Tennessee fans sound off on Jeremy Pruitt following loss to Florida
Tennessee had a solid start to the game and with a 7-3 lead, it looked promising for the Vols against Florida. But then the Vols gave up 4 straight touchdowns to the Gators in a lopsided loss, 31-19.
Tennessee fans have grown increasingly frustrated with coach Jeremy Pruitt, but now the losing streak is up to 6 games and the Vols seem still a long ways from contending for the SEC East title. It was especially difficult to swallow for Vols fans when it came against Dan Mullen, who, like Pruitt, is also in his third season at Florida.
CBS Sports broadcaster Aaron Murray made several points that the Vol faithful agreed with.
Pruitt’s future job security may be in question, but his support among the fan base has slipped to some of the low points of his tenure.
Here’s a sampling of the reaction following another Tennessee loss:
Dan Mullen is winning the SEC East in year 3, meanwhile in the same year Jeremy Pruitt is still trying to ram square pegs in round holes
— Sterling Bigmouth (@_el_pelirrojo) December 5, 2020
I remember at SEC Media Days three years ago when Aaron Murray said that Jeremy Pruitt wasn’t the right guy to be a head coach based off of his tenure as Georgia DC. VFLs lost their minds. Three years later Murray appears to be on the right side of history. https://t.co/zYUoev3HxT
— Julian Council (@JulianCouncil) December 5, 2020
Phil Fulmer sitting by himself was an ominous shot.
Probably an overreaction to say it was Phil and all of Jeremy Pruitt’s supporters. #VFL #Vols @JOXRoundtable #SEC pic.twitter.com/HdUO0gBtLD— Jim Dunaway (@jimdunaway) December 5, 2020
Just when I tweet this Jeremy Pruitt decided to take Harrison Bailey out of the game… The #FirePruitt movement may still end up gaining momentum after all! https://t.co/xefA1OloAR
— Jackson Bleachers (@jacksonbleacher) December 5, 2020
Aaron Murray knows more about the state of the Tennessee football program presently then Jeremy pruitt
— mark (@MD_1962) December 5, 2020
“Jeremy Pruitt thinks the gap is closing, it just doesn’t show on film and I really don’t think it’s a lack of talent”
Aaron Murray with the killshot on live television
— Stephen (@b_outliers) December 5, 2020
Jeremy Pruitt can’t be retained beyond this season, can he?
— Josh Lowe (@JoshMLowe) December 5, 2020
It ain’t gonna happen with Jeremy Pruitt. The QB musical chairs is exhausting to watch and I’m not even emotionally invested in the Vols. Start Harrison Bailey all day then go to Shrout in cleanup…it’s illogical.
— Julian Council (@JulianCouncil) December 5, 2020
At this point I’m not even mad anymore. Just don’t care
Hugh Freeze is awaiting the call.
Same. I’m a 20 year donor but no longer after today. When Tennessee shows me that they are serious about football again, I will pay attention. Until then, I will spend my time and money elsewhere. Not pitching a fit here but 10 years from relevance is far far too long.I wish UT the best but this once proud program deserves better than what we’ve seen. This is downright embarrassing. Everyone else can see it but not Phil.
It’s crazy…the talent is there, isn’t that much difference between those teams out there today. Tennessee would’ve had a chance to win that game if David Cuttcliffe was coaching that offense. Fulmer is not going to get rid of Pruitt, if that’s the case then Chaney has to go.
Or you could donate to Academics to help OTHER UT Students.
Jeremy will get with sexton and demand a raise and extension — the man needs 2-3 more years to get all his players
lol
He just got a raise with a five-year extension.
Now, our five-star commits have de-committed
So the university gave a premature raise and contract extension to the HC, who then proceeded to tank the program, and now his buyout is so high that it factors heavily into when he can be fired…where have I heard that before…
Don’t forget that Fulmer got himself a raise back in the spring which went unannounced, unnoticed, and unreported until a couple of weeks ago…
Tn is living in past. Neyland ain’t walking in. Time to let Phil go.
