Tennessee football: committing to a foundation of strength
Remaking Tennessee football bodies
When Jeremy Pruitt committed to Tennessee, he committed to reshaping the Tennessee football culture, and he started with reshaping Tennessee football bodies. Former UT head football coach and current athletic director Phil Fulmer supported the commitment by budgeting an increase of a quarter million dollars on strength and conditioning salaries .
“The person besides the coaches that has the most contact with our student-athletes on a day-to-day basis is the strength and conditioning coach and the staff,” Phillip Fulmer told USA TODAY Network – Tennessee. “That’s huge in what we’re doing in any program.”
investing in salaries
With an annual salary of $625,000, Craig Fitzgerald is one of only two strength coaches earning north of 600,000 a year along with Iowa’s Chris Doyle. Butch Jones‘ entire strength staff made a combined $650,000.
Fitzgerald’s four assistants, A.J. Artis, Michael Farrell, Byron Jerideau and Shaq Wilson, clock in and out each day with a $70,000 a year rate.
“The person besides the coaches that has the most contact with our student-athletes on a day-to-day basis is the strength and conditioning coach and the staff,”
“It seems to me, right now, our investment is paying off,” Fulmer said, reported bt Blake Toppmeyer, USA TODAY Network – Tennessee. “That’s a long-term deal. Like I said the other day, you don’t sprinkle magic dust and all of a sudden gain 50 pounds and become the strongest guy in the conference, but over a period of time, we’ll see a great dividend from that.”
Fitzgerald is overseeing other renovations to the Tennessee weight facility as well.