SEC Week 9 Primer: Auburn is on its way up. Jeremy Pruitt may be on his way out
Everything you need to know about this weekend’s SEC slate.
Game of the Week: Tennessee at Auburn (-11)
The stakes
Vibes, mostly. At 4-2, Auburn is feeling pretty good – or at least better than it was a month ago, anyway, when it looked like the season was sinking fast following an upset loss at South Carolina. That seems like a long time ago. The Tigers’ most recent game, a Halloween humiliation of LSU, flipped the script from dread to opportunity: With division leaders Alabama and Texas A&M on deck, Auburn would love to come out of the weekend looking a team hitting its stride at exactly the right time to pull off a late, dark-horse run in the SEC West.
Tennessee’s season has taken a much darker turn, with the optimism of a 2-0 start rapidly disintegrating over the course of a 4-game losing streak. The Vols were barely competitive in rivalry dates against Georgia and Alabama and listless in double-digit losses to Kentucky and Arkansas. They rank in the bottom half of the SEC in nearly every major category on both sides of the ball. The quarterback situation remains perpetually unsettled. And the schedule only gets steeper to close out the year.
In a normal year, the din surrounding Jeremy Pruitt‘s future would be too loud to ignore and the buyout clause in his contract would be required reading across the state. Tennessee went through all of this last year. As it actually stands in 2020, which is about as far from normal as it could be, the situation is clouded by both the seat-of-the-pants aspect of the season in and the financial fallout – despite the precedent set by Will Muschamp’s $13 million ouster at South Carolina, Pruitt and his staff could be literally too expensive to fire. But at the rate it’s going, without some hint of progress on the field they’re surely about to find out.
The stat: 27.4%
That’s Tennessee’s success rate on 3rd-down conversions, dead last in the conference this season and on pace to be the worst of any SEC offense in a decade. (The last SEC team to come in below 28% on 3rd down over a full season: Vanderbilt in 2010.) The Vols have failed on at least 2/3s of their conversion attempts in every game but one, topping out at 46.2% against Missouri.
Numbers that bad are an all-purpose issue. Even on a more granular level, the Vols come in well below the Mendoza line in almost every specific 3rd-down situation, rushing and passing, regardless of the distance to gain:
The margin on passing downs is especially pronounced, reflecting another glaring, season-long trend in the splits: The huge gap between QB Jarrett Guarantano‘s production on 1st down vs. his output on 2nd and 3rd downs. On 1st downs, with the full playbook at his disposal, Guarantano has generally looked like the battle-tested senior that he is, averaging 9.6 yards per attempt with 9 completions of 25+ yards and 5 touchdowns to 1 interception. (Passer rating: 169.9.) On 2nd and 3rd downs, when he’s more likely to be putting the ball in the air out of necessity rather than by choice, his line plummets to 5.2 yards per attempt, 3 completions of 25+ yards, and a single touchdown vs. 2 INTs. (Passer rating: 103.4.)
Guarantano’s favorite target, Josh Palmer, in particular, has done virtually all of his downfield damage this season on 1st-and-10 – most notably on 4 TD receptions in the 25-to-40-yard range, all opposite man-to-man coverage, that account for some of the best throws of Guarantano’s career.
QB Garrett Guarantano pour WR Josh Palmer. TD Vols !
South Carolina 24, Tennessee 31 pic.twitter.com/zBKIY4FVae
— TBP College Football (@thebluepennant) September 27, 2020
Josh Palmer just went up and got it. pic.twitter.com/CJFXj2Ihcd
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) October 10, 2020
After further review TD Josh Palmer! @Vol_Football #PoweredByTheT pic.twitter.com/Lono7M13ME
— CBS Sports HQ (@CBSSportsHQ) October 10, 2020
Josh Palmer with his 4th TD of the season #Stateside5 @FlowerCitysOwn pic.twitter.com/2VwlDXxe5J
— Krown Gridiron Nation on TSN (@KGNonTSN) October 24, 2020
Given the opportunity, that’s a throw Guarantano can make on a more or less routine basis against any defense (see also: his other TD pass vs. Alabama, a 38-yard rainbow to freshman Jalin Hyatt), a significant point in his favor in defending his status as the de facto starter over an unknown quantity like true freshman Harrison Bailey. Obviously, after 4 years and 31 starts, the fact that the pro-Guarantano column can be largely boiled down to one narrow set of circumstances is not encouraging, to say the least. But if it’s too late for sustained, consistent growth on passing downs, the occasional flash could still be the difference in a 4-quarter game that Tennessee has a chance to win late and yet another lopsided slog.
