WATCH: Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt discusses Aaron Murray and Kirby Smart’s wife

Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt had to deal with pointed criticism from former Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray, but he also entertained media with a story about Kirby Smart's wife at the 2018 SEC Media Days in Atlanta.

Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Posted 1 month ago

ATLANTA — Jeremy Pruitt’s first SEC Media Days experience will be one he’ll remember, for better and worse.

The new Tennessee coach and former Georgia, Alabama and Florida State assistant was as polished as he has been in front of cameras since assuming the Vols’ head football job on Dec. 7, and he needed every bit of that poise.

Pruitt’s highlight was in the electronic media room when he had reporters rolling in laughter.

Asked about his relationship with Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart. Pruitt told the story about driving the wife of Georgia head coach Kirby Smart to the hospital when she was going through labor pains while the two were assistant coaches at Alabama in 2007.

Driving Mary Beth Smart to hospital

Earlier, Pruitt was asked about critical comments made by former Bulldogs quarterback Aaron Murray.

“When he was at Georgia, the way he acted, the way he treated Coach Richt I thought was poor,” Murray said of Pruitt via the Knoxville News Sentinel’s Blake Toppmeyer. “He wasn’t as respectful as I thought a defensive coordinator should be to a head coach.”

Pruitt defended himself in his opening media availability with the Knoxville media on Wednesday, saying,

“Fifteen years ago, I was a kindergarten teacher. Now, I’m the head coach at Tennessee. You probably don’t make that ascension without knowing how to treat people.”

Pruitt addressed the question again in the electronic media room on Wednesday afternoon

Driving Mary Beth Smart to hospital

Jeremy Pruitt asked about Aaron Murray criticism