Tennessee AD Phillip Fulmer ready recruit with Jeremy Pruitt

It’s like old times right now in the Tennessee football offices. Phillip Fulmer has taken over the AD position after John Currie’s debacle of a coaching search. With Fulmer’s office just down the hall from Jeremy Pruitt, the two are now working together to scrape together a recruiting class.

In an interview with Volquest, Fulmer spoke on why he chose Pruitt to lead the football program.

“The intensity. He’s an unbelievably organized guy,” Fulmer said. “The interview went so well, we connected, he believes in the things that I know are important in this conference — being physical at the line of scrimmage, playing great defense, not turning the ball over — we just really connected. In the end, he won the day with his energy and enthusiasm.”

Fulmer’s next comments were interesting. We knew that Fulmer was making calls to recruits before he hired Pruitt, but it appears that he’s ready to make an impact on the trail.

“I hired (Pruitt) and the next day he’s got six coaches here out recruiting. I passed my test, so I’m ready to hit the road here for a little bit. I’ve made a lot of phone calls. So there’s a sense of urgency about (Pruitt) all the time.”

With the impending early signing period rapidly approaching, having Fulmer helping out for a little bit can’t hurt.

“I want (Tennessee) to be great again. It’s energized me,” Fulmer said. “I’ve enjoyed lots of things about not coaching, but you like to compete. We’ve really got a great opportunity in front of us. We’ve probably tripled the number of guys that we’re looking at. I like the way we’re going about it.”

There’s a lot of “we” comments there. I’ll be interested to see if this is a temporary thing or if Fulmer continues to help out once Pruitt finds his footing and stops playing catch up.

You can listen to the full interview with the guys from VolQuest here.