The Case for Keeping Pruitt

#177
#177
The only case for keeping Pruitt is money and the fact that programs like USC, Michigan and Texas may be hiring.
 
#178
#178
BeardedVol said:
What evidence is there that Pruitt knows how to put a winning team together? He can't even put a stable staff together, which in turn is never going to lead to a winning team. He's here another year, and we have another staff overhaul this spring, the only thing that is really going to accomplish, is costing UT more money in assistant buyouts when he is ultimately fired.
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I'm not saying there is much evidence and I'm not even really defending him so I'm not going to try to here. I just have a gut feeling that he's been around top notch, winning programs and he knows what it looks like. Getting it to that point is obviously the hard part and hopefully he figures it out ASAP or he'll be fired after next year.
 
#179
#179
DiderotsGhost said:
I'm as angry as everyone else at this years' performance. I'm not sure Pruitt is "the guy" or not, and I've said that since Day #1, but I also think there's a legit case for why he deserves at least 1-2 more years to figure it out. Here's why:

QB Struggles. I'm not going to mince words: Jarrett Guarantano has been dogs@#$ awful this season. With advanced stats, he's arguably the worst QB in the SEC right now; at the very least, he's in the bottom 3. Vandy's true Freshman QB is arguably better than JG at this point. JG single-handedly lost us that Kentucky game with 3 critical turnovers and in reality, we lost that Auburn game due to JG as well (14 point swing with that pick-6). Even the games JG isn't turning the ball over, he can't move us down the field either. So with a good QB, we're already back to 4-3 against SEC competition. But I'm not even sure we lose to Arkansas with a good QB; we might've even had a shot at Georgia. We're really that close to being a good team.

2018 vs 2020. In 2018, we could've had Peyton Manning behind center and still struggled to hit 6-6 with the terrible O-line play. It's the reverse now. The QB is, by far, the biggest thing holding us back. We are better at almost every other position than QB. The O-line is worlds better. We brought in one of the best WR classes in the country this season; albeit they are young and didn't get the reps in the offseason they needed, but they are going to be good (see Jalin Hyatt!). Our running game is much improved over 2018. The only thing that's worse on offense is the QB.

3-7 vs 7-5. A 3-7 SEC record (our likely result) sucks, but it's also a bit out of context. With our traditional schedule, we're likely 7-5 or 6-6 at the end of the season.

Bailey / Salter. Chaney needs his QB. You might think all of this is hogwash, but to me, this is the biggest point in favor of keeping Pruitt. Chaney hasn't had his QB yet. JG is Butch Jones' QB. Shrout is Helton's QB. Even Maurer was Helton's QB. Kaidon Salter is the first Chaney QB, but Harrison Bailey also probably qualifies as he was recruited at Georgia by Chaney, even if we're not sure if we was their #1 target. I wanna see how Chaney does with Bailey and Salter before throwing in the towel on Pruitt, because right now, I see a reasonably good team with very terrible QB play. If Chaney gets that fixed (and he has a track record of fixing QB play), this might suddenly be a competitive team.

Bailey shows promise. Not much to go on, but Bailey looked very impressive versus Auburn in his one drive. While I'm pissed at Pruitt for not playing Bailey more, I do at least understand the logic. Bailey is a true Freshman who came in during a global pandemic, which basically deprived him of an offseason. Even during the limited offseason, Bailey was quarantined at one point and got very few reps. I don't think Pruitt wants to throw Bailey to the wolves given this and may be playing it very safe as a result (too safe), but I at least understand it. I want to see how Bailey does before jumping to conclusions.

Recruiting has been very good. In spite of the bad, Pruitt brought in one of the best classes in the country last season. He might end up with one of the best this season as well; albeit the lack of progress on the field may be an issue for some recruits. Covid hurt us more than other teams precisely because of this; we were always more dependent upon Freshman talent this year than the rest of the SEC and Covid destroyed our offseason development.

Pruitt has been quick to address problems. I know he has his share of coach-speak (they all do), but Pruitt fired Brumbaugh pretty quickly after seeing problems on the DL. Pruitt has a very Johnny Majors way of handling the staff and I think it may take him more time to get settled than people think.

Like I said, I don't know if Pruitt is "the guy" or not, but at the very least, I want to see another year. I want to see how Chaney does with either Bailey or Salter at QB; see how we do with a full offseason. If Pruitt lets us down at that point, then it's time to look at replacing him, but right now, I see a team that has mostly gotten better, but still sucks because we've been terrible at the most important position on the field. And while Pruitt is partly to blame for some of those issues (including telling Michael Penix to take a hike and taking JT Shrout instead in 2017), we might simply not be seeing the improved results of having Chaney in charge of recruiting QBs yet.

