Georgia DC Jeremy Pruitt among friendly foes for Jim McElwain and staff
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Once you become part of the Nick Saban coaching tree, you can expect to run into old friends and colleagues around the SEC. Florida coach Jim McElwain was Saban’s offensive coordinator at Alabama from 2008-2011, and current UF offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier succeeded him in 2012. Defensive line coach Chris Rumph held the same position at Alabama from 2011-2013.
This Saturday, they will be scheming against familiar faces now working for Georgia coach Mark Richt.
“(UGA defensive coordinator) Jeremy Pruitt is not only a great, great coach but a good friend,” McElwain said at his game week press conference. “(UGA linebackers coach) Kevin Sherrer is on that staff. He was with us as well at Alabama. Their strength coach (Mike Hocke) who was with us there. Rob Sale, who I think is one of the finest offensive line coaches, a good young coach, is their O-line coach. Guys that know us well.”
Pruitt rose from being a relative unknown to a coveted assistant in roughly six years. In 2007, Pruitt joined Nick Saban’s staff in an off-the-field role as director of player development. Three years later, he became Alabama’s secondary coach. Nussmeier and Pruitt were both on the Crimson Tide staff for the 2012 season which culminated in a national title. For the 2013 season, Saban-protege Jimbo Fisher hired Pruitt to be his defensive coordinator at Florida State. The Seminoles won the BCS title that year, and Georgia lured Pruitt away from Tallahassee with an offer of an $850,000 salary, now at $1.3 million.
There was a possibility of a third national championship ring in three years for Pruitt, but the Gators spoiled those plans and embarrassed then-No. 9 UGA’s defense in the process.
Last season, Florida’s offense was considered broken after a 42-13 loss to Missouri in which QB Jeff Driskel went 7-for-19 with two interceptions before being benched for true freshman Treon Harris. With two weeks to prepare for Georgia, Florida coaches assessed what they had: an experienced offensive line (four 2015 NFL draft picks), an inexperienced quarterback (Harris) and two capable running backs (current junior Kelvin Taylor and Washington Redskins rookie Matt Jones).
Pruitt’s group clearly wasn’t ready for Florida to run down its throat. Taylor and Jones carried the ball 50 times for a combined 389 yards and four touchdowns. It wasn’t the most complicated scheme either, as Brandon Powell, a running back turned receiver, reminisced this week.
"Last year we ran like two plays on them & they worked the whole game."-@_Powellbp4 on Florida-Georgia #WLOCP
— Kassidy Hill (@KassidyGHill) October 26, 2015
Powell likely has Pruitt’s attention this week. The speedster has shown he can run behind a secondary to get open for Harris, whose passing strength is in the deep ball.
The former defensive backs coach knows he has his work cut out for him after Tennessee QB Joshua Dobbs threw for a career-high 312 passing yards against Georgia in a 38-31 win for the Volunteers. Similar to Dobbs playing for offensive coordinator Mike DeBord at Tennessee, Harris is also a dual-threat quarterback playing for an offensive coordinator with a pro-style background.
Nussmeier didn’t break out any trick plays or show any new offensive wrinkles on LSU defensive coordinator Kevin Steele, also a former Saban assistant at Alabama. The Gators stuck to the same scheme that had gotten them to 6-0. The final score read 35-28 favoring LSU, but of Florida’s four touchdowns, one was heavily assisted by a muffed punt deep in Tigers territory, and another came on a punt return. Steele’s scheme of attacking UF’s inexperienced offensive line kept many of Nussmeier’s play calls from ever being executed as designed.
McElwain and Nussmeier have more time to put their heads together in preparing for Georgia and Pruitt. QB Will Grier’s suspension was announced Monday morning of the LSU game week. With UF on a bye last week, the Florida coaches received two full weeks to review the game tape of Harris, the playbook and the strategy for the final five weeks of the regular season.
The winner of the McElwain/Nussmeier vs. Pruitt chess match could be the deciding factor in Saturday’s Florida-Georgia game, and ultimately a trip to the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaign of Fred Taylor.
