KINGSPORT, Tenn. — The Big Orange Caravan this month provided Phillip Fulmer the chance to harken back to his days as Tennessee's coach, when the annual post-spring tour allowed him the chance to travel and mingle with is fan base.

Unfortunately it's also presented the opportunity for more people to bring up the Vols not winning an SEC game last season.

Fulmer has about had enough of those reminders.

"Every time somebody says 'oh-and-eight,' it sickens my stomach, to be honest with you, from where I know Tennessee athletics, period, should be in all sports, but Tennessee football particularly," he said before Thursday night's Caravan finale in the Tri-Cities.

"That gets the juices going. We have the most passionate fans that you could ever imagine. This crowd, we had somewhere between 800-1,000 in Atlanta, 600 or 700 in Nashville. We have great passion here, and we'll get this football thing fixed. It's just going to take a little bit of time."

The Caravan has given first-year football coach Jeremy Pruitt the opportunity to get up close and personal with the fans who will be filling Neyland Stadium and cheering for his team this fall and beyond, and he's been well-received in those settings this month.

He wasn't entirely unfamiliar with how passionate the following is for Tennessee's football program, and though were no surprises for him on this tour, he has gotten a singular sense from his interactions this month.

"Growing up, I knew all about the Tennessee fan base," Pruitt said. "One thing that they've done, they've not really disappointed everywhere we've went for this Big Orange Caravan. You can see the passion. Everybody's hungry, everybody's ready to get started. They can't wait. It's a good thing."

Pruitt said he can sense the desire from Tennessee's fan base for the Vols to start winning again, and he doesn't want them settling with their hopes and expectations.

"When you talk to the fan base, I think everybody at Tennessee is extremely hungry," he said. "We all want the same things. We probably, you know, everybody's talking about, 'Well, we just want this, we want that.' Maybe we need to raise our standards a little bit as a fan base."

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Fulmer obviously knows Tennessee on a much deeper level having played for the Vols, worked his way up the coaching ladder there and taking the program to the ultimate glory with a national championship 20 years ago.

He knows as well as anybody how rough it's been for Tennessee and its supporters the past decade, and that makes those people showing up in droves and lining up well in advance for events such as Thursday's all the more impressive.

"What we've been through in the last 10 years, you cannot question the passion, the support of the Tennessee fans and Tennessee family," Fulmer said. "That's one of our greatest strengths. We have lots of history and tradition and all that, but one of our greatest strengths is our fans."