Tennessee football: committing to a foundation of strength

Hiring process

When filling his staff, Pruitt looked to coaches he served with and knew well.

It makes sense for new head coaches to hire people they have worked with. There is nothing a new head coach needs more from a new staff than loyalty and commitment to a vision, and a coach finds that among those he knows best.

How then did Chad Fitzgerald end up on the UT staff?

"“You know, when you start calling around and asking folks, ‘Give me some guys,’ his name kept coming up. His name kept coming up. I was going to interview him, he called me and said, ‘You know what, I can be in Tuscaloosa at such-and-such,’ and I said come on then. I knew that based off just that meeting, his desire to be there, he was a guy that we wanted in the program.”"

Targeting a key coaching hire is one thing. Luring that coach to your program is another. How did Jeremy Pruitt lure Chad Fitzgerald from the NFL’s Houston Texans to Knoxville?

Money had a lot to do with it.