2018 Record

#226
#226
These quotes might be interesting to discuss retrospectively.

sjt18 said:
My guess would be 7 or 8 regular season wins with the team being more competitive in losses than currently predicted.

Pruitt did a really good job with the grad transfers. They should help a lot. The blocking scheme will be more aggressive which should help the OL's a lot. They're going to pound it and probably try to control clock which should prevent some of the runaways we saw under Jones early then again late.

IF... he can just make the D and OL credible for the first time in a while then they'll outperform expectations. This team is NOT without talent.
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sjt18 said:
Not if Pruitt is the right coach. Lots' of coaches win with less. The difference in beating teams like USCe and UF this year is coaching. He likely doesn't have the talent to win all of those games or beat the big three on the schedule. But if he doesn't win the majority of games against teams with roughly equal talent then he's not the right guy.

And... I think he might be the guy. He at least talks, acts, and thinks like a coach without the magic green notebook.
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BeardedVol said:
If Pruitt is worth his salt, then he should be able to win a road game against a Vanderbilt by the end of his first season. If not, then we have problems.
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BeardedVol said:
True, but Vandy is the last game of the season. If Pruitt is the coach we all hope that he is, then he should be able to find a way to win against a pre-season-projected 3-9 Vanderbilt.
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#227
#227
McDad said:
These quotes might be interesting to discuss retrospectively.
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#230
#230
BeardedVol said:
Nah, I stand by that statement. We didn't lose last night on lack of talent or ability, we lost on lack of preparation and motivation with a Bowl berth on the line. It does not bode well for the next 3 years.
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You've seen the narrative offered and accepted as gospel by many which started last night. "Cancers on team...bad culture...guys who quit...etc"; basically the blame butch schtick.
Do you agree with the narrative?
 
#231
#231
McDad said:
You've seen the narrative offered and accepted as gospel by many which started last night. "Cancers on team...bad culture...guys who quit...etc"; basically the blame butch schtick.
Do you agree with the narrative?
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I'm sure there are some guys on the team that are ready to be done, don't like working out during the season, and just want to go home, but I have a hard time believing that the majority of the team didn't have enough pride to want to beat Vandy and get to a bowl. I question whether Pruitt is the type of coach who is capable of rebuilding a team, or if he's the type of coach that is only going to find success with a bunch of talent that doesn't need to be developed. Cause we didn't see much if any development of talent this season, and I'd argue that as the season progressed, our defense actually performed worse.
 
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#232
#232
BeardedVol said:
I'm sure there are some guys on the team that are ready to be done, don't like working out during the season, and just want to go home, but I have a hard time believing that the majority of the team didn't have enough pride to want to beat Vandy and get to a bowl. I question whether Pruitt is the type of coach who is capable of rebuilding a team, or if he's the type of coach that is only going to find success with a bunch of talent that doesn't need to be developed. Cause we didn't see much if any development of talent this season, and I'd argue that as the season progressed, our defense actually performed worse.
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What are your thoughts on the offense?
 
#234
#234
In retrospect, sans homer's orange colored glasses, we're pretty much in the middle of a program death spiral being guided by people with no prior experience at their specific positions and 5-7 is perfectly acceptable considering that.

Elephant in the living room I haven't heard many discuss is Fulmer's hiring as AD. I mean, to a casual observer, it looks questionable even given the coach search/AD debacle that was taking place. It's got homerism written all over it w/ his resume since being let go at UT.
 
#235
#235
McDad said:
What are your thoughts on the offense?
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I think Tyson Helton had a lot of help from his brother and Jeff Brohm being his bosses at his previous stops, and now he's working for a defensive-minded coach, who can't help him, and expects him to earn his pay. He didn't, but as much as I hated the predictable play-calling all year, we have 0 SEC-level QBs on the roster, the oline, is beyond bad, and made worse with injuries, so I'm not sure that any OC would have had much more success. My biggest problem with the offense, is that Pruitt/Helton knew of our deficiencies, and don't seem to have adjusted as the season went along. Helton is not a QB coach, if Pruitt is going to retain him, he needs to take some of that cash he's paying Helton, and get a dedicated QB coach. Will Friend, isn't worth his salary this season. It's one thing for guys to just not be strong or big enough, but our offensive line whiffed on every other play, had poor technique even at the end of the season, and never reengaged a block after they missed, or if they found themselves not blocking anyone on a play, zero pursuit of the block to try and do something at least. The receivers were much better at catching, catchable balls this year, but they are still slow on their route running and couldn't get separation even against ETSU and UTEP. Whether that is a struggle to pick up the play book, lack of effort, or conditioning, all of that, some of that, I don't know, but I saw more speed from receivers on FCS teams than I did from our WR corps this year. We've got some talent at RB, but we don't have a bulldozer type back on the roster that's going to be successful behind our oline next year, hopefully S&C can mitigate some of that problem, but I don't have my hopes up given the lack of impact improved S&C had on strength gains on the field.
 