So there it is ... flame away!

But I'll be calling for Pruitt's head just like many of you if I see similar results in 2021. For now, I'm willing to give Pruitt a pass, but if JG is the starter in 2021, I'll probably be screaming "FAHR PRUITT!" with all the other miserables.
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Thank you for a well informed commentary and I agree with everything you said. 8 wins in a row with the same players - same coaches - same OC only to be killed by JG beginning in the 2nd half of the Georgia game. He absolutely is the focal point of TN losses.
 
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#180
#180
Vol_from_86 said:
Whoa... a lot to read. Just commenting on the high points here:

QB struggles are on Pruitt. He's had 3 years to find a QB. If the best you can do in 3 years is produce what we've got, there's little hope that he'll ever develop a QB good enough to compete for a championship.

Bailey has shown promise? Don't have his stats in front of me but pretty sure he's thrown more INTs than TDs and it seems like he tends to lock onto his receivers like JG. That being said, it's not fair to judge him because he's only been thrown into impossible situations. I want to see him run the offense before passing judgement. So far, he's only played in "must pass" situations.

Recruiting rankings have been good but some of the higher ranked guys like JJ Petersen, Q Crouch, Morris, Wright, and most DBs haven't looked the part. Where is the big time edge rusher? Where is the big time RB? Where is the big time DT? Where is the big time QB?

Pruitt has been quick to address the problems? You'll get roasted for this.
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Pruitt only recruited Baily and Salter - Salter is not here yet and Bailey is and was not ready this year because of to covid issues for god's sake Who you got left =JG who has been awful. The coaches dont teach fumbles or interceptions so givem a break
 
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#181
#181
Pruitt is going to get 2021 to either improve or he will likely be gone if more of the same. Starting Bailey is obviously the first step
 
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#182
#182
Blackburn said:
I'm not saying there is much evidence and I'm not even really defending him so I'm not going to try to here. I just have a gut feeling that he's been around top notch, winning programs and he knows what it looks like. Getting it to that point is obviously the hard part and hopefully he figures it out ASAP or he'll be fired after next year.
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That's not how you become a winning head coach. "Winning" is not some magical form of scabies that can be passed to a coach just by being around coaches that have winning programs. Pruitt to this point has displayed, near zero traits and practices of a winning coach.

So other than not having to find ~$15 million to dump in escrow at the end of the year, what benefit is there in keeping him at this point?
 
#184
#184
BeardedVol said:
That's not how you become a winning head coach. "Winning" is not some magical form of scabies that can be passed to a coach just by being around coaches that have winning programs. Pruitt to this point has displayed, near zero traits and practices of a winning coach.

So other than not having to find ~$15 million to dump in escrow at the end of the year, what benefit is there in keeping him at this point?
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Winning is something that takes players to do as well as coaching. We haven't had a QB since Dobbs and even he wasn't a true QB, he was just a hell of an athlete and a gamer. Until we get a new QB that is worth a damn it doesn't matter what coach we have and firing Pruitt isn't going to help that either.

But more to my point that I was really trying to make. I don't think Fulmer is going to fire him this year so it doesn't matter what anyone thinks.
 
#185
#185
Noggin said:
Pruitt gets it. He won 8 games last year including the bowl game over a good Indiana team. Pruitt gets it.
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You aren't serious, right? We lost to Georgia State and BYU, got beat by 31 points by Florida, 29 points by Georgia, and 22 by Bama. We then go on a great run by beating the sisters of perpetual sorrow.

Wins over:

South Carolina (4-8) - who by the way just FIRED their coach for being awful
UAB (9-5) - but who beat no one of consequence and got railed 37-2 by Southern Miss, 49-6 by Florida Atlantic, and 31-17 by Appy State
Kentucky (8-5) - their wins were over Toledo, Eastern Michigan, Arkansas, Missouri, Vandy, UT Martin, Lousville, and Virginia Tech
Missouri (6-6) - whose best win was over West Virginia I guess. They beat no one and FIRED their coach
Vandy (3-9) - who barely beat Northern Illinois, beat Missouri by a TD, and beat up on ETSU - oh and they just FIRED their coach also
Indiana (8-5) - who wasn't that good last year. They beat Ball State, Eastern Illinois, UConn, Rutgers, Maryland, Nebraska, Northwestern, and Purdue

Then this year we beat South Carolina and Missouri to start the season. Carolina just fired their coach and Missouri has a first year coach.

