By Jimmy Hyams
Becoming the first team in school history to go winless in the SEC can shatter the confidence of players.
Going 4-8 – Tennessee’s first eight-loss season ever – doesn’t help, either.
One challenge of Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt and his staff is how to mend the mindset of a beaten and battered team.
When I asked Vols do-defensive coordinator Chris Rumph in a one-on-one interview about the talent the staff inherited, he provided insight into the psyche that was inherited.
At first, he said: “It’s good talent, man. Just good talent.’’
Then, he added: “It’s a little bit like a dog that’s been abused a little bit,’’ Rumph said of UT’s players. “Sort of shy. They don’t really want to look you in the eye.
“If you raise your voice a little bit, they sort of, I don’t want to say cower down, but sort of get in a submissive role. And that’s expected for what they’ve been through. And I’ve been there before.’’
Indeed, South Carolina was 3-6-2 Rumph’s first season as a linebacker in 1991. Four years later, the Gamecocks won their first bowl game ever, beating West Virginia – ironically, the Vols’ season-opening opponent.
So how do you deal with the current crop of Vols?
“We just got to put our arms around them and tell them, `We know where you want to go, allow us to take you there,’’’ Rumph said.
Is it hard to change the culture of a team that went 0-8 in the SEC?
“Yes and no,’’ Rumph said. “If you got the right people and they’re made of the right stuff, you can change them.’’
I asked Rumph, who was hired by Pruitt off the Florida staff, about the compliment paid to him by Florida defensive end CeCe Jefferson at SEC Football Media Days — and if getting the most out of players requires having a good relationship.
“I think so,’’ Rumph said. “The guy has got to trust you. They first got to know you care and you love them become some of the things I’m gonna ask them to do, they gotta know I care about them, that I’m not putting them in harm’s way or I’m not going to do anything that’s gonna make them look foolish or embarrass them.
“So once a kid understands where your heart is and who you are as a person, as a man, I think you can get them to do just about anything.’’
Later, a group setting with media, Rumph expanded on his answer, saying “It’s more than football, it’s life.
“And I tell them all the time, `If the only thing you learn from me is how to tackle, how to sack and all that stuff, then I’ve failed.’ I don’t just want to be a guy that’s going to teach you how to do that. I might as well leave. I don’t want to do that.
“I’m going to teach them how to be a man, how to be a father, how to be a husband, how to treat your wife, how to treat your kids, how to treat people. That’s what it’s all about. If we do that, the world would be great.’’
Rumph said he has tried to impart his influence at his various coaching stops, which include Florida, Texas, Alabama, Clemson, Memphis and South Carolina State.
Rumph said it’s important to help young men mature “unless you want them kicking in your door at night robbing you. If you don’t want that, then teach them. So that’s what we’ve got to do, we’ve got to teach them.’’
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