We can’t win
If not Fulmer then Jimmy Haslam takes back control.
After Dickey retired in 2002 our program went down the tubes.
Yeah, the step down after Doug was a BAD one. Proves one bad high level can have long repercussions. I think hiring Fulmer was good decision. Hiring Pruitt not looking good right now, but it was a quick hire to get somebody. Currie was fired, don’t forget (or we’d have the Pirate.)
End of the day, Fulmer gotta dump Pruitt if he doesn’t have winning season + Beat Bama or Beat FL+UGA. Tell the donors that truly have the ability to spend and turn this ship around.
I agree with others, tired of turning off the radio/tv.
Excited to move on to a promising basketball team – we deserve some winning around here! Go Vols!
The rub of this is this. No, time is going to be better than now to let Pruitt go from a replacement perspective. There are better coaches with experience that are available now, that won’t be at the end of next season, or any time next season if there is no new rona situations.
Who would you hire of the current HC that you said is available now. List 3 of them and I do agree with you. Missouri got very lucky with Drinkwitz and the only problem right now is need to recruit better players and so far slowly he is doing that. Missouri is almost last in the SEC in recruiting class each year. That need to change and that will help to get to compete for the SEC east division again. Most like Tennessee and South Carolina have the players but not the HC.
Um, 1980 is the past. Our team is a mess right now, but how bitter for you guys to have the team/talent…but going in circles. Year after year.
Pruitt is not the guy, but Fulmer will never admit that.
It’s like watching Fumler/Sanders 2.0
and, in exchange, we have Pruitt/Friend 1.0 not to mention Weinke
Have no clue why Fulmer would give an extension that the adim. would never buyout, for beating teams at the end of last season that the Vols should blowout???
Until this school is fully committed from the top down, including willing to pay in the upper Head coaching tier, we’re stuck.
I would have taken Kiffen back over this trainwreck.
The best long haul QB is Bailey, so just stick with him.
At least Bailey already knows how to check down his list of receivers during his progression and does not stare down one option.
Fulmer does not have the power you think he does. He can’t make a move without one of our power brokers not named Haslam stepping up and right now none have. UTs AD is not ruled by the AD but by warring factions. Our teams are stuck with a gaggle of useless donors more interested in playing their version of game of thrones than helping them succeed.
Amen, you got that right sister
Totally agree with the internal power struggles and they go long and deep. At one point Bama went through the same thing until Saban told the school that if they do not unite he’s not coming.
sadly
Fulmer’s power move was to give Pruit that crazy contract extension.
unfortunately
This coup (that davenport laid on the sword for) has not done any better than Haslam did.
This move was not Haslasm’s move, Fulmer and Halasm loathe each other.
Last night should reveal to Bailey the need to transfer. Pruitt and Cheney will destroy his potential.
Well Florida beat everybody on their schedule about the same way they beat Tennessee, except aTm. So explain why Tennessee fans think today’s loss was something particularly bad for them to handle.
and why it’s worse than the other 382 losses.
I guess I dont see 31-19 as “lopsided”. I didnt watch the game..just reacting to the final score and comparing it to their loss to say Arkansas which now plays without a defense. I think the Vols would walk over the Hogs if they played again.
The score really isn’t indicative. It was 31-7 when Dan Mullen decided he was done with the game and never called another drive that mattered and put in his reserves.
You have a reserve QB named Kyle Trask too?
Pretty sure he meant on defense. Florida only had one possession after going up 31-7 and basically ran it every time, including on 3rd an 9.
Who cares, your one of the teams we beat and probably beat the worst.. LOL
I hear Will Muschamp is available. Snatch him up, quick!!
And y’all had Greg Schiano but no, he wasn’t good enough. Hahahaha
I’m not defending Pruitt by any means but Schiano does have 142 games as a head coach under his belt with a losing record. Both can be bad.
