re: Ugh... Pruitt rumor picking up a little steam.

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Pruitt rumor picking up a little steam.

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how much he liked and wanted to work with CMR

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Perhaps the biggest question arising from Jeremy Pruitt's hiring as Georgia's new defensive coordinator is why Florida State didn't do more to keep him.

In his first year on the job in Tallahassee, the former Alabama assistant led a Seminoles unit that was No. 3 in the nation in total defense and Florida State won the national championship. Surely FSU coach Jimbo Fisher would have done everything he could to dissuade Pruitt from leaving.

But Pruitt, in his introductory press conference Wednesday in Athens, said he didn't give Fisher a chance.

"Me and Coach (Jimbo) Fisher are very good friends, and I decided that this is what I wanted to do. I let him know and that was it," said Pruitt, who will reportedly make $850,000 in his new position after earning a base salary of $540,000 at FSU.

"There's no doubt that (the SEC) is the best conference in the country, and I feel like the University of Georgia is the best school in the conference," he added. "I wouldn't be here today if I didn't think so."

Georgia coach Mark Richt said Pruitt's resume -- which also included two national titles during a stint as Alabama's secondary coach from 2010-12 -- was a "no-brainer," and his friendships with coaches already on Georgia's staff lent insight into his character.

"One thing I like to do before I hire guys is to find out what he's about and the only way you can do that is to hopefully know someone who knows them," Richt said. "Obviously he knows Will Friend, he knows Mike Bobo, he knows Bryan McClendon, and so you want to talk to people who really know him. I know he can coach ball - that's obvious - but tell me what kind of person he is. Is he going to do it the way we want to do it around here? Is he going to take care of these players the way they should be taken care of by disciplining them in love and taking care of business and knowing that academics is crucially important and knowing that we want them to grow up to be a better man?

"He just has to be himself to get that done, I'm 100 percent convinced of that. That makes me more excited than anything when I talk about doing things the Georgia way. He just has to be himself, and it's going to come natural."

Pruitt, who received applause from Georgia players as he entered the room for the press conference, said he learned of the job through his weekly talks with Friend, his old college roommate at Alabama. He recalled his first meeting with Richt as a high school coach 11 years ago, which left him with the impression that he wanted to work with the Georgia head coach one day.

"In 2003 I was a high school football coach at Fort Payne High School and I brought some prospects over here to Georgia and I had the opportunity to sit down with Coach Richt," Pruitt said. "That was the first time I ever met him, and when I walked out of that room 30 minutes later I was wowed. My father looked at me and said, `That's what college football is all about.' I said right then and there if I ever had the opportunity to work for him that I wanted to be a part of his staff.

"I'm just thankful that I got the opportunity to come to the University of Georgia, and hopefully we'll get this thing going where Coach Richt has a vision for it going."

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