I think Pruitt tried to do well, he just is in over his head when it comes to being head coach. I don't think he cares much for UT itself, and is now just here for the paycheck, as is rather evident from his attitude. To be fair, I remember Kiffin trying to make things more "USC-like" when he came here, so I guess he isn't the first to not embrace the tradition. If we were Vandy or UT Chattanooga, Pruitt might have been a great hire.
As far as people's frustrations.... I see the VOLS as a badly run business, that is driving away its customer base with poor decisions that lead to poor value for the buck. I think Fulmer got lucky with the Barnes situation. If there is truth to the rumors of the AD being in financial straits, COVID or not, that only further demonstrates how ill-equipped Fulmer is for the AD position. Fulmer got fired as a coach because he was behind the times from a philosophy standpoint and was not an innovator/could not come up with new wrinkles/schemes to try to keep up with the influx of talented coaches. Cutcliffe was the only person he trusted to change things up at all, so whenever he left you saw things go in the tank. Now with Fulmer back, we have a "philosophy" that looks an awful lot like the old one we had with Fulmer that got him fired. This adherence to this philosophy or mindset was even mentioned during the OC search 2 years ago as reasons why we passed on a lot of the hotter options. JG himself doesn't help things, but this requirement to do things a certain way just seems to be the basis for all these poor decisions and the teams' struggles. How can other teams have less highly recruited OL players yet look better? How can teams play freshman QBs and look better than our 5th yr senior? Why is this player with one of the worst ratings in not just the SEC, but the NCAA, the one who "gives us the best chance to win".