Tennessee fans are now beginning to see tangible evidence of what kind of coach Jeremy Pruitt is following the big 30-24 win at Auburn on Saturday. Immediately after that win, Tennessee’s coach didn’t shower his team with praise, but instead, questioned why they allowed the Tigers to score a meaningless touchdown with under a minute left to play in the game.

Vol Nation should get used to that type of attitude from their coach, as Pruitt is well aware of the attitude and mindset necessary to win big in the SEC. That’s something that came thru during his recent appearance on the Sunday Knoxville-based WMNL radio program The Nation, which is hosted by ESPN’s Chris Low and Volquest’s Austin Price.

Here are the highlights of everything asked of Pruitt on the show:

On the big win over Auburn:

“My 24 hours is up, I’ve already started working on the next opponent,” Pruitt joked on the show.

On how the team has responded this season:

“I think our kids have really tried to improve. We’ve challenged them, every step of the way. And I think when they watch the tape tomorrow, they’ll see that we didn’t play as good as we possibly could. Auburn had something to do with that. But we’ve got to play better if we’re going to have a chance down the road.”

On forcing turnovers and the play of his defense:

“Well, we need to get more turnovers then we give up, for sure. I think it helps. That’s probably the bright spot from yesterday, we did get three turnovers. We had a goal line stop to hold them to a field goal.”

On what this win means for the team:

“Well Chris, I’ve been expecting to win every game we play. So, we finally put 60 minutes together. It wasn’t perfect, but we did find a way. To me, we’re going to go back and work tomorrow just like we have every week, and we’ll continue to do that as long as I’m here.”

Lessons learned by his team after six games:

“Very similar to the first five games: There’s lots of lessons to be learned. When we play well and execute, we have a lot of success. When we don’t, the other team does. Again, it’s about the people in the room, that we control the outcome and, if we play our best ball and execute at a high level, we have a chance to have success.”

His initial thoughts on facing Alabama:

“I know the personnel, they got really good personnel. Mike Locksley does a fantastic job spreading the ball around. They are big up front, they have experience. They have good tight ends, good runners. Two good quarterbacks and enough wide receivers to go around for everybody in the SEC.”

On Jauan Jennings:

“I think Jauan is a winner. He loves the University of Tennessee, has a lot of passion for this program and wants to see us at our best. I’ve said all along, he’s not been healthy he had a knee injury, missed spring. Just kinda got healthy in fall camp and it takes a while to get back into playing shape. He’s finally getting back to 100 percent.”

On the fan support from Vol Nation:

“Well, I have never questioned the passion that the fans have for this program. To see our fans there, they have been there, it has been great everywhere you go. Everywhere you go, you can see the spirit and passion for Tennessee football and I’m glad our guys can deliver a performance that can make them proud.”

On where his team has grown the most:

“I just think we’re so inexperienced. We’re kind of learning to jell together, if it’s offensive line, if it’s quarterbacks and wide receivers, guys bouncing around on defense. I mean, we should get better as the season goes. That’s what all teams do, or good teams do, and we’ve got to do that. We’ve got a long ways to go, we aren’t even close to playing our best football. We have got to continue to work hard every day… and hopefully, good things will happen.”