I was in line at GameStop for the PS5 with DJ Henderson. Here’s what i learned.

#27
#27
I want to believe...but,
QB-not his
RB-his
WR-half
OL-3/5 starters are his and the 4th is considered our best player
TE-Do we have any?
DL-Mostly his
LB-His
DB-His
 
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#28
#28
Falcons02 said:
If we could get a coach who was a clear upgrade with previous head coach experience (aka Hugh Freeze or someone of his ilk), id be all for it. However, a bit of a cautionary tale:

1987 11 2w 9l 0 .182 -2.12 6.16
1988 11 3w 8l 0 .273 -1.34 5.39
1989 11 6w 4l 1 .591 6.36 2.91
1990 11 6w 5l 0 .545 7.20 5.10
1991 11 5w 6l 0 .455 3.94 1.30
1992 11 2w 8l 1 .227 -1.93 1.70

So, this is the first 6 seasons for College Hall of Fame coach Frank Beamer. Do any of us really think Pruitt would get years 7 through 29 if he had that record his first 6 years at UT? Extremely doubtful. I know things are different these days, with the instant gratification and bloated salaries. I am impatient too (see above). I try really hard to exercise a bit more patience, but usually fail.
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Folks like to think about the Urban Meyers of the world, guys who come in and start having huge success in their first year or two as a head coach.

That does happen. There are plenty of "if you don't win big in the first three years, you won't win big" examples.

But as you point out, there is proof that's far from always true. You mentioned Coach Beamer. Here are a couple of other fellas:

Dabo Swinney's first three years as head coach (all at Clemson):
4-3
9-5
6-7

Nick Saban's first five years (at Toledo for one season, then Michigan State):
9-2
6-5-1
6-6
7-5
6-6

Now, we could cut Jeremy loose because he's not getting us to championship level as fast as any of us would like.

And, truth in advertising, he might never get us there. No guarantees. He might not be the right guy.

On the other hand, we might be the Michigan State of Pruitt's career. The place where he never won a lot, but where he learned how to be a head coach.

So we have to ask ourselves: do we want to be a Michigan State, paying the price so someone else (LSU and Bama) can reap the rewards? Or do we want to be a Clemson, show a little patience, and see if he'll get the head coaching thing down?

I'm with you, a proponent of giving the man some more time.
 
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#29
#29
Since JG is so smart, he would make a great scout team QB. Being a genius and all would enable him to run the other team's offense to a T and that would really help prepare the defense for our opponents. :p:p:p
 
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#30
#30
Everyone keeps telling about how difficult Pruitt is to work with. Not saying the OP is lying or DJ is wrong but it would seem to me given Pruitt's rep as being difficult wouldn't lend itself to him allowing players to continually not listen etc.

According to the scenario OP laid out it would indicate he is scared of something by not addresing it head on. Not going to speculate what he would be scared of but it's either that or he's just not demanding discipline. Either way that's a bad sign for the future IMO.
 
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#31
#31
Christian Lowe said:
he said pruitt is smart, and the coaches are good. the older players, for whatever reason, just don’t listen to him when it comes game time. he said guarantano is a genius, and he has everything it takes... in practice. he just loses everything when the lights come on. he doesn’t know why.
he said jennings was crazy, but he knew how to pull the team together. the team doesn’t have that anymore. but overall, he said he thinks pruitt can get it done when the bad apples are gone.

he’s working at amazon in spartanburg, SC where he grew up, also where i grew up. he’s a cool guy. y’all don’t have to believe me, but everything i said here is true.
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The „bad apples“ could be gone tomorrow if CJP would just bench their behinds. An upperclassman status is not an automatic license to be on the field. Put in the players who WILL listen. What, are we afraid we might LOSE some games? (Hint: we already are)
 
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#32
#32
VFL-82-JP said:
Folks like to think about the Urban Meyers of the world, guys who come in and start having huge success in their first year or two as a head coach.

That does happen. There are plenty of "if you don't win big in the first three years, you won't win big" examples.

But as you point out, there is proof that's far from always true. You mentioned Coach Beamer. Here are a couple of other fellas:

Dabo Swinney's first three years as head coach (all at Clemson):
4-3
9-5
6-7

Nick Saban's first five years (at Toledo for one season, then Michigan State):
9-2
6-5-1
6-6
7-5
6-6

Now, we could cut Jeremy loose because he's not getting us to championship level as fast as any of us would like.

