What I am hearing about reasons for current UT Football dysfunction

[tnvols72]

So, no multiple threads with 3 or 4 posters? But I agree, he would suck at both.

There are multiple threads but I am not going to search just to prove a point. I know its been posted by more than 2 or 3 people and so do others on here. Just because you have not seen it does not mean its not on here. You did not read the entire posts that fast. It was brought up in the thread about Tee always being brought up and not just by me.

 

[loservol]

Well, there is your answer. If ESPN says it, I would run the other way as quickly as I could.

With the new contract, they (ESPN) now basically own the SEC. So they probably carry more sway than we like and Fulmer has always been a sucker for positive media attention.

 

[MiramarVol]

You know I almost see your point, but....

What has caused this stink among the fan base? You seem to be ignoring that fact. Your claims about other coaches is purely emotional and it has nothing to do with the fan base. The fan base at UT is no different that any other major SEC school, Clemson, or Ohio State. This fan base has nothing to cheer for.

Because most of us do not worship certain coaches does not mean that we are anti-Tennessee. Coaches will not come here because of the leadership and booster dissension.

Oh no. I know fans aren't anti-Tennessee. But, we need to stop complaining about the current state of affairs and Shiano Pruitt. We deserve better.

 

[onevol74]

Talking to local reporters, some ex-players and others, below is what I have been able to gather about current state of football program. Now this all comes from informal chats and people claiming they know this stuff so take is for what it is worth.

1. Fulmer still likes to act like he is the head coach. He meddles into everything from basic practice to game planning, personnel etc. Pruitt is sick of being micro-managed.
2. There are three factions in coaching staff:
   1. Tee and Jay are Fulmer's boys and they act very much like it too. Tee in particular acts like he is above head coach and has been cause of a lot of friction with in staff.
   2. Pruitt, Friend, Nerdimeyer, Weinke are in another camp. Tee and Jay particularly dislike Nerdimeyer
   3. Derek Ansely, Chaney and Shelton Felton generally stay away from these groups.
3. Ansley has a weak personality and deflects any pressure to Pruitt. Lacks leadership.
4. Pruitt micro-manages the offense through Chaney while Tee tries to run his own stuff. Chaney is very disengaged and even does not run a lot of meetings. He was not like this in his previous stunt here. He just stopped caring.
5. Shelton Felton, Osovet, Brambaugh etc are/were good coaches who are just caught in amazing dysfunction. Brambaugh got fired because he was tired of Pruitt dissing DL all the time and he got into heated argument with Pruitt a lot.
6. Tee tells people around him that he will be HC here someday and he will run this place like Belichik runs Patriots.
7. Pruitt will be forced to let go of his guys (Friend gone, Nerdeimeyer and Weinke next). Tee will likely be Co-OC for 2021. Pruitt is fed up with Fulmer and would be happy to take his buyout and leave.
8. Fulmer has a lot of boosters support and Pruitt still feels like outsider.
9. Team is completely divided.

The amount of dysfunction and politics at UTAD is disgusting. Fulmer is root of it. Pruitt does not have the personality to be a HC who can handle all this and Tee is an opportunist who is waiting his turn fueling the infighting.

Did not realize Basilio had an account on Volnation.

 

[onevol74]

Championship expectations within 2 years.

Soo, we are close?

 

[JDB4425]

True insiders will not come in here and spill the beans for you fans. They keep their information close to their chest and let y’all speculate until you figure out that all you do is post misinformation. They sit on this board and read all of the stuff you hear and they feed you more false info with a little bit of belief until you feel dumb for posting it. Trust me when it comes down to it there is no one on here that knows anything about what is going on inside the program that will post it for you to attack like 13 yr old kids. Insiders have insider knowledge because the people in the know have a small circle they trust to give any information too. If that information came out then they would know who said it and that person would not have the privilege to get any more access or info. Please speculate away and I will laugh at all of you because you have nothing but air and what you want to think. If you were such a good football minded individual maybe you would be standing on the sideline, but your not so stop with your rumor mills..

Pruitt is the head coach until the University of Tennessee says he isn’t. If you don’t like it go jump on another teams bandwagon. If you have played the game you can see there will be some coaching changes this year but it will not be the head coach..So stop talking about it.

 

[Border Vol]

True insiders will not come in here and spill the beans for you fans. They keep their information close to their chest and let y’all speculate until you figure out that all you do is post misinformation. They sit on this board and read all of the stuff you hear and they feed you more false info with a little bit of belief until you feel dumb for posting it. Trust me when it comes down to it there is no one on here that knows anything about what is going on inside the program that will post it for you to attack like 13 yr old kids. Insiders have insider knowledge because the people in the know have a small circle they trust to give any information too. If that information came out then they would know who said it and that person would not have the privilege to get any more access or info. Please speculate away and I will laugh at all of you because you have nothing but air and what you want to think. If you were such a good football minded individual maybe you would be standing on the sideline, but your not so stop with your rumor mills..

