Recruiting Forum Football Talk III

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#11,776
#11,776
If the outcome of this game against an 0-8, severely depleted, Vandy team has any bearing on Pruitt’s future, then we don’t have the right people making decisions.

This game is meaningless and I can see them selling “hope for the future” after Saturday. Our standards have never been lower.
 
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#11,778
#11,778
MoCo_Vol said:
I actually think Uros will blossom next season when he's the main attraction big. Fulkerson is hard to take off the court as well as Pons. EJ is more polished than Uros and proved why he was brought in, he'll eat up the off the bench minutes for Fulkerson/Pons I think. The real challenge is can Uros earn more time than Olivier.
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Uros is slow, doesn't block shots, and can't shoot.
 
#11,782
#11,782
Kingston Vol said:
Doing some research on Will Healy just in case he gets the Vanderbilt job.

This dude is the polar opposite of Jeremy Pruitt. Total head coach.

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I went to an Austin Peay game when he was coach there and he was very Butchish. Turnover trash can, cliche crap and the like. Not sure how that would be handled if it came into Neyland again.
 
#11,784
#11,784
itsme said:
I went to an Austin Peay game when he was coach there and he was very Butchish. Turnover trash can, cliche crap and the like. Not sure how that would be handled if it came into Neyland again.
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He's very cheesy, as are a lot of coaches, but he seems far more self-aware than Butch.

He shouldn't be a candidate at Tennessee (yet), but I think he's a good coach.
 
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#11,785
#11,785
Geronimo said:
I remember working at Dicks Sporting Goods in 2005 and the Vandy game was on the big screens in the store. I was watching in between moments of pretending to know what I was doing at work and never really gave a second thought to us losing. I think Jay Cutler was the QB that year. Anyways, when we lost, I had to almost convince myself it actually happened.

Now we have won 4 out of last 9 and our streak stands at 1. It’s just so hard to reconcile...
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I was at that game.. there was a pretty bad call in the visiting end zone just before halftime. This older guy sitting a couple rows in front of me stood up and started screaming at the refs from that point until the band started playing... he set down until the band was finished, and as soon as the refs come out of the tunnel, he was up again screaming at them at the top of his lungs.. I don't think I've ever laughed as hard as I did that day.. I strive to be that petty when I reach his age so the young bucks can sit back and watch how its done.
 
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#11,786
#11,786
Kingston Vol said:
Pruitt has no one to blame but himself on the defensive side. That's his defense.

I know @Atlanta VOL was involved, somehow, on the Chaney hire. I'd love to know if Pruitt truly wanted to hire him or not. If he didn't, Pruitt could rightly say "you stuck me with this guy I didn't want and here we are." I'm skeptical that's the case, though.
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I remember them explicitly saying Chaney was not the first choice...struck out on a few, and can't remember if it was Sankey or another responsible party as to why we couldn't hire Freeze. I think Freeze was his top choice for OC though and Yurcich was also near the top of that list.
 
#11,787
#11,787
SSVol said:
And as the father of two grown daughters, I'm happy for her. Piece of advice from a guy who's raised two daughters and helping to raise four granddaughters: best tighten up your emotions. They won't serve you.
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Duly noted, brother. Thanks
 
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#11,788
#11,788
Dudley Smith said:
To be clear about what Basilio had on his blog, it sounds like he's saying that Pruitt knows he's in trouble, and he is pitching staff overhaul to get him another year. It's the classic pattern of a coaching death spiral that throws good money after bad, and I hope we don't fall for it.
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But part of the main issue is Pruitt himself. He micromanages everything and does not let his coordinators and coaches actually coach...when he has to know every offensive play call (and then will change to play to what he wants) and calls the defensive side of the ball (for DL and LB) then he is part of the issue.

Does he have the wherewithal to take a step back, reflect on his micromanagement, and then see part of the reason he is in trouble is because of himself? If not, there is not a single other coach who he could hire to save his skin. He needs to back off and be the CEO, not try to dictate everything. Dictators don't last that long.
 
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#11,789
#11,789
05_never_again said:
I like Mushmap.