And, truth in advertising, he might never get us there. No guarantees. He might not be the right guy.

On the other hand, we might be the Michigan State of Pruitt's career. The place where he never won a lot, but where he learned how to be a head coach.

So we have to ask ourselves: do we want to be a Michigan State, paying the price so someone else (LSU and Bama) can reap the rewards? Or do we want to be a Clemson, show a little patience, and see if he'll get the head coaching thing down?

I'm with you, a proponent of giving the man some more time.
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Can’t help but notice that none of those records are 2 and 8 in any season, which is where we are headed.
 
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#33
#33
KB5252 said:
Everyone keeps telling about how difficult Pruitt is to work with. Not saying the OP is lying or DJ is wrong but it would seem to me given Pruitt's rep as being difficult wouldn't lend itself to him allowing players to continually not listen etc.

According to the scenario OP laid out it would indicate he is scared of something by not addresing it head on. Not going to speculate what he would be scared of but it's either that or he's just not demanding discipline. Either way that's a bad sign for the future IMO.
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he only had good things to say about Pruitt, but keep in mind he graduated after the 2018 season, so he only got one year with him. Swain seems to thing that as more and more pressure has piled on pruitt that he's become a completely different person.. that probably wasn't applicable in his first season
 
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#35
#35
Christian Lowe said:
he said pruitt is smart, and the coaches are good. the older players, for whatever reason, just don’t listen to him when it comes game time. he said guarantano is a genius, and he has everything it takes... in practice. he just loses everything when the lights come on. he doesn’t know why.
he said jennings was crazy, but he knew how to pull the team together. the team doesn’t have that anymore. but overall, he said he thinks pruitt can get it done when the bad apples are gone.

he’s working at amazon in spartanburg, SC where he grew up, also where i grew up. he’s a cool guy. y’all don’t have to believe me, but everything i said here is true.
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This should get players benched, imo. If they do not listen to him on the field and he lets it happen, he will never get the respect a coach needs from his players to succeed.
 
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#37
#37
VFL-82-JP said:
Folks like to think about the Urban Meyers of the world, guys who come in and start having huge success in their first year or two as a head coach.

That does happen. There are plenty of "if you don't win big in the first three years, you won't win big" examples.

But as you point out, there is proof that's far from always true. You mentioned Coach Beamer. Here are a couple of other fellas:

Dabo Swinney's first three years as head coach (all at Clemson):
4-3
9-5
6-7

Nick Saban's first five years (at Toledo for one season, then Michigan State):
9-2
6-5-1
6-6
7-5
6-6

Now, we could cut Jeremy loose because he's not getting us to championship level as fast as any of us would like.

And, truth in advertising, he might never get us there. No guarantees. He might not be the right guy.

On the other hand, we might be the Michigan State of Pruitt's career. The place where he never won a lot, but where he learned how to be a head coach.

So we have to ask ourselves: do we want to be a Michigan State, paying the price so someone else (LSU and Bama) can reap the rewards? Or do we want to be a Clemson, show a little patience, and see if he'll get the head coaching thing down?

I'm with you, a proponent of giving the man some more time.
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Well you will get your wish. Don’t see how they can let him go this year due to financial mess. But he had better make significant progress next year. If not he and Fulmer should both be gone.
 
#38
#38
OrangeTsar said:
Can’t help but notice that none of those records are 2 and 8 in any season, which is where we are headed.
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Don't forget those records all came in "normal" years. You know, years with cupcake non-conference games to pad the win column.

For instance, in Dabo's third year, when he went 6-7, two of his wins were vs Presbyterian and North Texas. Take the cupcakes away, and Dabo only wins 4 games in his third season. That's a truer comparison to the conference-only slates of 2020.

As for what our 2020 record will end up being, I don't have a crystal ball. You don't, either. I anticipate at least one more win this season (Vandy), where you clearly envision none. We'll just have to wait and see how it turns out.

Either way, the Beamers, Swinneys, and Sabans of the world--you know, some of the best coaches in recent college football, including one who might just be the best of all time--counsel us not to judge _too_ quickly.
 
