The coaching staff that Tennessee Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt has assembled on Rocky Top could best be described as "impressive".

Pruitt's staff is loaded with big names — Tee Martin, Derrick Ansley, Jim Chaney, Chris Rumph, Chris Weinke, etc — that have collectively experienced plenty of success in college/pro football.

Anytime a coach has a staff loaded with proven talent developers/recruiters, it's easy to assume that some of the assistants are playing the short game.

In other words, they're already thinking about their next job.

However, that doesn't seem to be the case with Tennessee. The Vols' coaching staff appears to be playing the long game when it comes to their affiliation with UT.

Take defensive line coach Tracy Rocker for example.

Rocker is an Atlanta native, Auburn alum and a former NFL assistant coach. He has no special connection to UT. Yet he's all in as Tennessee's defensive line coach. And his actions show us that he's all in for the long run, not just until the next great job is available.

A recent article from The Athletic's David Ubben tells the backstory of the recruitment of Vol commit Omari Thomas, a 6-foot-5/300 lb four-star defensive lineman from Memphis who is Tennessee's second highest rated 2020 commit.

Ubben mentions in his story that Rocker spent the last day of the 2019 recruiting period on the road visiting Thomas, instead of visiting with a 2019 recruit.

This simple detail tells me that Rocker is 100 percent focused on Tennessee's longterm future. He could've been trying to land a 2019 commit, to help the 2019 Vols, knowing he might be looking to upgrade his job after the season. But instead, he made an investment in the longterm growth of the program, which means he probably plans on sticking around a while.

I have a feeling that Rocker shares this sentiment with his fellow UT assistants.

It's clear that Pruitt has built an incredible family atmosphere at Tennessee. Coaches want to be a part of what's happening in Knoxville.

When every assistant is "in it for the long haul" with a program, it means something special is likely on the horizon.

Tennessee is certainly on an upward trajectory. But they've been here before.

Is this the time the program finally turns the corner and returns to greatness?

It's a tired cliche, but it absolutely applies here — only time will tell.

Featured image via Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports/247Sports