The big question: Has Bo Nix turned the corner?
Speaking of sustained, consistent growth! Nix’s 381-yard, 4-touchdown romp against LSU came at exactly the right time for him, reviving his flagging stock and resetting expectations over the second half of the season. Now the hard part: Carrying that momentum through an extended break into what can still be a very meaningful stretch run.
It’s important to keep in mind Nix is still just a sophomore. But his 18 consecutive starts ranks 2nd among active SEC QBs behind only Kellen Mond, and the one thing no one has accused him of in that span is consistency.
According to ESPN’s QBR metric, his grades in the last 2 games against Ole Miss (85.1) and LSU (92.9) represent the best back-to-back performances of his young career – hot on the heels of 2 of his worst days in losses at Georgia (52.0) and South Carolina (50.6).
Quite the ride. Volatility notwithstanding, Auburn has invested in Nix for the long haul, and he’s still at the stage when the peaks tend to justify the valleys. Keeping the arrow moving in the right direction in 3 straight games would be another reassuring step toward that investment actually paying off.
An underrated reason for the uptick: Nix’s mobility. Excluding sacks, the last 3 games against South Carolina (12 carries for 85 yards), Ole Miss (8 for 59), and LSU (11 for 81) are the 3 most productive rushing outings of his career, a timely reminder of why he was billed as a dual-threat as a recruit. (On the other side of the coin, Guarantano, who also came in with the dual-threat label, has never looked comfortable or been notably productive as a runner.) First-year coordinator/play-caller Chad Morris doesn’t emphasize designed QB runs to the extent Gus Malzahn typically has in the past, but it’s always nice to know it’s there.
The verdict
Although Nix is trending up as a passer, Auburn’s offense has really been defined so far by the resurgence of the ground game, which has racked up 200+ yards in 4 straight games since settling on aptly named freshman Tank Bigsby as the feature back.
Bigsby ranks 3rd in the SEC in all-purpose yards and leads the league with broken tackles on 38.2% of his carries; only Kentucky’s Christopher Rodriguez and Texas A&M’s Isaiah Spiller average more yards after contact. He’s the kind of workhorse that Malzahn’s best teams have always had, and that they’ve sorely missed the last 2 years.
Meanwhile, Tennessee’s defense has trended steadily downward against the run, allowing a slight increase in yards per carry in every game. Pruitt canned first-year d-line coach Jimmy Brumbaugh after an embarrassing second half against Kentucky, assuming those duties himself only to give up virtually identical numbers in the losses to Alabama and Arkansas. If the Vols continue to struggle to hold up against Auburn’s bread and butter between the tackles it could be one of those kinds of nights in Jordan-Hare.
– – –
Auburn 33, Tennessee 17
Kentucky at Alabama (-30)
Kentucky’s veteran secondary has been a strength this season, currently sitting atop the SEC in yards allowed per game and per pass, and only narrowly trailing Bama in pass efficiency. Will that make any difference when it comes to covering DeVonta Smith and John Metchie III? Survey says no. But even if the Tide’s receiving corps is missing some pop minus Jaylen Waddle, the Wildcats’ mediocre run defense is at the mercy of Najee Harris, who’s due for a big day.
– – –
Alabama 41, Kentucky 16
LSU (-2.5) at Arkansas
More surreal: That Arkansas, a team barely a month removed from the end of a 20-game conference losing streak, actually opened as a slight favorite over the defending national champs? Or that the bets subsequently flipped that spread in favor of a short-handed LSU outfit in disarray? Even in the context of a year in which almost anything seems possible, the idea of rating this game as essentially a pick ’em 6 weeks ago would have been too absurd to consider.
And yet. Here we are. The X-factor on Saturday will be LSU’ s true freshman quarterback, TJ Finley, who has one very good outing in relief of the injured Myles Brennan (17/21, 265 yards, 2 TDs/1 INT, 208.9 efficiency vs. South Carolina) and one very bad one (13/24, 143 yards, 0 TDs/2 INTs, 87.6 efficiency vs. Auburn), which he’s now had an extra week to mull over.