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#40
#40
That’s cool that you talked to him and all that. However, I don’t think a former player (in this case I believe he was only here for Pruitt’s first season), who I’m assuming is a total stranger to you, is really going to open up to you and give you a bunch of juicy details about what goes on behind the scenes. I’d definitely take what he said with a grain of salt.
 
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#41
#41
unfrozencvmanvol said:
Sam Pittman couldn't have walked into a better situation than Pruitt and he's united the team and has them playing their hearts out. It sounds like Pruitt is not real good at team building if this is still going on in Year 3. Obviously the youngest players are the most committed to him at this point, since they also have the least experience with him.
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I mean those Ark players that were there won 4 games the prior 2 seasons combines. I would think they would be pretty humble after that. Pittman was also able to get a pretty good QB with past success in the SEC. That helped quite a bit.
 
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#43
#43
unfrozencvmanvol said:
Sam Pittman couldn't have walked into a better situation than Pruitt and he's united the team and has them playing their hearts out. It sounds like Pruitt is not real good at team building if this is still going on in Year 3. Obviously the youngest players are the most committed to him at this point, since they also have the least experience with him.
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Exactly. If there was one SEC program that was in worst shape than us the past few seasons, it was Arkansas (not including Vandy here because they don’t have a winning history like Tennessee and Arkansas do). So Pittman, at least on paper, seems to have walked into a worst situation than Pruitt, Butch, and Dooley. We talk about recruiting disadvantages that we have at Tennessee, but getting top recruits to Fayetteville can’t be easy, especially with the competition they have in the SEC West. They should really be 4-2 right now if not for that blown call against Auburn. I wish we had thought of hiring Pittman.
 
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#44
#44
Christian Lowe said:
he said pruitt is smart, and the coaches are good. the older players, for whatever reason, just don’t listen to him when it comes game time. he said guarantano is a genius, and he has everything it takes... in practice. he just loses everything when the lights come on. he doesn’t know why.
he said jennings was crazy, but he knew how to pull the team together. the team doesn’t have that anymore. but overall, he said he thinks pruitt can get it done when the bad apples are gone.

he’s working at amazon in spartanburg, SC where he grew up, also where i grew up. he’s a cool guy. y’all don’t have to believe me, but everything i said here is true.
Click to expand...
I would sit the older guys who are not bought In and let the young guys speed up their learning curve now.
 
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#47
#47
Volsfaninva917 said:
How many coaches have won and gotten themselves off the hot seat? None
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The odds are against it, but it has happened.

Brian Kelly is a good example - he went 4-8 in 2016 then made a bunch of staff changes and has been outstanding since. Gus Malzahn is seemingly perpetually on and off the hot seat; I don't know if he'll ever be permanently off of it.

IMO, Pruitt ain't getting off the hot seat, but it just isn't true that no coach has ever gotten off of it.
BigOrangeMojo said:
Even with Dabo, he won a division title his first full year. In his second full year (the 6-7) season, they still went to a bowl. In his third full year, they won the ACC championship and the rest is history. Even in his first couple of seasons, they had wins over FSU and USCe, which mean a lot for that program.
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It still doesn't change the fact that Dabo was on a thermonuclear hot seat after going 6-7 in 2010, the year after that division title. He was *this* close to be fired after that season, because he was struggling and most people figured he'd just be the interim anyway.
 
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#49
#49
05_never_again said:
The odds are against it, but it has happened.

Brian Kelly is a good example - he went 4-8 in 2016 then made a bunch of staff changes and has been outstanding since. Gus Malzahn is seemingly perpetually on and off the hot seat; I don't know if he'll ever be permanently off of it.

IMO, Pruitt ain't getting off the hot seat, but it just isn't true that no coach has ever gotten off of it.

It still doesn't change the fact that Dabo was on a thermonuclear hot seat after going 6-7 in 2010, the year after that division title. He was *this* close to be fired after that season, because he was struggling and most people figured he'd just be the interim anyway.
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Fair point about Dabo. Truth be known, Dabo started on the hot seat there and never really got off of it until he got them in the playoff. He had 3-4 influential boosters on his side and that's the only reason he got the 2011 season.

Here's an ironic tidbit though (from a Clemson booster) - One of the reasons they promoted Dabo up from interim in 2008 was they were behind us/Auburn in the coaching pecking order and thought it would be really difficult to hire a coach.
 
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