Updated odds for first coach fired include Tennessee's Jeremy Pruitt
We’re only one week into the 2019 college football season, but some fanbases are already unhappy with some early struggles.
We’re probably still a few weeks away from any FBS coach being in real danger of getting fired, but that didn’t stop the folks at SportsLine from coming up with some updated odds for the first coach fired.
As you can see below, Willie Taggart at Florida State leads the way, but Tennessee’s Jeremy Pruitt also makes the list at 50-1 odds (via 247Sports):
- Willie Taggart, Florida State — 4/1
- Clay Helton, USC — 5/1
- The field — 5/1
- Charlie Strong, USF — 7/1
- Mike Bobo, Colorado State — 10/1
- Chris Ash, Rutgers — 10/1
- Randy Edsall, UConn — 12/1
- Lovie Smith, Illinois — 12/1
- Philip Montgomery, Tulsa — 15/1
- Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee — 50/1
Who will actually get the ax first? We’ll see when the coaching carousel starts to spin this year.
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My money would be on Helton. There’s a lot of smoke about Urban there. There’s no way Pruitt gets canned before the end of the year. Fulmer has his wagon hooked up to that train.
The first half of the FSU v Boise St game had me wondering if Taggart was on his way to having FSU turn a corner. And then the second half happened. The 4/1 odds for him getting fired sound about right.
They won’t fire Pruitt this year regardless of how bad it gets. They can’t afford another coaching search at this time.
It’s crazy to think that Kirby played for a natty in his second year as head coach and Pruitt will be fighting to get wins of any kind. Those programs have grown so far apart over the years.
Unfair comparison since Kirby inherited a winning team with loads of talent while the opposite is true for Pruitt
Smart had a loaded team that he inherited. Little bit different. Let Kirby Go to a school with half the talent Jawja has and see how he does.
Kirby smart inherited a more talented roster, but have you ever wondered how much more talented it was?
Taking a look at the SB Nation Blue Chip Ratio Articles by Bud Elliot – you can see that in Kirby Smart’s first year at UGA, 52% of the roster was made up of 4 and 5 star talent. When Jeremy Pruitt took over at Tennessee the roster was sitting at 40% 4 and 5 star talent.
Is having 12% more blue chip talent on your roster the difference between playing for a natty and losing to a 2-10 GA State team (the fourth worst loss in CFB history)?
Come on guys. Yes Kirby had a more talented roster, but if you think the 12% difference is what’s holding Pruitt back from nattys I’ve got some amazing beachfront property in Arizona you boys need to come look at.
40 percent 5 and 4 star talent at Tennessee when Pruitt took over? What? Please name all of the 4 and 5 star players that was still there when Pruitt took over. Butch Jones was a 3 star coach and occasionally had a 4 or 5 star kid. Then what good players they had left for the draft or transfered. Plus Tennessee had no o-line or QB. Mark Richt left Smart with alot of talent. Nick Chubb and Sony Michele saved Smart in most games. Plus y’all was loaded on defense as well.
They aren’t comparable rosters. Yes the recruiting numbers look similar but Butch was notorious for chasing stars not evaluating or developing talent. You really think the 2016 UGA team was the same as the 2018 TN team ? Not even close.
Jones had very few 5 star talent and when they did come only stayed a year or so before transferring or going to NFL.
The main take away I think UGAfisherman was trying to make was how far apart the programs have grown over the years. And that’s Including Richt, Kirby, Dooley, Butch, and Pruitt all together silly gooses.
What I take away from it is he saying Tennessee had almost as much talent as Jawja when both coaches took over. I don’t know where SB blue chip gets their numbers but go look back on ESPN on last 5 years and see how many 5 star talent Tennessee had and then how many Jawja had.
I doubt Pruitt gets fired but it is possible and the buyout money won’t matter. If we can’t beat ga st, BYU or Chattanooga then we darn sure aren’t going beat any sec team. 1 or 2 wins will leave fulmer no choice in my opinion.
I think Fulmer would fire him this year. Fulmer bleeds orange and is gritting his teeth right now. You can bet Pruitt got an a$$ chewing by Fulmer. You can see Pruitt doesn’t care and is just here for a retirement check. I haven’t seen a Tennessee team this badly coached ever, even under Dooley. I don’t want any coach from now on that has any ties to Saban. Go out, get a young coach that has some spunk and go play. It can’t get any worse right now. Losing to a 2-8 team badly is rock bottom. Georgia State came in and dominated Tennessee on both sides of the ball. Tennessee can always recruit because it’s Tennessee and the SEC so go out and get an actual coach IMO.
Not gonna happen. Sure Fulmer has PLENTY of money to buy out Mr. Potatohead, he just can’t do it because then who would you get to replace him? Oh I mean OTHER than Phil Fulmer that is. You fire this guy not even fully through year 2, and the disaster of a coaching search you will go through will put the 3 ring circus that netted you Pruitt to shame.
