Tennessee football: Jeremy Pruitt's road back (if there is one) should start with youth
Arkansas 24, Tennessee 13.
It’s one thing to have not reached the SEC title game since 2007 or to still be chasing Florida and Georgia. It’s another to be on Year 3 of Head Coach No. 4 of the rebuild and to lose to a team that had won 1 SEC game in the previous 3 years.
Worse, there’s no real basis to feel like Arkansas pulled one over on Tennessee, either. The Vols’ 13-0 first half showed that they certainly had the parts to beat, if not overwhelm, the Razorbacks. The second half showed that the rebuild in Knoxville is still very much in progress.
A couple of key issues to address as the Vols sort through the mess of their 2-4 start:
1. The COVID situation will help every coach on a hot seat. Coaches aren’t responsible for empty seats and they benefit by not hearing a stadium full of boos. Everybody recognizes that trading 3 or 4 games against Cupcake State for 2 more in the SEC puts a lot of teams a bit behind schedule.
2. Three years is not long enough to pull the trigger on a head coach, absent some bizarre circumstances. Admittedly, Derek Dooley got 3 years. Other SEC programs haven’t waited that long. We’re not there yet with Pruitt. Butch Jones got 5. Five years is time for a full recruiting class to cycle through. It seems like a reasonable limitation — again, absent NCAA violations or some massive embarrassment to the university.
3. There’s no massive needle-moving replacement on deck. Remember, hiring Jeremy Pruitt felt like the end to a nightmare. The Tennessee athletic department got a crash course on the fact that potential coaches were not exactly sprinting to Knoxville. There’s a reason Pruitt is the 4th coach of this rebuild — and it’s that the first 3 didn’t have the gumption or skill or good luck to see the job through.
With all of that said, how does UT proceed through the rest of this lost 2020 season? The smart course would be to start moving toward young players. With 4 games left — 3 against ranked teams — there’s no reason to stick with Jarrett Guarantano for a snap longer. It probably needs to be Harrison Bailey’s team for a month.
The Vols listed 6 starters on offense and 5 on defense against Arkansas who are seniors. Nobody is advocating for benching Trey Smith, for instance. But there’s absolutely no reason to start planning for the future and give the top freshmen and sophomores more snaps. The season already won’t count against eligibility. The 6 freshmen on UT’s 2-deep might as well see the field.
If the Vols are going to stumble through the last month and finish, say, 3-7, it will bode well for Pruitt to use the last few dead-legged games to get Bailey ready. Feed Eric Gray. Pass rusher Roman Harrison has shown some flashes, so give the sophomore more time. Freshman receiver Jalin Hyatt made plays against Alabama. Why hold him out against Texas A&M?
Again, fairness demands that the senior Vols who will be playing on Sundays shouldn’t be tossed overboard like extra luggage on the Titanic. But even a star like Smith could use the occasional breather that helps Pruitt and his staff assess the young players and determine what they need to add.
Ultimately, here’s the thing: Even if Pruitt does get 5 years for his shot at rebuilding the Vols, he only has 2 years left. If the guys who are going to save his job aren’t on the roster, he needs to figure that out and sign them quickly.
The rest of UT’s 2020 season could be a tough one. Might as well let the young guys take their knocks.
That is true for any SEC team that is not in the running for a Divisional Championship. If not, next year they will be wishing they had.
I went back and counted at least 10 freshmen that Jimbo played in the regular rotation last season (against that schedule – oof!), and it’s really paying dividends now. I also am counting about 10 again this year getting some regular playing time. The way Jimbo lands talent and gets them experience early bodes well for the future.
The only change I care about is seeing Bailey play the rest of the season.
We can’t win games trying to hide the quarterback. If I’m going to lose games because of bad quarterback play (UK game) I would rather it be my freshman making mistakes instead of a 5th year senior.
Sorry but I consider the current coaching staff, current record and current state of the team a massive embarassment to the university, the state the fans and college football in general. Just like when jones was the coach. Embarrassing. Jones at least beat a few teams every now and then. trash cans, bricks and stupid cliches aside he was better than Pruitt has shown so far. Currie was responsible for the lack of coaching candidates last search. That debacle he called a coaching search made UT untouchable. Thats not the case anymore…if done correctly. It doesnt matter there is no way he gest fired this season even if he loses all the rest of the games, which seems possible at this point. This staff needs to get their collective heads out of their a$$es and figure it out.
I do agree they should be playing the future of this team to a large extent but especially at the QB spot. G is done. We have seen his best and its not enough. Time to see if its bailey or maurer moving into the 2021 spring period.
What a mind numbingly frustrating time to be a vol football fan. I feel for the players too. I know its more frustrating to them than me.
If Pruitt shows no improvement then you open the checkbook, identify your man ( a proven winner at Power 5 level) and offer them whatever it takes. Anything else says I don’t care if we win or not and if that’s the case, let us know so we can just give up hope of becoming relevant again.
Think about one thing…Tennessee & South Carolina are in the same-spot right now. Tennessee & South Carolina used in the same sentence describing the state of their programs ? That’s not good.
Not a whole lot of money coming in and this is our last year of buy out payments to Butch and Currie so I would assume that Pruitt is safe. That said play Bailey play Bailey Play Bailey. It can’t hurt anything! Beginning this year everyone said our weak spot would be wide reciever and it still is but I don’t think it is as bad as once thought. Get them someone that might be able to make a throw or 3 more in a real game and see where it goes from there.