So in this 8 game winning streak we won 4 over fired coaches - 2x Muschamp, and wins over Mason and Odom. This year we beat a first year coach at Missou. Our "best" win was over an Indiana team that was about half as good last year as they are this season.

Yes, Pruitt "gets it." He gets how to get the crap kicked out of him by nearly everyone he plays. And this year he can't even beat the bad teams. In fact, a very bad Kentucky team ran us out of our own stadium. Kentucky is 3-6 this year with their other wins being over Mississippi State 24-2 and they squeaked by Vandy 38-35. Pruitt "gets" how to continually set the bar lower and lower.
 
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#186
#186
Rickyvol77 said:
Pruitt is going to get 2021 to either improve or he will likely be gone if more of the same. Starting Bailey is obviously the first step
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I mean you could obviously argue that’s the first step this year but Pruitt seems determined not to do it. Honestly think the man wants to get canned.
 
#188
#188
cobbwebb0710 said:
So does anyone know what is going on behind the scenes, within the program and staff, that they guys on fan run(Trey Wallace and Russ Smith)keep hinting at but won’t give any details about?
GBO!!
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I didn't know they were hinting at anything. Any ideas yourself?
 
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#189
#189
DiderotsGhost said:
I'm as angry as everyone else at this years' performance. I'm not sure Pruitt is "the guy" or not, and I've said that since Day #1, but I also think there's a legit case for why he deserves at least 1-2 more years to figure it out. Here's why:

QB Struggles. I'm not going to mince words: Jarrett Guarantano has been dogs@#$ awful this season. With advanced stats, he's arguably the worst QB in the SEC right now; at the very least, he's in the bottom 3. Vandy's true Freshman QB is arguably better than JG at this point. JG single-handedly lost us that Kentucky game with 3 critical turnovers and in reality, we lost that Auburn game due to JG as well (14 point swing with that pick-6). Even the games JG isn't turning the ball over, he can't move us down the field either. So with a good QB, we're already back to 4-3 against SEC competition. But I'm not even sure we lose to Arkansas with a good QB; we might've even had a shot at Georgia. We're really that close to being a good team.

2018 vs 2020. In 2018, we could've had Peyton Manning behind center and still struggled to hit 6-6 with the terrible O-line play. It's the reverse now. The QB is, by far, the biggest thing holding us back. We are better at almost every other position than QB. The O-line is worlds better. We brought in one of the best WR classes in the country this season; albeit they are young and didn't get the reps in the offseason they needed, but they are going to be good (see Jalin Hyatt!). Our running game is much improved over 2018. The only thing that's worse on offense is the QB.

3-7 vs 7-5. A 3-7 SEC record (our likely result) sucks, but it's also a bit out of context. With our traditional schedule, we're likely 7-5 or 6-6 at the end of the season.

Bailey / Salter. Chaney needs his QB. You might think all of this is hogwash, but to me, this is the biggest point in favor of keeping Pruitt. Chaney hasn't had his QB yet. JG is Butch Jones' QB. Shrout is Helton's QB. Even Maurer was Helton's QB. Kaidon Salter is the first Chaney QB, but Harrison Bailey also probably qualifies as he was recruited at Georgia by Chaney, even if we're not sure if we was their #1 target. I wanna see how Chaney does with Bailey and Salter before throwing in the towel on Pruitt, because right now, I see a reasonably good team with very terrible QB play. If Chaney gets that fixed (and he has a track record of fixing QB play), this might suddenly be a competitive team.

Bailey shows promise. Not much to go on, but Bailey looked very impressive versus Auburn in his one drive. While I'm pissed at Pruitt for not playing Bailey more, I do at least understand the logic. Bailey is a true Freshman who came in during a global pandemic, which basically deprived him of an offseason. Even during the limited offseason, Bailey was quarantined at one point and got very few reps. I don't think Pruitt wants to throw Bailey to the wolves given this and may be playing it very safe as a result (too safe), but I at least understand it. I want to see how Bailey does before jumping to conclusions.

Recruiting has been very good. In spite of the bad, Pruitt brought in one of the best classes in the country last season. He might end up with one of the best this season as well; albeit the lack of progress on the field may be an issue for some recruits. Covid hurt us more than other teams precisely because of this; we were always more dependent upon Freshman talent this year than the rest of the SEC and Covid destroyed our offseason development.