Whatever hope might have existed of LSU’s defense rounding into form was extinguished in the loss to Auburn; meanwhile, Arkansas’ offense has found itself on the suddenly steady arm of Felipe Franks, who’s posted a stellar 191.3 passer rating over the last 3 games with 8 TDs and no turnovers. (Not coincidentally, the Razorbacks have also eclipsed 200 yards rushing as a team minus sacks in each of those games.) The only question is whether Finley is able to keep pace against the Hogs’ opportunistic-but-vulnerable secondary.
– – –
Arkansas 36, LSU 31
Florida (-31.5) at Vanderbilt
Last year’s meeting in Gainesville was the most lopsided game of the conference season, a 56-0 slaughter in which Florida outgained Vandy by 442 yards and limited the ‘Dores to a long gain of 17. This one will not be that bad, if only because Vanderbilt has an actual quarterback now in true freshman Ken Seals, who is visibly growing into the job as the year wears on. The 11 a.m. local kickoff isn’t ideal for the Gators, either, but at the end of the day Kyle Trask will get his numbers, Vandy will crack the scoreboard, and everyone will forget this one ever happened by sunset.
– – –
Florida 48, Vanderbilt 13
Mississippi State at Georgia (-25)
Georgia’s defense will win this one by itself against an MSU offense that ranks dead last in the SEC in scoring and yards per play. Worse than Tennessee, even worse than Vanderbilt … and that’s including the output from the Bulldogs’ opening-day bonanza at LSU, which is already in the books as one of the most misleading performances of all-time. In the weeks since, MSU has been a slow-motion wreck with no end in sight.
The real drama here is on Georgia’s offense: All signs out of Athens this week point to USC transfer JT Daniels making his long-awaited season debut as UGA’s starting quarterback, a move the fan base has been clamoring for since Daniels was medically cleared to play in late September. Presumably, his health and mobility have prevented him from seeing the field in the meantime, since the steadily deteriorating play of Stetson Bennett IV and D’Wan Mathis certainly has not. If Daniels is a hit, it will be a huge boost to the Bulldogs’ championship prospects in 2021; it will also spark a new round of recriminations for keeping him nailed to the bench in their losses to Alabama and Florida.
– – –
Georgia 32, Mississippi State 10
Missouri (-6.5) at South Carolina
Both rosters are in dire straits. At South Carolina, the Gamecocks are down 5 defensive starters for various reasons, most notably starting cornerbacks/top draft prospects Jaycee Horn and Israel Mukuamu, who opted out of the rest of the season after Will Muschamp was shown the door over the weekend. At Missouri, the Tigers are reportedly down to 54 available scholarship players following WR Dominic Gicinto‘s exit from the program earlier this week – just 1 player above the SEC-mandated 53-man minimum required to make the trip. If they still manage to get the game in it might be the most grim spectacle of corona ball yet.
– – –
Missouri 27, South Carolina 24
Scoreboard
Week 8 record 3-0 straight-up / 1-2 vs. spread
Season record: 33-10 straight-up / 22-21 vs. spread
The Vols can’t seriously be thinking of firing Pruitt already. Its not even been three years. No coach can turn around a program in three years…err, except Dan Mullen.
I would agree if there was visible improvement for the Vols. There isn’t. So it’s anyone’s guess.
UT had a Bowl game last year along with 8 wins in a row.
They lost to Bama and Georgia, nobody expected a win from either game.
Kentucky is playing great this year, and Arkansas seems to have had found their stride as well.
If UT beats Auburn this weekend all bets are off.
lets listen in,
Butch
Missouri beat Kentucky! Tennessee beat Missouri! How is that working? Missouri was not ready and the quarterback just got started after been away for a year from a knee injury. Slowly getting better and getting the reps.
Kentucky is playing great this year? Err, no.
Taggart only got 22 games at FSU before being fired. Big time programs aren’t waiting around anymore, they want to win now or at least show some improvement.
The average tenure for a college head coach is 3.8 years.
Wow. Didn’t think it was that short. Sounds like the average NFL career.