Jeremy Pruitt’s road back starts with him heading down I75-24-59 down to Alabama.
I only hope Fulmer will quote Pruitt back to him on the way out:
Coach Pruitt done a really nice job for us, worked his tail off (workin’ like HECK!). Sometimes, from a philosophical standpoint, things are just not a fit, and it just didn’t work out for us.
If it’s not working out, it’s better to just do it right now,
This is not a knock on Jeremy whatsoever, he is one of the most knowledgeable guys I’ve been around and he’ll do a good job wherever he goes. Just felt like something we needed to do and we did it.
Fulmer should resign for choosing Pruitt. Enough said.
Meh. Fulmer was thrown into a fecal storm in the wake of John Currie going rogue. By the time that he even got involved in the search, who was left?
This time though, Fulmer needs to do something he’s never done. Hire a successful coach and hold him accountable.
Crank..you guys have Pruitt now…we do not want him back. He is now yours for some years to come.
Did anyone think this mongoloid from rural alabama could compete with the best coaches in college football? This is his third mf year!! If he took over maryville high school he would run it into the ground. Fire this egghead from Batman lookin moron. Yeah and start Bailey against Auburn, A&M and Florida; brilliant, if his neck isn’t snapped he’ll hit the transfer portal. He has no weapons.
While I think Bailey needs to be starting at this point, but a couple of points:
1. Lane Kiffin royally screwed the Vols for his dream job. I haven’t forgotten. So really not too fair to count that one against the program. Dooley was plain awful, and brickhead the used car salesman could get them here but then…?
2. Fulmer had to SCRAMBLE for a coach. Pruitt isn’t going anywhere, he HAS been part of Championship programs so indeed he knows the lay of the land. Agree with others Covid had scrambled things, and season may even be ended early. Buyout too high, I don’t see the Haslems forking out that much for that decision. Next year will be more telling.
HAHAHA!! Brickhead. Funny, I always called him the Used Car salesman.
25 years ago I was growing up watching Tennessee teams that were some of the best in the nation. They were close to being on the same level as maybe Ohio State is today. If they weren’t fighting for conference or national championships then they were at least in the conversation every year. What I don’t understand is why Tennessee has not been able to hire that coach that their fans want and it seems like the program deserves. I don’t mean Tennessee has made the wrong hires, although they definitely haven’t made the right hires. What I mean is that Tennessee has not been able to get any of the coaches they wanted after Kiffin. Seems like most Vol fans were fixated on Gruden for the better part of a decade. In hindsight, he was never going to coach college ball, but it’s not like Dooley, Jones, or Pruitt were your second choices. I don’t understand why Tennessee has been turned down by so many of their top choices, even their top 5 or higher choices, year after year. They have great history and tradition, fan support, facilities, and seemed to be willing to pay top dollar to the top coaches if they would have accepted the offers. They don’t have the in state talent of a Georgia or Florida but Tennessee has its share of quality 4 star players and I don’t think 5 stars are too rare. Plus, 20 years ago Tennessee could recruit nationally and weren’t dependent on in state talent alone. They still recruit well, at least better than their record shows. I know it’s a high pressure job but all SEC head coaching jobs are high pressure and the elite schools of the conference like Tennessee once was should have attracted a top level coach that wasn’t afraid of that pressure or challenge. So I’m asking Tennessee fans what they think it is that’s prevented them from being able to land one of those top 5 coachesm They aren’t that level of a program right now, but it has been a long slide and 20 years ago they were an elite, top tier program that should have been having those type of head coaches lining up to take the UT job. The SEC and all of college football are better off when Tennessee is contending for conference or national titles every year. I just don’t understand why a program with all that tradition, talent, and resources has had such a tough time attracting a top level coach year after year and I’m wondering what Vol fans think are the reasons behind it? I don’t know what it is about the program that’s preventing them from landing a top coach but now every 3 or 4 years we’re seeing UT fans making a wish list of top coaching names that you’d think would be thrilled to coach the Vols only to be turned down by 1st, 2nd, 3rd choices and so on until they end up with someone who wasn’t even on their radar to begin with. I feel for Tennessee fans. I really do. They beat my Wildcats almost every year no matter how good either team is but even we have been able to make a much better hire than anything Tennessee could do. So I’m just wondering what Vol fans think is their inability to attract the kind of top coach that their type program should be getting? It’s not like Tennessee has been hiring a Jimbo Fisher level of a coach that didn’t work out. As recent as 15 years ago Tennessee was a program that could get those coaches, or even a Saban or Dabo. It still surprises me when you hear someone like Gundy turned them down. What do you think is behind it all Vol fans?
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.
Jon Gruden turned Tennessee down also…plus a few more along the way. The Why is the real question.
The third year of a new head coach’s tenure is generally considered “the year” to see a good amount of improvement. That has not happened with Jeremy Pruitt…that 2019 late season streak of wins seems far away right now. But…with that 2 year contract-extension and a what ? $15 Million buyout(Ouch !) he’ll be there a while. Vol fans…just Settle in for the long run with Jeremy. Ga. State/BYU. Phil Fulmer thinks he’s the man.