Opposing coach puts Jeremy Pruitt's Tennessee rebuild into perspective: 'It's going to take five years to get it done'

Does it? It's true, we had a long period from 1989-2001 in which we were one of college football's most consistent winners. Florida of course was also strong, and Georgia was in a post-Vince Dooley retirement funk, which aided our cause significantly because we got a lot of that State's best players onto our roster. It is worth noting also that this period of sustained success came after a long period of stability and program building. We had a great year like 85' now and then but there was a lot of 7, 8 win seasons in there, but we bided our time and built a stable program and then stepped into the conference power vacuum in the 90's when it presented itself.

With that said, the 90's are not our modern norm. We were 4th in overall wins in the 90's but that is our only decade in the last 6 in which we were top 10 in wins. Georgia and Florida on the other hand have been in the top 10 in wins 3 of the last 4 decades and 2 of the last 3 respectively. In the 47 seasons in which college football has been fully integrated, which as great and as needed as that was, as a practical matter it must be recognized, substantially altered the fundamental recruiting calculus against the State of Tennessee in favor of Florida and Georgia, for the foreseeable future. Since that time, Tennessee is 18th in wins, Florida is 10th, and Georgia is 7th.

Am I saying we should never expect to beat Florida or Georgia? No, I am saying though, that when both programs are going strong, it's going to be tough to overtake them, we need to raise ourselves to status of a regular 8-9 win team first. Since the 1950's ended, that's been our baseline anyway, a Top 20 team, not a Top 10 team. We need to create stability like we did before and wait for our power vacuum, and then step into it again and fight like hell to hold onto it once we get it again. Firing coaches every 3-5 years, especially when we find one who regularly wins 9 games will turn us into Ole Miss, a once proud program whose glory days are long, long gone.
I never said anything about firing a 9 win coach, I just responded to a quote saying it doesn’t work out firing 9 win coaches by saying it’s worked out pretty well for Georgia, which it has.
 
I never said anything about firing a 9 win coach, I just responded to a quote saying it doesn’t work out firing 9 win coaches by saying it’s worked out pretty well for Georgia, which it has.
Georgia got lucky. I've been following college football 30+ years and I've seen that happen twice where a program fired a successful coach and got a better one, with Smart after Richt and Jim Tressel after John Cooper at Ohio State. It's kind of like running a red light, sometimes you might get away with it, but generally it's a bad decision.
 
Georgia got lucky. I've been following college football 30+ years and I've seen that happen twice where a program fired a successful coach and got a better one, with Smart after Richt and Jim Tressel after John Cooper at Ohio State. It's kind of like running a red light, sometimes you might get away with it, but generally it's a bad decision.
Yeah just ticks me off because I have to live down here amongst the Georgia fans, they are so arrogant and annoying, they shouldn’t have benefited from what they did... and here we are still wandering aimlessly in the abyss.
 
Yeah just ticks me off because I have to live down here amongst the Georgia fans, they are so arrogant and annoying, they shouldn’t have benefited from what they did... and here we are still wandering aimlessly in the abyss.
Couldn't agree more.
 
If Tennessee is winning 9-10 games a season by 2021 Coach Jeremy Pruitt will be head football coach at Tennessee for a long time to come(that is unless Alabama comes calling)!
For Pruitt to get a chance at coaching Bama he has to win at least 1 conference title and make the playoff a couple times. If he don’t break the 8 win mark he will never sniff that job...
 
Bottom line is you or nobody else knows, how about letting it play out. And the start of this thread was absurd over anonymous, which was probably made up by the writer. And if you can't be a big boy and put your name behind your statements your nothing more than a PRICK! GBO!

A little sensitive are we?
 
Dabo didn’t have immediate success at Clemson, just a patient ride to the top. I get it that ACC isn’t the SEC, but it is a fact this will take time and there won’t be an immediate turn around.

What is your definition of "immediate success"? I remember a 10 win season and an ACC title pretty early on in his tenure.
 