Sure, both could be bad and I didn’t think the pruitt hire was necessarily bad at the time….especially considering all that took place prior to it. but, to solely reference schiano as a coach w/ a “losing record” is pretty ignorant.
The combined w/l record of the 3 guys pre-schiano at rutgers was 67-114 and the 3 guys post-schiano was 36-58. Shiano’s record in between the the groupings was 66-62. not so bad, uh?
Fair enough. That’s very good context you’ve provided and obviously it’s a monumental task to win at Rutgers. Maybe Schiano would’ve come in and done better than Pruitt has so far, but we’ll never know. The point is- if you can imagine this is your team, are you actually confident that Schiano would bring Tennessee back?
Still don’t want Schiano. Not saying Pruitt was the right hire, but Schiano was definitely one of many wrong hires.
Schiano had a conference record of something like 28-48. In the Big East, which if you’re old enough you might remember it being called the Big Least by ESPN and other national media because it was so weak. People complained how they got an automatic NY6 tie-in. This conference would be considered a G5 conference today.
Regardless of how Pruitt has ended up, Schiano’ dismal record in that dismal conference just wouldn’t have worked in the SEC.
Did you know that Rutgers have one of the worst facilities? Schiano couldn’t recruits better players because it was Rutgers with a very bad Facilities. He did turned the job down the first time! Why? He demanded the University to spend money on facilities. Then the President called him and said okay with the new facilities. When the facilities are done then he shall get better players. Tennessee already have the facilities set up and recruiting isn’t going to be a problem. That is a huge difference!
Sorta like WHY was Dooley hired by his record at La. Tech?
In all fairness to Schanio, his conference record is like that cause the first four years at Rutgers he had losing seasons. After the four year, Schanio had winning seasons except for one the rest of the time he was there including an 11-3 season.
AndrewJ, if you start counting the year after he won 11 games, and stop counting when he left Rutgers for the NFL in 2011, his conference record in the Big East was 16-19. A 16-19 record in the Big East after reaping the recruiting/financial rewards of that 2006 11-win season just wouldn’t work out too well in the SEC.
Back then Rutgers was in the Big east! Just join the Big 10 recently. Huge difference!
You seen Rutgers play lately? Thats why. Hahahaha
Don’t look now, but Missouri lost 2 of 3 to Pruitt’s Volunteers so…..
I just don’t think Pruitt is a good coach and I look at the 2nd half stats of practically every game to prove it. The reason why Tenn gets worse in the second half is because Pruitt can’t adjust to the game. He doesn’t look at what worked and what didn’t, what the other team is doing and their weakness then adjust for the best chance of success.
The best coaches make the adjustments at halftime they need to win but Pruitt doesn’t. I don’t know what he does. Maybe go cheerleader? Maybe tell his team to fight harder? Rah Rah Rah? I just know there is no way he is making the adjustments he needs to win games in the second half and no amount of talent can make up for this critical part of the game.
Of course, I’m not a coach. Hell, I’m not even a good Monday morning QB but I see what I see and Tenn needs a better coach if they ever want to be relevant again. The SEC East needs more than just Ga and Fl. We need Tenn back.
In tn’s absence the last decade, mizz has slid into the #3 spot and it’s not even close.
It is quite obvious that Florida’s program is in an upward trajectory & Tennessee’s is going the opposite way. That two(2) year contract extension that Pruitt received even before the season began really complicates the coaching situation with the Vols now.
But honestly, Florida had a much stronger program with rich recruiting grounds. We WANTED Mullen, but he’s got brains, UF is easier to fix than UT at this point because of the repeated bad hires, both AD and Above.
Schiano/Currie > Pruitt/Fulmer
Sadly, Tennessee fans brought this on themselves.
Who with the wide open offense can Tennessee hire? How many on the list did they go through the last time before they fired the AD and hired Pruitt?
