1. Pruitt
2. Dooley
3. Butch
Hard to compare the three. All of them have completely different pedigrees and levels of experience as an HC. Since you said coach and not HC, you have more to compare however.
Jeremy Pruitt
Experience
Just started as an HC, with not even being done when his second year. but he wisely spent his developmental years at multiple power five schools two of which were championship grade. The 3rd if which was no slouch. So, he has the best pedigree of them all and is more proven in those years of his career.
Record
He improved our record by one win his first year and possibly 4 wins by his second year. He is on the same trajectory as Butch with a slightly steeper curve than Butch. However, he has not done as much as Butch did with regards to his record thus far.
Abilities
He develops players. He is known for it, and it is showing tremendously. He also has great connections and is well respected. He doesn’t baby his players but he fights for them too. He has control of his emotions with the media, but he isn’t boring on the field and that is when his personality comes alive. He also has shown he can keep a team together during adversity. I think he has the most upside of the three. We will see... I am proud to have him.
Butch Jones
Experience
Jones has coached the most as an HC. He coached multiple years at every stop. However, he spent his developmental years as a coach for non-power five schools like Central Michigan.
Record
He did very well at every spot including UT until his last year. He won Championships at CMU and Cinci and got Tennessee to runner-up his 3rd and 4th year. We were 4th when Butch inherited the program that was coming unraveling after Kiffin bolted. If Jones had a strong 5th year, he would still be here.
Abilities
Butch said it from the beginning. He would take a CEO approach. He tried, but in the end he proved he was a salesman. I still remember the warnings from Cinci people. Once Bajakian left and the pressure (unrightfully) became so heavy to replace Bajakian, we began to see how deep Butch Jones’ book ran when it came to coordinafors and his ability to replace them. He lucked out with the hiring of Shoop. Debord worked well with the cast we had, but he didn’t feel like sticking it out with Butch and Butch didn’t know enough about coaching to value a strength coordinator. He didn’t realize how good the one he originally had was, and he had no idea how important a good one was. He was able to recruit, but not able to keep a team. He was a horrible leader. This is where he needs to grow the most. He got me excited to watch football again and I will forever appreciate his contributions. He brought this city a lot of money and some good times. Unfortunately, there were too many bad ones.
Derek Dooley
Experience
Dooley’s background looks a bit like Pruitt’s as his developmental years have been at power five schools and even the NFL. Georgia, LSU and Miami and Dallas respectfully. Now he is an OC at Missouri. I think he is still in his development years.
Record
Perfect segue. I think Dooley tried his hand at HC too soon, as his experience at LA Tech did nothing for his resume, and when looking at what he did there makes Dooley the dumbest coaching hire I am aware of... EVER. He had one mediocre season and two losing seasons at LA Tech—the worst of which was the year before we hired him at Tennessee. He then posted three losing seasons at Tennessee.
Abilities
He didn’t seem to have much respect from his team. They dogged him after he left. Poor leader in my opinion. We had some high octane offenses under Dooley which seems to be his flavor, but that was when he had our current OC with him who is clearly better than he is. He hasn’t done much at Missouri but he has had only one year. Jury is still out on whether or not he is a good OC. He may be a good position coach at best.
Verdict:
Derek Dooley