At some point they have to stick with a coach, I mean not forever but at least through more than a couple recruiting cycles. Pruitt’s recruiting has improved, they are a better team than they were 3 years ago but I think the streak gave the media and many of their fans a false sense of how good they actually were. It was a little unrealistic to think they were ready to compete with Bama, Fla and GA already. Yeah the KY loss was a bad one, but to fire Pruitt and start completely over because of one bad loss after a pretty good winning streak is probably an over reaction.
Booches….that Tennessee winning streak was against a bunch of piss poor teams and was very misleading. Tennessee has not progressed under Pruitt and to name Guarantano as starter week in and week out is a coaching fail. I’m not suggesting that Pruitt is on the hot seat right now, but it’s definitely warming up, especially with only one sure win left on the schedule.
They weren’t all bad teams. Indiana was and certainly isn’t a bad team. But they weren’t Top 10 teams and yeah, that’s exactly why I said I feel it gave them a false sense about competing against top caliber teams.
Missouri was one of them! LOL
Booches94, In other words your say the same thing about Missouri. Should have kept Odom. That is pretty much the same situation but recruiting was not good. Tennessee did beat Missouri this year and was that their biggest win this year?
@TrueLefty: Many felt Odom did deserve another year, citing all the NCAA garbage that was going on. But if you want a Mizzou comparison then what I’m saying is in other words I’m glad they didn’t fire Pinkel after 4 mediocre years. Mizzou finally figured it out recognizing he was bringing in better talent, much like Pruitt is at TN right now, and they gave him an honest chance to build a program.
If TN wants to keep hiring new coaches every 3 or 4 years that’s fine but it wont get them where they want to be until they get tired of hiring new coaches and finally give one of them a real opportunity to build something, results the first 2,3 or 4 years be dammed.
Booches94, Odom lost the team in the locker room and recruiting hasn’t change one bit. 4 years and it was getting to the point of same old blowouts to top teams and loses to teams he shouldn’t have. Offense was the other problem. He should have been smarter and not make deal with the devil with Kelly Bryant. That was the final nail in the coffin for Odom. See what kind of a coach he was against Florida? Same old Odom.
Well nothing in the thread had anything to do with Odom so I’m not sure why you showed up and thought it did.
The difference between Odom or Pruitt versus Pinkel is how much head coaching experience Pinkel had. Sterk was in a difficult situation when Pinkel got his worrisome diagnosis. A search for a new head coach at that time would have yielded zero good candidates because the President of the University was being fired and there was no clear leadership mandate toward athletic success, much less continuing commitment to football. Odom was a safe short term choice because his hallmark is being a friend to his student athletes. This attitude works better as an assistant than as a head coach but it is never the best foundation for a coach to player relationship. Coaches have to be warm sometimes and hard sometimes to student/athletes, why? because they f-up like all students do and they need quick and firm reprogramming. Odom seemed like the last personality to adjust attitudes. More likely it seemed he was going to double down on friendly talks. I have no first hand knowledge of this. So take this with a grain of salt but I have seen a lot of examples of head coaching personalities that work and don’t work.
3 years? Try again?
Yes, they should get rid of him, unless they hire just another mediocre coach which is the habit TN has. TN had Kiffin, which would had been a coach who kept TN in championships. Haven’t had a real coach since then. Wouldn’t pay Kiffen enough to stay. TN admin are stupid cheap and won’t shell out for a winning coach.
What?? Kiffin signed a six year $14.25 million contract with Tennessee and abandoned the team after one year taking the head position at his dream job of USC. I’m not sure what you mean by “wouldn’t pay him enough”. He was not in a contract extension situation.
I have wanted Gus fired since 2015 so I fully understand how many in the Tennessee fan base feels.
We love Gus. Don’t fire Gus.
I am pretty sure Pruitt is safe, for what it’s worth. It’s not about the buyout, although that may be a small piece.
What it’s about is the coaching search that ultimately led UT to hire Fulmer as the AD, and then led Fulmer to hire Pruitt as the coach. Firing Pruitt during Year-3 would (or should) show that certain people in the UT hierarchy are idiots. And certain people don’t want their past idiocy broadcast to the public.
Fulmer is the one got to go since he prevented the Greg Schiano hired. Now people are seeing the new trend of HCs Doing it the right way. MSU is in the same boat. not going to get better due to HC not making changes to his system that doesn’t work in the SEC.
I’m perfectly fine with not having Schiano as our coach.
