One of the more impressive accolades for Jeremy Pruitt was the streak of top-10 defenses he commanded after he became a defensive coordinator full time. It started with 2013 FSU, continued from 2014 to 2015 at Georgia, and concluded at 2016 and 2017 Alabama. This streak obviously did not continue at Tennessee (#72 defense in S&P ratings for 2018), for good reason. The Volunteers were by far the worst situation Pruitt has ever walked into, and Pruitt quickly realized how bad things had gotten under the previous staff.
Now he is on a mission to rebuild the defense with his own guys, while trying to get the most out of players who were there before he arrived.