Is this a job that somebody like Matt Campbell or Luke Fickell would consider, or is this now a job that somebody like Dave Clawson and Lance Leipold would be the top of the possibilities. This assumes that Hugh Freeze would not be possible.
Fickel could bring some excitement
There’s no way Dave Clawson is hired. Fulmer already hired Clawson once, and it didn’t work out well. Fulmer lost his own job.
And unfortunately, I don’t think the Fickell Finger of Fate will be pointing in our direction.
And it was exactly 1 year ago that “Tennessee is BACK”! Whew that sure got out of hand quickly.
Now the 64$ ? is, who or who all will be the scapegoats. Somebody’s getting fired, who will it be ?
Kirby? LOL
Prbly win 3 games next year? Get rid of a football man and UT will sux for at least 5 or 6 more years? Just let the Great Pumpkin coach?
If the question is, “What head coach will win the most games as head coach of Tennessee in 2021?”, then is there a legitimate alternative to Coach Pruitt?
Let’s eliminate the probably great hires that aren’t going to be the next head coach
1. Hugh Freeze
2. Luke Fickell
3. Matt Campbell
4. Tom Allen
5. Urban Meyer and all legends like him
The more realistic list will be from the next tier down. Compare Pruitt to any of these options and then determine who should be the coach in 2021. I would think that these guys would be obtainable.
1. Jamey Chadwell
2. Lance Leipold
3. Tony Elliott
4. Jeff Brohm
5. Steve Sarkisian
There is a rumor that Chadwell wants the UT job more than any other, and he even named his son “Jameson Heath” after former Vol Heath Shuler. But is he a better option than Pruitt in 2021?
You really think Sark is dumb enough to follow a former co-worker into the cesspit that is the UT head coaching job? Taking that job has severely damaged Pruitt’s career trajectory. Sark isn’t about to make the same grievous mistake.
LH61…..concerning Jamey Chadwell…I recall that he graduated from East Tennessee State & the Vol job would be a real dream for him. Clemson’s Tony Elliott is not going anywhere. Sark=not either. Whenever Fulmer fires Pruitt…Tennessee needs a new coach that has been a head coach before…successfully. Hugh Freeze fits that description.
And Lane Kiffen named one of his sons “Knox” after Knoxville. LOL.
Freeze would pounce on a Tennessee offer.
Aaron Murray did his best Verne Lundquist impression, gushing over the Florida quarterback the entire game. At one point he called it a “perfect game” for the Florida offense. I guess the standard is just low in some places, where a 31-19 win over a terrible UT team is perfection. He said Trask has a “sizeable” lead over Mac Jones, which is equally ridiculous. Apparently the only stat that matters to him is TD passes.
Tennessee, you know what you have to do. It’s not fire Pruitt. It’s let Fulmer know he’ll get fired if he doesn’t fix this mess. Better know who your next coach is before you fire Pruitt too. Or it will look surprisingly alot like when you hired Pruitt.
Phil Fulmer has loved Tennessee to death.
True but is he good for Tennessee? I’m not anti-Fulmer (nor do I particularly want to see them recover) but as the AD, this was his first big action where he went all in. Ego can screw up a lot of things. Pruitt is not working out. Is this an odd year? Yes but they were kind of seeing this already with him. He’s Will Muschamp at the beginning of grumbling about Will Muschamp not the end of Will Muschamp. Organize a plan to remove him, implement, then remove him unlike the sh!t show that was the Pruitt hiring. They’re going to have to poach a coach.
I think that Fulmer is the problem more so than the solution. With him as coach he became afraid of Spurrier, actually intimidated by him and 20 years later that fear of the Gators still seems to persist in UT’s program. As far as talent, despite UT’s recent recruiting successes players are not being developed. How many sacks did that 5 Star offensive line give up Saturday? UT won’t have a chance to get better until Fulmer retires.