By: TJ Hartnett

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

A new era has begun at the University of Tennessee: the Jeremy Pruitt era. After five years of varying success under Butch Jones (and two games under interim coach Brady Hoe), the Volunteers are hoping to see a resurgence under this new leadership.

Pruitt comes from the winning ways of FSU, UGA and Alabama and has already begun to make his mark, shaking up the way the Vols are going to play football and shaking up the roster as well.

After the chaos of 2017, it seemed like Pruitt was being brought in to lead Tennessee through a rebuilding period but Pruitt, apparently has other plans. With fall camp finally upon us, let’s dive in and look at a preview of things to come for this new head coach and his team as the season’s first kickoff rapidly approaches.

The first thing to watch will be seeing how the team adapts to a new style of offense.

The spread style that Butch Jones implemented worked with Joshua Dobbs but no one else. With a cadre of passers on the roster and more traditional, a pro-type offense could see success. There will also be a heavier reliance on backs for big plays, with the hope that Madre London and Ty Chandler will step up and be big pieces of the puzzle for the Vols.

Preseason should be an intriguing time in Tennessee, as the transition to this new style will be more telling than it was in the spring.

A key piece to the success of the offense will be whoever wins the positional battle for quarterback. Sophomore Will McBride and freshman JT Shrout are competing for the slot but the competition is really between sophomore Jarrett Guarantano, who made six starts in 2017, and senior graduate transfer Keller Chryst, incoming from Stanford.

Guarantano has an arm to be excited about but the offense faltered under his guidance last year.

Chryst brings a leadership presence to the locker room and, perhaps just as important, a familiarity with the pro-style offense the Vols will be using. Either young man could see the majority of snaps this year.

QB is far from the only position battle the Vols will be hosting during camp this year: tight end will pit incumbent sophomore Eli Wolf (brother of the NFL’s Ethan) against 4-star JUCO transfer Domick Wood-Anderson.

Wood-Anderson came with much fanfare, having been courted by the likes of Nick Saban at Alabama but Wolf comes with experience.

One of the most intriguing differences between the Vols’ squad from last season until now is the number of upper classmen transfer that have showed up on the roster. By bringing in these players it seems clear that Pruitt doesn’t want to settle for a rebuilding season and is ready to win often in 2018.

The dynamic of the locker room is sure to be shaken up compared to where it was in the spring, especially with so many of these transfers being looked at for starting roles. It remains to be seen how the returning players will react to this mass immigration.

Another big change comes in the form of a shift to a 3-4 defense after five years at 4-3.

This might be a tough pill to swallow (just look at the struggles of recent teams who’ve made this change like UGA under Mark Richt or even Tennessee under Derek Dooley).

The defense implemented this change in the spring and looked bad doing it. If Pruitt and Kevin Sherrer plan to stick to it, expect some growing pains in Rocky Top.