Vols football commitment at an all-time high

When Jeremy Pruitt was introduced as Tennessee's head coach on Dec. 7, new athletic director Phillip Fulmer was asked directly about the program’s financial commitment to football moving forward.

The former Hall of Fame head coach had been on the job less than a week, but since Pruitt was coming from Alabama, where the investment of resources into football is the benchmark for every school in the country, it was a pertinent question.

Is there a plan to expand Tennessee’s commitment to football?

At the time, Fulmer admitted he wasn't clear on what all Alabama was doing, but the new AD acknowledged his program would do whatever it took to be competitive.

“I have to get into it a bit more to know what Alabama has done,” he said

“Whatever they have done has been very successful. We will commit to being competitive with the top of this league. I will leave it at that.”

Nearly five months later, the first-time AD has certainly backed up those words.

The school’s 2018 football salaries for new head coach Jeremy Pruitt, strength and conditioning coordinator Craig Fitzgerald and the 10 on-field assistants is over $10 million — easily a school record total in money allocated.

Pruitt will make $3.8 million in 2018, which currently ranks fifth in the SEC behind only Nick Saban, Jimbo Fisher, Dan Mullen and Gus Malzahn. Kirby Smart will jump Pruitt in the near future once his raise his announced.

Tennessee’s strength coach and 10 on-field assistants are set to make more than $6 million this year. In 2017, former Vols coach Butch Jones made $4.1 million, while nine on-field assistants plus strength coach Rock Gullickson made $4.975 million.

So in Pruitt’s first season, his on-field staff will make $1.025 million more than Jones’ final staff ($9.075 million) at Tennessee. Additionally, five of Pruitt's assistants are on 3-year contracts, while none of Jones' assistants ever had a deal with a 3-year term.

The Vols are definitely still playing catch-up to Alabama — the Tide’s nine on-field assistants, not including strength coach Scott Cochran, made over $6 million in 2017 — but their increase in support, on and off the field, is noticeable.

One of the key components to the “Alabama model” is building a deep support staff.

In 2016, CBSSports.com reported that the support staff salaries — including the entire recruiting office, video department, strength staff, training staff and equipment staff — for both Alabama and Clemson were over $3 million.

Schools can have 10 on-field coaches, five strength and conditioning staffers and four graduate assistants, per NCAA rules, but support staffs are unlimited. As are their salaries. Alabama has taken full advantage of that liberty for years.

Last May on a radio show, former Tennessee coach and Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin said the Tide’s was so big that “I was there three years, and I still didn't learn everybody's name in that building. There were so many people. There's somebody for everything. (Coach Saban) has a very large staff of a lot of people. Obviously, he's done that so he that he's got all areas covered and everybody for something.”

Under Pruitt, the Vols are aggressively getting into that game now, too.

Remember what Tennessee’s head coach said at his introductory press conference?

“Let's get our hands out of our pockets. Let's roll our sleeves up. Let's get ready to get in the streets with everyone else in the SEC,” Pruitt said.

“Let's not talk about it. Let's go do it.”

They are.

Already, Fulmer has given Pruitt the green light to follow the Alabama model, significantly upping its level of commitment with administrative and off-field support staffers.

In Pruitt’s first season with the Vols, his quality control analysts and administrative salaries combine for $1.236 million, per an open records request by VolQuest.com.

It’s an increase of nearly $533,000 compared to Jones’ final staff at Tennessee, which totaled $703,398 in 2017.

Last year, Tennessee listed seven quality control coaches who were interns or analysts. Those seven were paid a total of $355,850, per open records.

Pruitt's first staff has eight quality control coaches, one of whom is actually a volunteer coach. Combined, the seven analysts will make $351,200.

The difference with Pruitt's staff is the administrative positions and salaries. Butch Jones' 2017 staff had four player personnel staff members, who made a total of $347,548.

Pruitt has five administrators with a job title of player personnel or player development, and that doesn’t even include “assistant to the head coach” John Lilly. Combined they make $660,000.

In 2017, Jones’ director of football operations Jake Kirkendoll made $85,000. Pruitt's ops director Todd Watson is making $225,000. In total, the seven administrative positions are making $885,000. That's double the salaries Tennessee paid out for similar positions in 2017.

VolQuest.com did not compile the numbers or salaries of the entire recruiting office, video department and training/equipment staff, as those positions are still being filled and managed. The changes will certainly add to the new bottom line, though.

Pruitt still has additional positions to fill, too, as his on-campus recruiting coordinator Makenzie Franklin is departing the program, per sources, and that position is expected to command a six-figure salary in 2018 — nearly doubling what it was in 2017.

Pruitt also moved Patrick Abernathy from the position of high school relations coordinator into a player development role, so that position is open as well, should Pruitt elect to fill it.

What’s most notable about Tennessee’s increase in resources and support under Pruitt is the school’s new philosophical change of reinvesting in the football program.

The money has been there for years. Now they’re spending some of it — both on staff and facility upgrades like redoing the weight room floor for the second time in less than five months.

Tennessee led the SEC in both revenue ($109 million) and profit ($80.6 million) in 2015-16, per the U.S. Department of Education athletic filings as reported by TheAdvocate last June. However, the Vols ranked in the middle of the pack in expenses, spending almost half ($29 million) of what Alabama ($56.1 million) put back into its football program.

Fulmer has charged Pruitt with turning around Tennessee's program. He's allocating him the resources to do it, too. The reality is that the cost of playing football in the SEC is greater than it's ever been.

Pruitt knows it. Fulmer understands it, and Tennessee's payroll ledger in 2018 shows it.