JG did what they asked him to do yesterday - to have a clean game and given what happened recently that was reasonable ask. If the defense did not play so poorely we also would have had more posessions and he probably could have done more. One more issue (which is on coaches for sure) is that Palmer is the only legit receiver on this team - all the other upper classmen and simply over their head playing aginst this type of competition - makes it much harder for QB when you only have one option (since we also don't use TE's at all in passing game). I think the focus right now needs to be getting as many of the freshman receivers ready to play vs Arky, and to fix the defense in terms of stopping big plays (those two things are at least as important as debate about who should be the QB going forward).
I sure wish not beating Saban was our only problem. How about even being COMPETITIVE with Kentucky at home? The same Kentucky team that Mizzou handled yesterday. How about not being run out of the gym by Georgia? How about just playing inspired football period?
Tennessee will not be a good football program for the foreseeable future. So far, Pruitt is no better than the 2 stiffs before him that we fired. When the admin gets serious about hiring a big time football coach, we will win again. Until then, nothing really changes
Les Miles has proven he CAN do it. That was who I wanted to go after when Jones was canned. Thought Fulmer would give him a serious look but don’t think he ever did. Miles had trouble keeping up with Modern offenses as well, but I think he knows the SEC, can hire great staff, and could have given the program several seasons of well managed stability in which to rebuild. At least it would have not been another gamble on an unproven HCSo please name a few big time coaches (who are not retired) who you are pretty sure would beat Saban.
I think Pruitt has questionable leadership at best.
Hard to step up and lead with the head guy yelling what everyone else is doing wrong. And he continues to roll with guys that aren’t getting it done at several positions.
Then he fires a coach, takes over his position group and that group gets worse instantly.
Pruitt’s credibility is very low right now. He is pointing fingers everywhere & it’s him that has to look in the damn mirror.
The kids see this everyday, Won’t have leaders step up for a coach that blames everyone else for problems.
Freeze has already done it twice. Malzahn could be available soon.
There are plenty of lesser know guys out there. We have done an astonishingly bad job of identifying them.
Hard to close the gap when Bama and UGA bring in 5 or 6 5* players every year...There aren't many teams in the SEC besides LSU closing that gap either. Florida and Texas A&M might make up some ground, but it's difficult to steadily close the gap with the way Bama and UGA is recruiting...Why shouldn’t we have closed the gap in 2 1/4 years? Again if your head coach doesn’t have your program rolling by year three it’s not going to happen.
Are you suggesting that Tennessee isn’t cheating now? Everyone is handing out goodies to recruits. Maybe we just need to pony up some more.Freeze apparently had to cheat (recruiting) to get the talent to beat Saban. Are you suggesting that's what we should do?
Malzahn will be available because he is not good enough for Auburn any longer - why should he be a great hire for us in that case?
Statement that there are plenty of lesser known guys out there (without naming them) that would beat the greatest coach who ever coached in CF is another generic statement. Please name few of those lesser known guys who would beat Saban. As bad as we have been during last 15 years, with the exception of Butch everyone else we hired seemed reasonable lesser known name (some better known that others (Kiffin), some from Saban coaching tree like Dooley, Pruitt, and even Sunseri) - but the constant (not only at UT) is that hardly anyone ever beats Saban.
Les Miles has proven he CAN do it. That was who I wanted to go after when Jones was canned. Thought Fulmer would give him a serious look but don’t think he ever did. Miles had trouble keeping up with Modern offenses as well, but I think he knows the SEC, can hire great staff, and could have given the program several seasons of well managed stability in which to rebuild. At least it would have not been another gamble on an unproven HC
It's easy to make this generic statement that sounds good, but can you be specific and name a few big time coaches who would actually beat Saban? Because results on the field clearly show he is the best who ever coached college football (has not lost a game to anyone in SEC East for 10 years - even though we sucked over that period UF and UGA were pretty good at times could still not beat him). Actually, over the years he has been at Bama other than few games against Auburn and LSU Saban has pretty much dominated everyone (and Malzahn who is one of the few who actually does have some success against Saban is on the hot seat himself). Also, while I like Kiffin and Leach, looking at their records right now it does not seem they would be any more successful (Kiffin did have a good game against Bama but overall Ole Miss is even worse than us). And UK which seemed to be on the rise just lost to Mizzou. Also, the one big time hire in the SEC (NC winning coach now at A&M) has also been dominated by Saban. You even have coaches with great NFL credentials who have not been successful in college football (see Michigan as perfect example, and they don't even play the tough SEC schedule).
I wouldn’t put Miles in the same boat as Fulmer. Fulmer had two losing seasons in four years. Miles’ worst season at LSU he still won 8 games.I have nothing against Les Miles but hiring Les Miles at this point (or even when Butch was being replaced) would be almost the same as hiring Fulmer back (he also proved he could win in the SEC, and even including NC - I hope we can all agree on that). The question about Les Miles was given all the talent he had available at LSU why he was not able to be even more competitive with Saban (that's why they eventually fired him). And the funny thing is that the same coach who could not win at Ole Miss (Orgeron) ended up winning NC once he had access to all that talent at LSU. This is why I think no matter who we would bring in until the talent level is closer to what Bama has nobody will be able to really compete with them unless they close that talent gap which takes years to accomplish (Kirby Smart is closing the gap with Bama, and I think Pruitt is as well but clearly several years behind Kirby at this point).
Butch Jones lost to Alabama 19-14 in year 3. Had he been competent at coaching we likely would have beat them. At a school like Tennessee, it only takes 3 years to recruit a competitive team.
Freeze seems to know the formula.It's easy to make this generic statement that sounds good, but can you be specific and name a few big time coaches who would actually beat Saban? Because results on the field clearly show he is the best who ever coached college football (has not lost a game to anyone in SEC East for 10 years - even though we sucked over that period UF and UGA were pretty good at times could still not beat him). Actually, over the years he has been at Bama other than few games against Auburn and LSU Saban has pretty much dominated everyone (and Malzahn who is one of the few who actually does have some success against Saban is on the hot seat himself). Also, while I like Kiffin and Leach, looking at their records right now it does not seem they would be any more successful (Kiffin did have a good game against Bama but overall Ole Miss is even worse than us). And UK which seemed to be on the rise just lost to Mizzou. Also, the one big time hire in the SEC (NC winning coach now at A&M) has also been dominated by Saban. You even have coaches with great NFL credentials who have not been successful in college football (see Michigan as perfect example, and they don't even play the tough SEC schedule).
I wouldn’t put Miles in the same boat as Fulmer. Fulmer had two losing seasons in four years. Miles’ worst season at LSU he still won 8 games.