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#236
#236
BeardedVol said:
I think Tyson Helton had a lot of help from his brother and Jeff Brohm being his bosses at his previous stops, and now he's working for a defensive-minded coach, who can't help him, and expects him to earn his pay. He didn't, but as much as I hated the predictable play-calling all year, we have 0 SEC-level QBs on the roster, the oline, is beyond bad, and made worse with injuries, so I'm not sure that any OC would have had much more success. My biggest problem with the offense, is that Pruitt/Helton knew of our deficiencies, and don't seem to have adjusted as the season went along. Helton is not a QB coach, if Pruitt is going to retain him, he needs to take some of that cash he's paying Helton, and get a dedicated QB coach. Will Friend, isn't worth his salary this season. It's one thing for guys to just not be strong or big enough, but our offensive line whiffed on every other play, had poor technique even at the end of the season, and never reengaged a block after they missed, or if they found themselves not blocking anyone on a play, zero pursuit of the block to try and do something at least. The receivers were much better at catching, catchable balls this year, but they are still slow on their route running and couldn't get separation even against ETSU and UTEP. Whether that is a struggle to pick up the play book, lack of effort, or conditioning, all of that, some of that, I don't know, but I saw more speed from receivers on FCS teams than I did from our WR corps this year. We've got some talent at RB, but we don't have a bulldozer type back on the roster that's going to be successful behind our oline next year, hopefully S&C can mitigate some of that problem, but I don't have my hopes up given the lack of impact improved S&C had on strength gains on the field.
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You're painting a bleak picture. Do we have anyone on staff or on the field who can get it done?
Will recruiting fix all our woes?
Are we headed for a coaching search in 2021?
 
#238
#238
McDad said:
You're painting a bleak picture. Do we have anyone on staff or on the field who can get it done?
Will recruiting fix all our woes?
Are we headed for a coaching search in 2021?
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I've spent too much time in a technical profession to make predictions without empirical indicators, and this season just doesn't have many if any positive progression as a whole. As a staff capable of the type of rebuild necessary for success at UT? I'd say no at the moment, but if Pruitt and this staff can recruit above their coaching abilities, then by year 4 he might have accrued enough talent to negate the lack of development, but we aren't going to see the 2nd year swing that tends to separate the good head coaches from the rest.
 
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#239
#239
McDad said:
Props to all the folks who were correct.
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You quoted me in there, but I honestly thought 6-6 was on the table.

With the season behind us, I can honestly say I'm disappointed. Beating Auburn was cancelled out by that butt stomping Vandy put on us, in my opinion. Offensively, we weren't creative enough throughout the season, and I thought our defense would've improved more with the gurus we have on staff.

The jury is still out. We need a top 10 recruiting class, and we need to see improvement with our coaches as well as our players' understanding of this system.

Yesterday gave me serious doubts about this staff. Let's hope things turn around soon.
 
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#240
#240
BeardedVol said:
Nah, I stand by that statement. We didn't lose last night on lack of talent or ability, we lost on lack of preparation and motivation with a Bowl berth on the line. It does not bode well for the next 3 years.
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I agree with your original statement. Pruitt may still work out, maybe not... Who knows? But, THE GUY wouldn't have gotten destroyed by a 5 win Vandy. He may eventually prove to be the guy, but there can't be an objective fan that can honestly be confident after last night.
 
#241
#241
secking said:
I think recruiting is doing okay. Funny how these played out, no one (except me-plug) saw the AU win and no one thought the Ky win would be placed in a good win department, crazy season. I think recruiting will do well despite having two shots of making a bowl game and getting blown out in each. Come to think of it, Maybe the players did quit?? I don’t know but UT will sign a top 10 recruiting class with Pruitt.
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No way you said 5-7 with a win over Auburn though. I’m guessing you said 8 wins or more (probably more) if you thought we would win that one.
 
#242
#242
TJ1985 said:
I agree with your original statement. Pruitt may still work out, maybe not... Who knows? But, THE GUY wouldn't have gotten destroyed by a 5 win Vandy. He may eventually prove to be the guy, but there can't be an objective fan that can honestly be confident after last night.
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That's where I'm at with him as a coach. I think this season has shown us that he's not going to get any more out of Butch's players than Butch got, for Pruitt to have success here, he's going to have to find with with recruiting and developing his own players. Unfortunately, that puts him most likely at year 4 before we have a chance of being competitive again, and that puts him right at the point where he has to be good enough to get an extension on his 6-year contract.
 
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#245
#245
McDad said:
These quotes might be interesting to discuss retrospectively.
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I was wrong.... or 1/2 right... or maybe half wrong? I was either wrong about the talent or wrong about Pruitt. The talent looked really bad and underdeveloped. But bad coaching can cause that too... or in this case a continuation of really bad coaching.

The only "excuse" I'd throw out there is that losing Kennedy and Smith for most of the season was a really big deal. Probably the two offensive players UT could least afford to lose.

I'm going to tentatively blame this on Jones mostly because I've come to believe he's the worst UT coach of my lifetime. He was bailed out by his used car salesman routine that brought in some talent... and Josh Dobbs. Otherwise, he was a terrible leader/manager of players, coach, developer of talent, manager of his staff, hiring manager, culture creator,.... The more the scars are exposed... the worse he looks.

HOWEVER... Pruitt can't take too long to show something. This should have been a bowl team even with its problems. I think he knows football a million times more than Jones but right now... he's even pegging with where Jones was after year one.
 
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