No coach is going to put his professional future on the line getting hired at a school that just canned it’s last coach after only 18 months on the job because he couldn’t turn around The SEC’s biggest doormat program in that short of a time? That’s like telling high school students that if they want an A on their science fair project, you fully expect them to build a rocket ship and fly to the moon and film a movie there. Anything less and they will fail your class.
Nobody has mentioned that Tee Martin is currently the assistant head coach, has an NCAA championship as TN QB, has experience as OC at Southern Cal. I’ll bet dollar to a penny he’d take the job in a NY instant. And I’m pretty sure with a UT education, he could articulate better than Mr. Potatohead.
It’s 1 game. Yes it was a bad loss but we came out conservative and flat. The Ga state coach was spurriers OC and was on the app state staff when they upset michigan he is a good coach and we were predictable and he loaded the box and stopped the run. It’s 1 game you can’t say since we lost to ga state we are going to lose to everyone. I mean Michigan went 9-4 when they lost to app state.
Why is Muschamp not on this list? Waiting for fireworks!
Huge buyout.
Who was stupid enough to pay that much and sign off on that big of a payoff for a 3rd tier coach…oh, nevermind!
Derek Mason at FSU in 2020. He has reached the ceiling with Vandy, and FSU has plenty of money for the buyout of Taggart.
Can see that.
Where have you heard that FSU has plenty money? Everything I hear and read says they wont be able to fire Willie no matter what after this season because they cant afford the 20 million buyout and then pay for a new coach. Most of their fans are hoping they will fire him and promote Briles, but I cant see that.
Yeah you are wildly wrong about FSU having plenty of money to buy out Taggart. They just had to go to the state taxpayers for another 6 million out of our pocket to cover their sports programs at FSU because of a shortfall of donations from their boosters this past year. FSU doesn’t win enough on the football field, their fans close their wallets. Ergo the rest of us Florida residents, even those of us who hate FSU, end up paying the bill.
That doesn’t strike me as a program that is fiscally sound enough to just buy out a coach for 17-20 mil not even through his 2nd year of his contract. Willie Taggart is going nowhere.
Where are you getting this information? I don’t see it anywhere.
Same place you got the information about Jimbo turning down the LSU job because they wouldn’t give him a 10 year contract?
Da-n, you stepped into that one didn’t ya?
lol
Willie Taggart won’t be fired. FSU can’t afford his buyout currently. Their program is in dire financial straights and needed to go to the Florida taxpayers this year for 6 million extra $ to cover their sports programs funding because of the lack of booster donations. Taggart is safe for a couple of years but not through his own efforts.
Tennessee likewise cannot fire Mr. Potatohead, but for the exact opposite reason. Somehow they have all the money in the world and can buy out the clown today if they so desired, but they can’t due to timing. We aren’t even 2 years removed from the 3 ring circus that occurred the last time they went hunting for a new head coach and got turned down by everyone pretty much from the queen of England to Napoleon, ultimately having to settle for an out of work circus clown. What message will that send to the available pool of possible head coaches when you fire this guy not 2 years into his tenure because he couldn’t turn The SEC’s biggest and longest burning dumpster fire around in less than 24 months? You thought it was hard to hire someone to coach your “team” before, imagine how tough it’ll be this go around. They will be having to resort to pee wee league coaches because nobody with a future ahead of them will commit career suicide going to coach at Tennessee for a dismal 12-24 month stint and tarnish the rest of their career.
My question is, why isn’t Matt Luke on the list? Of all the SEC teams that lost this past weekend, the only one that wasn’t an UPSET was Ole Miss losing to Memphis. Not to take away from Memphis, but when you’re an SEC program, even if you’re one of the 2 doormats of the SEC (ole miss and UT), you should never be the underdog to a non power5 team. Memphis was favored and they won easily. Just how low are the expectations at Ole Miss anyways that they are willing to let this guy cruise with 2-10 seasons? That doesn’t even fly at Arkansas without getting you fired. As much as Tennessee fans SHOULD be used to 2 win seasons, even they will not tolerate that.
Man! What a mouthful. We don’t need SDS after that. I think Pruitt and Muscamp will be around next year.
Agree, Fulmer has too much pride to let him go this soon. Although back to back losses to BYU and UT Chattanooga might change his mind. But then what? it isn’t like there’s a ton of coaches who could come in here and change the program. I think the thing that makes most UT fans mad is not only the lack of effort that was apparent to everyone watching, but the nonchalant attitude that Jeremy Pruitt had about it. This is the same guy who was kicking the whiteboard on the sidelines last year out of anger and somehow losing to Georgia State who went 2-8 last year didn’t seem to bother him too much. Like many I had hopes that we would see a definite improvement in team effort and speed. Watching Tennessee play Georgia State look like middle schoolers playing pros. I don’t think we could have done much worse if we tried. If that makes me a Nega Vol, so be it. As far as offense goes I don’t think anything changes until we get a quarterback who can scramble and extend plays. I don’t know how many more times he can get blindsided and violently knocked to the ground and keep getting up. That was one thing that Dobbs was great at was knowing when the pocket was closing in and being able to scramble for an extra 8 to 10 yards.