Fulmer wasn’t in the AD when Schiano was blackballed by the Admin. Currie was the AD and he’d gone rogue. He wasn’t in contact with the university the way he was supposed to be and ultimately that caused much of the mess and cost him his job. Fulmer came in afterwards to stabilize the situation but he had nothing whatsoever to do with Schiano getting hired or nixed.
There’s something about Fulmer I don’t trust and it leans toward the undercurrent activity. Just a hunch. No evidence.
And to me Pruitt seems like he’s doing ok, and has not had time to show us his scheme with all his mature recruits quite yet. But I repeat, there is something fishy about the Fulmer-Pruitt handlers thing, again no evidence just the looks on their faces sometimes seem a little backdoor to me.
Fulmer stabilized the situation? That’s funny.
Yes, but Mullen and Pruitt had two completely different teams to work with. And it starts with Mullen having a few competent Qb’s to work with. Still can give Mullen credit though. Not saying Pruitt will turn it around though. I have my doubts.
Frank’s was a train wreck before Mullen and Trask hadn’t started a football since middle school. I wouldn’t call that a competent QB room
Have you seen JG play?
I do not see LSU putting up 31 points against a pretty good Arkansas defense.
Hogs are hurting right now due to Covid and a couple of injuries. I’m afraid LSU is getting healthy right when Pittman’s pigs are ailing the most. Franks is goona have to get this one for Arkansas imo.
I am seeing a sacrificial pig to get the Boot to stay in LSU!
Florida? 63 points allow! Wow!
*Allowed
UF scored 48 on UGA are you suggesting their defense is bad too?
nah, but LSU will lose the game, and the pathway will be thru scoring more points
sorry, let me amend that. I said it backwards. Arkansas will score a lot of points. I cannot say that LSU won’t score more. No pick of a winner. But I honestly think Arkansas has a big scoring day here. You can say LSU will score more and i’d be the first one to listen to your “how this is gonna happen”, maybe disagree but maybe agree.
Thinking about firing pruitt, sure. Actually doing that, no. Not this season. If we were to lose to vandy then I guess its possible and talking heads in the know seem to think so. I suppose if everything starts imploding and recruits start bailing, players entering the portal like MSU, losing the last 4… Shoot we may have no choice. But I just dont see it. Pruitt will be on one of the hottest seats in the country next year regardless of what happens this season, barring winning more than vandy and possibly even auburn. If this wasnt a covid year and neyland only had 50K fans these last few games… things might be different. Covid likely saves him thise season but not next. Its depressing to think of another coaching search and another rebuilding period but its also depressing to think of pruitt as a long term answer. I mean the guy has shown little as a HC. What has he accomplished? Why would he instill any confidence he can get it done. Do we wait for 8 years like clemPson did with Dabo, only to find out we are still mired in losses. Not in todays game. When clemPson did that with dabo things were much different. Frankly if donors put up the money I would be fine with cutting ties this season. But just dont see it.
Pruitt is Fulmer’s Mini-Me. He’s going to get more time to find a quarterback. What I don’t understand is why that offensive line hasn’t been better. Tennessee has been slightly out-rushed by its opponents.
Same issue Georgia’s “5 star”/“Great Wall” OL’s have had: lack of quickness and moving in space. You can only do so much leaning, a good OL has to communicate and be able to move their feet.
Every year a broadcast drills the point of UGA having the biggest OL (by weight) in all of football, they have underperformed.
I know that your line has game experience. That has been posted by many UGA fans. What they don’t have is experience together. The more they play the better the communication will get.
Tennessee did beat Missouri! That must count for something and now won two in a row!
Beating Missouri doesn’t count towards anything. It’s a solid win but much like beating Indiana in the bowl game that’s about all it is. There’s no rivalry there and Mizz wasn’t a ranked team. In contrast, Pruitt has already has more blowout losses on his resume than any other UT coach in history and most of those were to actual rivals.
Pruitt is a great DC and is a solid X’s and O’s guy but at present he is not HC material.
@footballgirl, You can only think that way and make sense if you live in the distant past and the realistic present at the same time and no program functions that way, or more accurately, MOST of the success or failure comes from recent years adm., coach, staff….
Partly right about the Missouri game but the significance was not all about their opponent,… it was that they had a big day early in the rollout of Pruitt’s 2020 TN.
