fall camp starts. The freshman All-American missed spring practice with an undisclosed medical condition.
"Our medical staff did a fantastic job recognizing Trey's situation during the spring," Pruitt said. "Trey's gotten great reports, he's doing everything he's supposed to do and we're excited to have him back this fall."
RESPONDING TO AARON MURRAY'S CRITICISM
Former Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray criticized Pruitt, questioning if he had the right personality to be a head coach.
“I don’t know if his personality is fit to be a head coach. I don’t,” Murray told the radio station. “As a head coach, there’s so many things that go into it. It’s not just going out there and coaching. You have to deal with front office. You’ve got to go talk with the president of the university. You have to deal with boosters. You have to deal with the offense, the defense. It’s not just going in there and dealing with the kids and scheming up. There’s a lot that goes into it."
“When he was at Georgia, the way he acted, the way he treated Coach Richt I thought was poor. He wasn’t as respectful as I thought a defensive coordinator should be to a head coach.”
Pruitt was the defensive coordinator at Georgia for the 2014 and 2015 seasons. Murray played quarterback for the Bulldogs from 2009-2013.
Pruitt was asked about Murray's comments on Wednesday.
"First of all I haven't exactly heard what it was but I'll say this, I don't really know Aaron, I have a lot of respect for the kind of player he was. I coached against him," Pruitt said. "I look at it like this, 15 years ago I was a kindergarten teacher and today I'm the head coach at Tennessee. You probably don't make that ascension unless you know how to treat people."
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