Nice commentary Cats Fan. Yes Tennessee has tradition and a winning history. Like the media was promoting recently, college football is better when Tennessee is relevant. That relevancy has only been short lived and Tennessee's most recent legacy has been choking big games and underachieving. Coaches with the inability to use it's talent via clever play calling/offensive, defensive schemes to provide a platform in which the players they have can succeed. This is the challenge for these new hires...taking the players they've been left with and supplementing with their recruits as seasons accrue. I believe the reason Tennessee cannot land a HC with a proven track record in P5 football is it's recent history with coaches and their fate following a stint at UT. What is the ceiling for a former UT football coach? Return to assistant coaching, next job at a lesser institution, rehab under Saban? Taking the HC job at UT is typically a coaching suicide. Look at the fiasco of Pruitt's hire, noone wants to go thru what Leach went thru in dealing with UT admin. Taking the UT job means you have to show above average progress by year 2. UT fans are sick of losing, sick of excuses, sick of the public relations push for the present coach to keep his job till he can turn it around(???). IMO, UT has survived all this by hanging our hat on a 22 year old national championship. This leads us to take a look at UT administration and athletics hierarchy. Would you take a job in which Judas Brutus was your boss? Dave Hooker posted an article that supports a conspiracy theory by Pruitt's boss. Wouldn't be out of character. How much control does JP have in Knoxville? Does JB come to practices? Is Jeremy having to keep one eye on his backside with Phat Phil a reported regular visitor to practices? Who would want to deal with that? Fulmer has handcuffed the UT football program by hastily reviewing Pruitt's body of work and throwing money out to keep him. Long time Vols will always have difficulty with the disrespect JB showed his former boss, one of the finest men to ever grace Shields Watkins Field/Neyland Stadium-John Majors. There's much more, but no top shelf coach is going to sign on in Knoxville with a weak AD and Fulmer's history. The fastest and most sure way to see change in Knoxville is to send Judas packing(his buyout is much less), hire a PROVEN athletic director, let him evaluate and work with Pruitt to identify the real issues with turning around the CULTURE of UT football. If Pruitt can somehow develop good players he has and feels he has everything at his disposal to be successful rather than be stabbed in the back or fired in the next 18 months, we may see him be able to get Ws. A proven AD can diagnose the issues, work with the HC to establish a strong staff that can develop players. At the present time the continuity between JP and Cheney seems compromised. Vol fans have been fired up about having two quality RB's and someone should be able to teach these WR's how to get seperation on routes...this has been one of Guarantano's biggest problems with success, no one is ever open. So Cat Fan...the problem with football at UT is hanging our hat on a 22 year old championship season and trying to use that to fuel the program for the next 3 decades. Hand Phil his walking papers and you'll see change at UT.

Good day to fire Brutus. Cheap buyout. Get it done and let's find a real administrator to dig thru the real reason Tennessee can't make a change.

Desperate Dave? Judas Brutus is the problem not the solution. UT football has been on the decline since we relieved him of his duties and the course of action has been a series of bad decisions on coaching hires including Judas' own hire of a good man without the experience to lead this team back to relevance. UT has dug a hole it will not soon get out of and the ones suffering thru this are the players presently at UT and the fans who can only dream of a return to respectability. Judas should be relieved of his position and hire a qualified AD who can sort thru this. In order to change the culture of losing and mediocrity bold steps have to be taken and know-it-all media, fans and onlookers don't know what the real problem is without learning the real reason UTK can't find real change in it's football program. It's easy to point a finger at Guarantano, Cheney, the deposed line coach and so on and so forth. The truth is everyone is sick of losing and a team that can only put together one half of decent football. EVERYONE is suffering thru this and the person ultimately responsible is Brutus. The 2020 UT football culture is the PRODUCT of UTs administration, AD, HC, OC, coaching staff and on down the line. These players are not being given a platform in which to win. Some commenters point to Brutus as to having a hidden agenda and its a potentiality but Dave, c'mon, this is a ridiculous idea you point to continuing the same culture, the same failed experiments and another 10 years of trying something different. Been there done that. Put a man in the AD position and give him control and let him filter thru Pruitt's methods and ability. Obviously due to JB's decision to extend Pruitt, firing the man now is no good option until it's determined he really can't get the Vols into a winning culture. How much will the next UT win or return to relevance cost? Due to the changes of 2020 economics must play into the decision making of what to change in order to get change. Send Judas along his way and let's truly change UT football for the future.