I think there is more rivalry there than you like to consider. It hasn’t been sitting well with TN fans that a newcomer to the SEC can have the relative success Missouri has had and sometimes at the expense of TN. Too much old days pride getting hurt. I like to visit with TN fans when they travel come up, so I hear a lot of ideas from them. So to hold true to this attitude. What do you think the pathway back to an SEC division or league championship looks like for the Vols?
Yep, the only way that there is even a remote chance that Pruitt gets fired this season would require him to do something egregious off the field or for blowout losses the rest of the year, including Vandy. Unfortunately, this is not completely out of the realm of possibility. Most likely, the Vols put up enough of a fight to finish 3-7 and Pruitt gets one more year to try and turn it around. Fulmer picked him so he has a vested interest for Pruitt to succeed. I don’t expect a change this season.
I agree. Not happening. Maybe outside chance if we lose out including vanderbilt. It would take a lot because this is Fulmer’s hire.
The only difference in another coaching search though, is if it does come to that the cupboard will not be bare for the next coach like it was for Pruitt.
Too add to that. They should only make a change if they know they can get their first choice. Otherwise, forget it.
Correction: Jeremy Pruitt SHOULD be on his way out
Paying $19 million to a staff to go away (and remember, they’re still paying Butch Jones through February) is an awfully bad look right after telling everyone else they had to take pay cuts.
On a side note, I’m not seeing ear wax ads anymore. They’ve been replaced by an awesome pic of The Runaways.
LOL snob that sidenote is a bonus! just goes to show ya if you are willing to pay the money you can advertise bugers, dog crap or anything else.
I think the total buyout is less than $19M but its still a lot. Butch isnt owed much more. Previous buyouts dont really factor into it much for UT at this popint. Its all about math and bottom lines. SC had to get rid of muschamp because donors were saying no more dough until hes gone and fans were not going to show up next season. Donors not shelling out and empty stadiums make it a sound financial decision to take the route of least economic impact. Not sure pruitt is there regardless of what happens the rest of the season. The fans will show up next season until things go south again but I have no idea which donors are behind pruitt and which ones are not.
Lucky you, I’m getting psoriasis ads…
LOL! Yeah, Lita Ford’s derriere beats psoriasis any day!
Florida paid a ridiculous amount to get the shark humper and then paid a ridiculous amount to make him go away. Programs do this all the time. It’s not special.
A coach’s win/loss record isn’t the only thing Athletic Directors look at when deciding to make a change. They are very in tune behind the scenes if progress is being made and how the players feel. I think the main deciding factor is if the AD senses the coach has lost the players. Once that happens, there is no turning back. Perfect example was Chad Morris at Arkansas.
economics is the biggest factor of all.
Bingo
Anotyher one Barry Odom at Missouri!
*Another
I have a feeling that Jeremy Pruitt is not going to be fired this year…Fulmer being a former coach will be hesitant to drop the axe plus with that 2 year contract extension given prior to the 2020 season…well another huge SEC buyout lurks.
I wonder though if they may be worried about Freeze getting away somewhere else if they wait. Also I wonder if MSU is having some buyer’s remorse with Freeze coming on the market a year on. If LSU crashes and burns badly at Arkansas…Naw..it would just look too bad to contact Freeze. And if Morris hadnt been such an embarrassment in his time at Arkansas and was fired this season, Freeze would be back in Arkansas.
Just another reason to be glad we got Sam.
Re: TN, the Vols are close to taking up residency in the ‘middle of the pack’ SEC East category. Fulmer better help his protege. For Auburn, Tank Bigsby having lots of yards after contact is an indirect reflection on the OL, is it not? And please, let’s all say a prayer for USCe AND Coach O who is facing some serious off the field charges not mentioned here. He may become white hot and no one, even Coach Saban’s Recovery Team, will want him in their zip code.
Next up for Rocky Top? Some Freezing climate.
We have been middle of the pack for a decade. We are now knocking on the cellar door.
Bigsby is a hard player to tackle regardless of o line play or lack thereof.
Arkansas is Covid-ing at the wrong time against LSU and will be down several starters. We’ll see how their walk ons do. Beating Arky will cool that seat some say he is warming up. Pruitt is gone, Freeze is in. And it looks like Auburn may be settling in and becoming ok with 3 and 4 loss seasons. Gus Bus with the Chad the bus driver will be around for a good while…no..no one in the P5 will be calling Morris for a HC job. That ship has sailed for him.