Pruitt has been quick to address problems. I know he has his share of coach-speak (they all do), but Pruitt fired Brumbaugh pretty quickly after seeing problems on the DL. Pruitt has a very Johnny Majors way of handling the staff and I think it may take him more time to get settled than people think.

Like I said, I don't know if Pruitt is "the guy" or not, but at the very least, I want to see another year. I want to see how Chaney does with either Bailey or Salter at QB; see how we do with a full offseason. If Pruitt lets us down at that point, then it's time to look at replacing him, but right now, I see a team that has mostly gotten better, but still sucks because we've been terrible at the most important position on the field. And while Pruitt is partly to blame for some of those issues (including telling Michael Penix to take a hike and taking JT Shrout instead in 2017), we might simply not be seeing the improved results of having Chaney in charge of recruiting QBs yet.

So there it is ... flame away!

But I'll be calling for Pruitt's head just like many of you if I see similar results in 2021. For now, I'm willing to give Pruitt a pass, but if JG is the starter in 2021, I'll probably be screaming "FAHR PRUITT!" with all the other miserables.
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My mans CJP is learning on the job how to be a HC at the highest level - this was understood before he took the job

He got the opportunity and now he's gonna take some lumps. PF will mentor him somewhat but he will be given time - newly negotiated contract extension ensures this

settle in rednecks and don't drink so much maybe - consider CBD oil - whatever it takes

 
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#190
#190
tastycar said:
I didn't know they were hinting at anything. Any ideas yourself?
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I have no idea? Maybe I heard it completely wrong, as I was half paying attention until I kinda picked up on what was being talked about and by then it was too late.
GBO!!
 
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#191
#191
DownNDirty said:
You aren't serious, right? We lost to Georgia State and BYU, got beat by 31 points by Florida, 29 points by Georgia, and 22 by Bama. We then go on a great run by beating the sisters of perpetual sorrow.

Wins over:

South Carolina (4-8) - who by the way just FIRED their coach for being awful
UAB (9-5) - but who beat no one of consequence and got railed 37-2 by Southern Miss, 49-6 by Florida Atlantic, and 31-17 by Appy State
Kentucky (8-5) - their wins were over Toledo, Eastern Michigan, Arkansas, Missouri, Vandy, UT Martin, Lousville, and Virginia Tech
Missouri (6-6) - whose best win was over West Virginia I guess. They beat no one and FIRED their coach
Vandy (3-9) - who barely beat Northern Illinois, beat Missouri by a TD, and beat up on ETSU - oh and they just FIRED their coach also
Indiana (8-5) - who wasn't that good last year. They beat Ball State, Eastern Illinois, UConn, Rutgers, Maryland, Nebraska, Northwestern, and Purdue

Then this year we beat South Carolina and Missouri to start the season. Carolina just fired their coach and Missouri has a first year coach.

So in this 8 game winning streak we won 4 over fired coaches - 2x Muschamp, and wins over Mason and Odom. This year we beat a first year coach at Missou. Our "best" win was over an Indiana team that was about half as good last year as they are this season.

Yes, Pruitt "gets it." He gets how to get the crap kicked out of him by nearly everyone he plays. And this year he can't even beat the bad teams. In fact, a very bad Kentucky team ran us out of our own stadium. Kentucky is 3-6 this year with their other wins being over Mississippi State 24-2 and they squeaked by Vandy 38-35. Pruitt "gets" how to continually set the bar lower and lower.
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I see what you are saying but in this day in age doesn't an 8 win season mean anything for this program compared to where it was when Dooley was the coach?
 
#197
#197
Pruitt should be much more concerned about what’s going on behind the scenes with his staff, airing dirty laundry, than he should be about decommits. It ain’t pretty right now involving the staff. You think things are bad on the field? It could get very ugly off the field. If this stuff spills out to the public...
Conversation between Smith and Wallace, I went back and listened.
GBO!!
 
#199
#199
Godfatha said:
All due respect DG, I enjoy your posts but disagree.

QB has been a glaring problem most of all the season and it’s not been addressed satisfactorily.

We will be at this point next year except we may have a cupcake win or two thrown in. We will still be getting slaughtered by our rivals and will lose at least one game we shouldn’t.
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I'm torn. Mostly mad and disappointed. We all know we need a qb. But in hindsight, Pruitt is doing it right by not throwing HB in just yet. We have nothing to gain at this point and would ruining HB really be worth a couple of wins in an asterisk year?

Who knows, maybe next year we see a 180. I am still a little concerned with the defense. I just hope we can hold onto this recruiting class and maybe still add a surprise or two.
 
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