Pruitt is the head coach until the University of Tennessee says he isn’t. If you don’t like it go jump on another teams bandwagon. If you have played the game you can see there will be some coaching changes this year but it will not be the head coach..So stop talking about it.

This is what message boards are for.......................................................like it or not.

 

[OrangeTsar]

If the OP is correct (and I have no way of knowing if they are or are not mind you), then getting rid of Pruitt will get us nothing. We will wind up right back where we are now, even with a High Freeze as HC. The kind of oragizational dysfunction described calls for a thorough and comprehensive house cleaning starting at the very top.Some investigative Journalist (if they still exist) needs to see if there is anything to this.
Otherwise, UT needs to hire a “football czar” (maybe someone trusted like Peyton) to come in with absolute power to can anyone or ban any booster or official, at any level or title, from any interaction with the program.
Alabama began their current unprecedented run by centralizing all authority in one locus under Saban. UT needs to do something similar and anyone who wants to spread division or undermine anyone else needs to be given their walking papers, and that goes all the way up to the Chancellor and BOT

 

[m1al]

LOL... you are completely self-unaware. You really are. You automatically dismiss things that don't line up with what you wish to believe.... then YES... you act morally superior just as you've done here. It isn't that you could POSSIBLY have a skewed perspective... it MUST be that I'm "trolling" or "unhinged" or "negative" or "dishonest".

You are "superior" because you are "always" right... and if we don't agree then we're just really bad people.

Notably... you didn't give one reason why the OP's presentation of things they CLAIMED TO HAVE HEARD was factually incorrect. You don't know.... but that didn't keep you from calling it "BS".

Has he called you a 5th grader yet? You really ain't there until he drops that one on you..

Seriously though, I just stopped responding to him.. He likes that even more..

 

[82_VOL_83]

True insiders will not come in here and spill the beans for you fans. They keep their information close to their chest and let y’all speculate until you figure out that all you do is post misinformation. They sit on this board and read all of the stuff you hear and they feed you more false info with a little bit of belief until you feel dumb for posting it. Trust me when it comes down to it there is no one on here that knows anything about what is going on inside the program that will post it for you to attack like 13 yr old kids. Insiders have insider knowledge because the people in the know have a small circle they trust to give any information too. If that information came out then they would know who said it and that person would not have the privilege to get any more access or info. Please speculate away and I will laugh at all of you because you have nothing but air and what you want to think. If you were such a good football minded individual maybe you would be standing on the sideline, but your not so stop with your rumor mills..

Pruitt is the head coach until the University of Tennessee says he isn’t. If you don’t like it go jump on another teams bandwagon. If you have played the game you can see there will be some coaching changes this year but it will not be the head coach..So stop talking about it.

I gave you a like for this because it is dead on. However, the delivery is laughable.

 

[JDB4425]

You’re correct and I am not discounting it. Sling the mud and we will see if it sticks, but it is used as negative recruiting for the university that we all love and support is all I am saying.

 

[OrangeTsar]

Nothing in the OP message has been shown to be incorrect and it is plausible. Not saying it is true; but it deserves investigation. If only Tennessee media actually hired real reporters willing to do the hard work needed

 

[kell7517]

I have some prime ocean front property in Knoxville I'll let you get in on first...

Whether you agree or disagree with what someone puts in this forum. Why be a butthole. Just read it and if you don’t believe it. Move on.

 

[m1al]

You’re correct and I am not discounting it. Sling the mud and we will see if it sticks, but it is used as negative recruiting for the university that we all love and support is all I am saying.

Pruitt does a good enough job negative recruiting all by himself.. He doesn't need the fans help..

Oh, and thank you for your previous post explaining how all this message board insider stuff works..

 

[Orange931]

Lol

Laugh all you want. The way things are going and everything that’s happening, it doesn’t sound far off.

 

[johnfnkelly]

We'll know how serious JP is at turning this thing around by who he hires at OL/ DL. If it's another friend of his, it's over.

It's like JP thinks he's the only leader the coaching staff needs. He only wants to be surrounded by yes men at this point.