I assure you – Auburn fans are not happy with three and four loss seasons. I always love the arrogance from Bama fans. They’re lucky as all get out that Saban wanted out of the NFL, or they’d be just as average right now as everyone else. Players want to play for Nick, not Bama.
I disagree. Saban has made Bama the gold standard and players go there after Saban until a different coach runs it into the ground
This nonsense with buyouts needs to end. Having said that, colleges need to give guys 4 or 5 years to develop a program before they get canned. Don’t hire anyone they you’re not willing to give 5 years to.
Contracts were made to be broken. Economics is the name of the game. Recruits don’t want to play for losers. Tennessee has been mired in mediocrity for quite awhile and South Carolina too. Usually, when a coach is fired with a contractual buyout, the program that picks him up will at least offset the payout amount by his new salary. It’s a fundamental principle of contracts to mitigate damages. Anyhow, I’m glad South Carolina made the first move and hope they carefully weigh who they decide to hire as their new coach before pouring a ton of money into it.
I heard one might be interviewing is Northern Iowa HC? Might be a good one? What you think?
What actually works (and few administrative groups are smart enough to know it) is deciding how long to let the head coach run based on what he’s doing a) daily with the athletes…. b) recruiting and keeping the boys eligible and acceptable campus citizens….. c) hiring, assigning, and firing assistants…… and d) game management trends Pinkel was a good example, a lot of institutions would have fired Pinkel and therefore missed out on three Big 12 Division Championships and 2 SEC East Championships. Just shut-up with the idea that he didn’t win a conference championship, because 10 other and 12 other programs would have gladly changed place with Missouri to be in those League Championship games.
I agree, the buyouts are absurd. Schools are basically guaranteeing coaches millions of dollars to suck. It’s RIDICULOUS. I wish universities would start telling these coaches that there’s no safety net. They do well, they make bank. They don’t, they won’t. It’s that simple. But no one is going to do that.
Yurachek did if you look at Pittman’s contract. Very incentive based, and no absurd buyout number.
It also took Pittman wanting to coach there for that to happen. If Pittman had any experience as a HC or even OC he might have had some leverage to get a better deal. Hats off to AD to recognize that this was a different situation than most and take advantage of it.
It was risky and still is, but 1) it’s going in the right direction and 2) It’s been a quick transition and improvement.
Kids should aspire to be coaches. Other than weathermen you can be wrong and suck and also be paid millions. I want that gig.
Go for it. Application for the South Carolina HC job is open now!
Look, I’ll say it again as I have been on here saying for 10 years. It’s always going to be this way in TN until they fork out the real money for a real coach. All they do is get mediocre coaches. They are too cheap to spend money on a winning coach. TN takes too many chances on low level coaches hoping they found a diamond in the rough. Well that’s rare, very rare. Kirby was the one for this decade and GA got him. Just bcuz you worked under Saban, doesn’t mean you got Sabans touch or talent. TN, get a real coach and get back into a winning decade. It’s not the players, it’s the coach.
Pretty sure they threw everything they could at Gruden and it didn’t work. Then they have gotten to where their top picks have not been interested regardless of money.
I think the jury is still out on Kirby Smart. He has dominated the weaker Eastern division, but is 0-3 against Bama, the team he needs to beat to get over the hump. Florida has now risen up in the East and it will be interesting to see how that matchup goes over the next few years.
Dan Mullen didn’t inherit a train wreck. But the Jeremy Pruitt hire was a gamble. Get rid of Fulmer and Pruitt and start all over.
Having said that, this is a chance for Auburn fans to get rid of High School Gus. If Tennessee could somehow win this game and then Gus ends the year with two blowout losses, it might be enough to send him home to Arkansas.
Fulmer didn’t start with a full slate of options but walked into a search that had already burnt bridges. Once a choice was made regarding the leftovers, he preceded to re-up his NCAA credentials and salvage a recruiting class for Pruitt who was busy coaching in the championship game. Fulmer’s got nothing to do with the problem right now. How he acts in the future and what he does or doesn’t do will decide that.
Mullen did inherit a pretty bad situation. McElwein had lost the team which is why like 15 players were suspended the beginning of his last season and it was the worst team talent wise in a long time at UF. Mullen got the players to buy in completely right away and developed an offense and defense to work to the strengths of that roster.