Georgia got lucky. I've been following college football 30+ years and I've seen that happen twice where a program fired a successful coach and got a better one, with Smart after Richt and Jim Tressel after John Cooper at Ohio State. It's kind of like running a red light, sometimes you might get away with it, but generally it's a bad decision.


Ohio State did it TWICE. Tressel after Cooper and Meyer after Tressel.
 
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Georgia got lucky. I've been following college football 30+ years and I've seen that happen twice where a program fired a successful coach and got a better one, with Smart after Richt and Jim Tressel after John Cooper at Ohio State. It's kind of like running a red light, sometimes you might get away with it, but generally it's a bad decision.
Georgia fans might be arrogant and entitled, but they aren't wrong when they say that Richt underachieved and I don't blame them for thinking they are capable of more. Richt could, perhaps should, have won a couple of titles at Georgia.

Also, it is too soon to say that Kirby is better than Richt. Look at Richt's first 3 years and Kirby's first 3 years. Eerily similar.
 
Yeah just ticks me off because I have to live down here amongst the Georgia fans, they are so arrogant and annoying, they shouldn’t have benefited from what they did... and here we are still wandering aimlessly in the abyss.

I wonder of one of them was the guy who started crying on that call in show. But if you are living down there, be happy that you don't hear Roger on the radio while driving.
 
,Also it is too soon to say that Kirby is better than Richt. Look at Richt's first 3 years and Kirby's first 3 years. Eerily similar.

The records might be the same, but practically the teams look nothing alike. Richt eeked out a lot of wins in his early years even against mediocre competition, Georgia is murdering folk almost like Bama now. Yeah, they lost 1 regular season game last year but the next closest game was 14 points (Missouri). The year before only the ND game was close out of their 11 regular season wins. I don't think Kirby's a great X and O's guy but he isn't bad. We rail them for losing to Bama 2 years in a row but both times he was supposed to be beaten a lot worse. I expected Bama to pound them both of the last 2 years, but both times Bama was lucky to survive. As good as a recruiter as Kirby is, he'll be a problem for years to come unless they get busted, but will they? You know he knows where the bodies are buried at Bama, so mutually assured destruction and all that.
 
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The records might be the same, but practically the teams look nothing alike. Richt eeked out a lot of wins in his early years even against mediocre competition, Georgia is murdering folk almost like Bama now. Yeah, they lost 1 regular season game last year but the next closest game was 14 points (Missouri). The year before only the ND game was close out of their 11 regular season wins. I don't think Kirby's a great X and O's guy but he isn't bad. We rail them for losing to Bama 2 years in a row but both times he was supposed to be beaten a lot worse. I expected Bama to pound them both of the last 2 years, but both times Bama was lucky to survive. As good as a recruiter as Kirby is, he'll be a problem for years to come unless they get busted, but will they? You know he knows where the bodies are buried at Bama, so mutually assured destruction and all that.
The teams look a lot alike. Great recruiting classes, sending a bunch of guys to the NFL, etc., but inevitably comes up just short of ultimate glory in a big situation.

The SEC East was quite thin last year and the year before. Hence Kirby's blowout victories. Look at the teams Kirby is murdering - they suck. The SEC in Richt's day was much deeper.
 
Tressel was involuntary though, he HAD TO BE fired.

Yeah but the point is they re-loaded with another great coach and didnt really skip a beat. suddenly firing a coach could have been devastating to a program, and for that one interim-year they did suck. But they made the right hire and were back in business.
 
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I wonder what their fans thought when they hired tressel? He wasn’t a big name hire outside of Ohio.

Doesn't really matter because to OSU fans he was known and respected and it worked out great (somewhat) until they ran into SEC teams.
 
Doesn't really matter because to OSU fans he was known and respected and it worked out great (somewhat) until they ran into SEC teams.
Tressel was also hired in a different time. Not all that long ago, but definitely a different time. He was well-known in the state and had won a ton of games, but it was at the I-AA level, and most of those championships he won were in the early 90s. I think the reaction to hiring a Tressel-type coach to replace Urban today wouldn't be received as warmly, even if they were familiar with him. Bama certainly wouldn't be OK with hiring a dominant coach from the FCS level to replace Saban, even if the guy went 200-0 with 15 national titles.
 
