When Jeremy Pruitt brought in Craig Fitzgerald as his strength and conditioning coordinator, both coaches made it apparent that there would be some drastic changes to the way Tennessee approached that aspect of the football world.
Now just a few months after his hire, Fitzgerald’s vision is nearly complete.
A couple weeks ago, Fitzgerald was featured in a video showing the beginning process of tearing out the floor and completely re-working Tennessee’s weight room. Now it appears as though that work is nearly completely finished.
Bert Biffani, one of Pruitt’s defensive quality control coaches, tweeted out this picture of the weight room on Friday morning:
Christmas came early for @UTCoachFitz with this new weight room! #PoweredByTheT ??? pic.twitter.com/I8n1YxHwST
— Bert Biffani (@CoachBertB) May 4, 2018
Then a few hours later, Tennessee’s official football Twitter account when on a tweeting spree showing off the new weight room.
The first video Tennessee sent out showed the crew working on putting together the free weight machines in preparation for the final procedures:
Move in day for @UTCoachFitz and the strength staff! ?️♂️#PoweredByTheT #WORKDAY pic.twitter.com/UcucHMORPb
— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) May 4, 2018
Fitzgerald himself tweeted out a video of the equipment being carried in to the actual facility:
#RacksonRacksonRacks #PowerT #WorkDay pic.twitter.com/mrY8nrL2z4
— Craig Fitzgerald (@UTCoachFitz) May 4, 2018
Then Sorinex, the company who provided the equipment, tweeted out that a “world class program deserves world class strength tools” along with a picture of a fully constructed set-up:
World class program deserves world class strength tools. #poweredbytheT #sorinex @Vol_Football @Vol_Sports pic.twitter.com/4feGJhvBaL
— Sorinex Exercise Equipment (@Sorinex) May 4, 2018
Fitzgerald was hired away from the Houston Texans when Pruitt brought him in to serve as Tennessee’s strength and conditioning coach. Fitzgerald had been with Houston since 2014 and had been the director of strength and conditioning at Penn State and South Carolina previously.
Strength and conditioning has been an area Tennessee has struggled in over the last few seasons. The Vols have had an inordinate amount of injuries the past two seasons, and Fitzgerald is the fourth strength and conditioning coach Tennessee has had over the last four years.