Am i wrong if I say that Florida always has a lot of rough athletes that may or may not have the mentality to be a team vs. ?something else?
I think the comment about TN not being able to afford a coaching change is correct. That and Fulmer is not one to make quick changes. Look how long he stuck with 90’s football. The moment he tried to update and go to somewhat of a spread offense it failed and he got fired. I know there was more to it than that, I just think he isn’t going to make a fast judgement due to his own experience of his coaching career ending. I think Pruitt gets one more year for that reason and given how little money is coming into the entire dept.
Poor Cade Mays, all that drama and disruption and UT is a dumpster fire.
And Daddy Mayes ain’t going to get a nickel out of UGA, Momma Mayes going to have find somebody for booty calls.
44-28 chump
How’s it feel TDOW
I feel great trud but WTF are you babbling about?
Marsh…what does that have to do with anything said?
How come when people refer to UT’s winning streak, they say, “I know they didn’t beat anyone in the top 10…?” Uh, try the top 35. It was fool’s gold and the real football fans knew it. It was amazing that the media acted as if the losses to BYU and Georgia St, not to mention blowouts to the big three, never happened.
People keep wanting to give a coach 3 yrs or 4 and sometimes 5. It is about how you look in year 3. Recruiting? Has Pruitt done better than Butch in this area? I think no matter what, he is back next season. But to continue to play JG, would mean he has not received a vote of confidence from the fat boy.
My bet is we lose again. It will be by way more than 6.5. Put your money on Mizz.
Missouri is on thin ice with COVID-19 and injuries and some players are opting out! That isn’t looking good for Missouri and South Carolina is now looking for revenge for last year blowout so might it be a good turn around for South Carolina this Saturday?
Nope our team has quit. There is no remedy for that. We’ve had some lean times but this is now our lowest point in school history of 219 years.
Mizzou’s oline and dline are paper thin and the oline is missing some starters. This game could go either way.
yeah but don’t forget, boys like to play football, and some boys are gonna get a RARE chance to flip the starting roster choices and depth chart rank tomorrow. Expect this to be a big effort from a lot of young men on both rosters. Silly to speculate about a winner. Neither team has this wrapped up going into the game. Who will execute most often and who will make the most damaging mistakes?
Feed Kevin Harris early and often. Limit the passes and just show up on defense. We’ll see.
I almost feel sorry for Gus.
If he doesn’t win by at least 17 this Saturday, he will be viewed as a failure. If his team buys in to the hype then they are in for a dogfight too.
This game reeks of upset, one Gus should win but doesn’t.
Sounds like a UT fan deflecting from their own issues.
The Vols have lost 4 in a row and you feel sorry for Gus? Not sure I follow that logic.
I think it’s the fact you are 4-2 and still on the verge of him being on the hot seat. Check the expectations, you could be in our position…
It’s such a gamble on first-time head coaches. For every Dabo there are probably 30 or more otherwise capable assistants who reached their level of incompetence upon getting their first HC gig.
Pruitt is a dead-man walking. Hugh Freeze is the man. No fake pretenses. Honesty and integrity are for losers. Just win baby!
Harbaugh & Franklin should be dead men walking. Speaking of dead men. How many football players have died from COVID or myocarditis? Hint: it’s less than 1.
Tdow, how old are you? Talking about someone’s mother and father is a slimeball move. Oh! I get it now. You’re at the age where you drink those box drinks and watch spongebob after a move like that.
You can tell that Pruitt needs to go by the sheer number of rival fans telling UT to give him more time or explaining how it’s too soon when their own programs have made decisions to fire even faster.
It’s the age old questions…who are you going to replace him with? Is it worth the buy-out and is it a major upgrade?
Feel good wins for Auburn, Bama, UF and UGA. I suspect Auburn will be touting their win over a hapless Tennessee more than the other three teams mentioned. Gus has to justify his pay more than Saban, Mullens or Smart does.
Auburn hasnt played a good team yet, too early to say if Nix is getting better. If they beat A&M and Bama, then you can talk. And yes Tennessee will fire Pruitt after the season for one reason and nothing else..they do not want to let Freeze slip away.
After reading Jeremy Pruitt’s post game comments, I have to wonder if we were watching the same game…