I never said anything about firing a 9 win coach, I just responded to a quote saying it doesn’t work out firing 9 win coaches by saying it’s worked out pretty well for Georgia, which it has.

Here is my take on the 8/9 win seasons and coaches being fired. I said Fulmer should have been let go after the '05 season because EVERYONE could see the ship was sinking. But, he wasn't and luckily for him (and us too) Cutcliff came back for two more season. Then disaster happened and we have not been right since.

However, look at what Nebraska did to/with Frank Solich. And, that was after an 8-3 season! They have not been back to the elite level since. Now, look at Georgia. They fired a successful coach. One that has had the most success since Vince Dooley. But, look at where they are now. It's one of those things that you just never know.
 
Ohio State did it TWICE. Tressel after Cooper and Meyer after Tressel.
Just goes to show, if you are a consistent winner, the coaches will line up for the job. We hired Kiffin. He might have worked out, if USC had been in a better place. After Kiffin, we got stupid. Doofus, then Botch. Sadly, Botch might have been our best option, at the point.
 
Here is my take on the 8/9 win seasons and coaches being fired. I said Fulmer should have been let go after the '05 season because EVERYONE could see the ship was sinking. But, he wasn't and luckily for him (and us too) Cutcliff came back for two more season. Then disaster happened and we have not been right since.

However, look at what Nebraska did to/with Frank Solich. And, that was after an 8-3 season! They have not been back to the elite level since. Now, look at Georgia. They fired a successful coach. One that has had the most success since Vince Dooley. But, look at where they are now. It's one of those things that you just never know.
I agree, you never know and there is always risk involved. Having said that there are things you can do to try and help your odds of success. Unfortunately our administration didn’t even try. They knew the money would continue to pour in from this fan base regardless of results (and it has.) as far as pruitt is concerned I’ve got nothing against him and I hope he succeeds here, I’m not sold or unsold on him yet. But all this talk around here about needing another 4 years to prove stuff just has me shaking my head. Have some not learned? That is the exact attitude that got us into this mess. To much patience can in fact be a detriment as we have clearly seen with letting the likes of Dooley and butch hang around for to long. Look no further than our two east rivals that we used to be able to compete with ( Florida, Georgia) both of their previous coaches had way more success than anything we’ve had since fulmers early years and yet they both decided that wasn’t good enough, got rid of those guys and now they both seem way way better off for it. Again I’m not saying fire pruitt, he does deserve more time to show what he’s got, but at the same time if we are still waiting around 3 or 4 years from now for him to show us if he’s the guy or not you already have your answer and at that point it’ll probably continue to set us back even further.
 
I'm okay with 5 years under Pruitt who is a well respected coach and obvious top level recruiter.

Butch saying 5-7 years to build a program was him buying time and trying to overplay the Dooley effect on the program.

Pruitt has shown that he can adjust if things need adjusting aka the job isn't getting done.
 
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I'm okay with 5 years under Pruitt who is a well respected coach and obvious top level recruiter.

Butch saying 5-7 years to build a program was him buying time and trying to overplay the Dooley effect on the program.

Pruitt has shown that he can adjust if things need adjusting aka the job isn't getting done.

Any evidence of any of the above? I got 6 - 25+ point beatdowns that make me question his ability to adjust.
 
I had a dream last night and, while I can't recall the details, the one thing I remember is "they" were calling Jeremy Pruitt "The Hitman". Pretty funny.
 
Georgia got lucky. I've been following college football 30+ years and I've seen that happen twice where a program fired a successful coach and got a better one, with Smart after Richt and Jim Tressel after John Cooper at Ohio State. It's kind of like running a red light, sometimes you might get away with it, but generally it's a bad decision.
Yup
 
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