 

[Fullfillmer]

I don’t think he’s qualified to be a head coach at this point, but I don’t know why people seem to hate Tee. The whole “I’ll be done cheering for UT if Tee is coach” thing is ridiculous. You’re still cheering for the team while it’s coached by an incompetent Bammer but you’ll be done if it’s coached by a potentially incompetent national championship winning UT quarterback? Weird

We all like Tee personally, but he has far, far less experience than Pruitt does and we see how that is going. He was given a co - offensive coordinator position at SC for one season and their offense sucked - I believe he was calling plays. He is a good recruiter, but it isn't hard to recruit to SC, Alabama, Ohio State etc. Don't want Jay Graham as head coach either. We don't want anyone to be given a position just because they are a friend of Fulmer or played for Fulmer, - they need to be qualified. Dooley was hired because his family were friends of a booster.

 

[Fullfillmer]

Well I’ve not seen “If we hire another unqualified coach, I’m done”. That would be one thing. I’m seeing “If we hire Tee, I’m done.” The singling out of Tee is what is odd to me

Tee was singled out because he isn't qualified - not because he is Tee.

 

[secking]

As to the part about dissension among the staff, it sounds like what allegedly happened at UGA with Pruitt in Richt's last year. Supposedly, they were divided into camps and there was major internal dysfunction. Two years later they were in the playoff, but they did have to clean house first.

Can’t speak to the rest of the points but #2 is true. He had cliques and then hired part of the same clique when he took the job at UT.

As for #1, as snopes would say, it’s at least of mixture true. Sounds like someone took this story and ‘added’ to it. Fulmer committed infraction, was banned from 5 practices

 

[rocky top buzz]

While I have no clue if the OP is correct, a lot of this makes sense if you think about it broadly. Saban has a lot of power because he was successful when he arrived, and quickly found success. Nobody questions him, I don't know who their AD is but I know Saban is in charge of football. I made a post about Clemson, how Dabo obviously is successful but he is not a Saban-type control freak. Clemson really took off once Clemson hired Dan Radakovich who got everyone aligned. At both of those schools you know who is in control. Who is in control at Tennessee? Fulmer? Pruitt? Randy Boyd?

I was pleased when Pruitt was hired because he is purely a football coach. And when you look at his time at uga people didn't like him, but fact is he used his authority to get an indoor facility built, something every other SEC team already had and Richt had been trying to get for years, unsuccessfully. Pruitt is 'fired up' about indoor facility plans

I know that rubbed Richt fans the wrong way but it was a saban-type control to get things done that I thought would serve him well as a head coach. No clue about Fulmer's meddling if that is truly accurate. But I can say without doubt that he has not done a good job of being a leader within the coaching staff.

 

[rdk4121]

I'm all for just making Chaney the head coach. I'm tired of the drama. Chaney wouldn't have any drama, hire Kevin Steele for the defense. We just need stability. I like Freeze, and maybe he has the chops to stand up to whoever and run the program the way he wants to run it, but it could easily blow up in our faces.

 

[ButchPlz]

Tee was singled out because he isn't qualified - not because he is Tee.

To top it off if that goober you responded to says he hasn't seen people saying they'll be out with an unqualified coach; he clearly hasn't opened any threads on this board.

 

[89 VOLS grad]

I don’t think he’s qualified to be a head coach at this point, but I don’t know why people seem to hate Tee. The whole “I’ll be done cheering for UT if Tee is coach” thing is ridiculous. You’re still cheering for the team while it’s coached by an incompetent Bammer but you’ll be done if it’s coached by a potentially incompetent national championship winning UT quarterback? Weird

No, it's not weird. Pruitt isn't getting it done. But, he IMPROVED a defense for 3 teams that won NC. What exactly is on Tee's resume? He hasn't even proved to be more than a Co-coordinator/passing game coordinator.

 

[chef3531]

Well I’ve not seen “If we hire another unqualified coach, I’m done”. That would be one thing. I’m seeing “If we hire Tee, I’m done.” The singling out of Tee is what is odd to me

It's because they are synonymous. Tee=Unqualified. It would be the definition of insanity. I'll just be happy once Fulmer is gone.

 

[89 VOLS grad]

This is why a fan base as bad as Vandy can stop by, read this garbage and laugh louder at us. We're the laughing stock of the SEC. Elitest attitude, led by inbreds. If you didn't play, get a degree, or coach here then you don't belong here. Then fans have the nerve to say which of those who did play, got a degree, or coached here should be AD or HC. Better yet why they aren't qualified. You want to know why no one wanted to coach here and we settled on Pruitt? Pruitt, a DC from Bama. We'll never have a good coach who knows how to win and has a proven track record. Then someone who actually would love to coach here, the fans would run them off. You could offer Urban, Jumbo or Dabo 15M a year and they wouldn't take it the job from this incestuous minded school. Football here will never be great again.

Right! Because the fans make the hire. NOT!!!