The Jim Leonard call is kind of funny, because it seems random on their part but isn't at all. Their previous DC (Aranda) came from Wisconsin and Leonard is there now.
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It's somewhat of a different story - I know money talks, but I don't see Leonard leaving Wisconsin. 3x All-American there, born and raised in Wisconsin, and has had really great defenses in his four years as DC there at a consistent NY6-level program. He wouldn't leave to LSU and Ed Orgeron or any DC job (except maybe like Bama or Clemson), in my opinion.

He'd only leave for a head coaching position in college or NFL DC position.

That'd be like Eric Berry being our DC, having great success and then leaving us to go coordinate Michigan's defense for a pay bump.
 
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#11,792
#11,792
MoCo_Vol said:
Truth, the bandwagon basketball fans are very annoying. I remember it during Pearl's era as well. I'll just say it's extremely rare a basketball team goes undefeated, Knight was the last coach to pull it off in the 75-76 season. And despite all our talent we're a young team who hasn't had a ton of off-season together.

Still lots of fun to watch and last night was an off night for our 3 bigs (EJ, Fulky, Pons) with scoring, I don't expect to see them all 3 having that kind of trouble scoring every night. Keon is the real deal and JJJ as well as Santi both look improved. Add in Bailey being so much better than advertised (especially defensively) and then sprinkle in Springer (also project to be a NBA draft pick) and wow...if Olivier continues to get better as well. I'm excited played a fairly sloppy game with bad officiating and win by 9 without ever trailing? Yeah I'll take it :)
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All day, every day.
 
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#11,794
#11,794
Here's where I think we are:
Option A; Keep Pruitt with a new OC and OL Coach. Not sure there will be great options. Bobo as OC or promote Osovet may be all you can do. Keep recruiting class intact and maybe snag a couple of transfers.

Option B: Keep Pruitt and Chaney, hire a DC and Fullmer mandates that Pruitt become more of a CEO. Better options here with Mason or Muschamp available. Move on from Neids, Felton and hire Bo Davis as DL coach. Same with recruiting class.

Option C: Move in another direction (PC talk for firing). Hopefully have a guy in place ahead of time and avoid a bad search. Give him the freedom to coach and let the AD be the AD. May lose a chunk of the recruiting class and a few players BUT you may open the door to more transfers.

There is more than one direction you could go in that could help. I'm afraid the first two only puts off the inevitable for one more year.
 
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#11,795
#11,795
I guarantee if we beat a depleted and winless Vandy team with a female kicker this program administration will spin it as a positive and we are back. It will be hilarious, sad, and disgusting all at the same time.

This game is meaningless. Worth absolutely nothing.
 
#11,796
#11,796
Geronimo said:
I remember working at Dicks Sporting Goods in 2005 and the Vandy game was on the big screens in the store. I was watching in between moments of pretending to know what I was doing at work and never really gave a second thought to us losing. I think Jay Cutler was the QB that year. Anyways, when we lost, I had to almost convince myself it actually happened.

Now we have won 4 out of last 9 and our streak stands at 1. It’s just so hard to reconcile...
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That loss (and that 2005 season) was an important step in the long-term process of eventually breaking this fanbase.

Going into 2005, we were a few years removed from our last elite team (2001). The 2005 season was a gut punch because we were preseason #3 but finished with a losing record. The Vandy loss is what clinched 2005 as a losing season, not to mention the psychological damage of losing a game to your little brother in-state rival for the first time since 1982. I had never seen Tennessee lose to Vandy in my life before that.

I think two other big body blows came in 2011 and 2012. Not only were both of those bad seasons, but 2011 brought us the first loss to Kentucky since 1984. Another psychological blow; I also had never seen a Kentucky loss until that point. Then, in 2012, we lost to Vanderbilt again. At that point, it was becoming clear that losses to Vandy and Kentucky weren't fluke, once-in-a-blue-moon events but could start happening with some kind of regularity. We lost to Vanderbilt again in 2013.

The downfall of this program was years in the making, but it didn't reach falling off the cliff level until 2011-13, IMO. And we still haven't even begun to recover.
 
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#11,800
#11,800
05_never_again said:
I've heard that when Fulmer was recruiting Michael Oher and Greg Hardy at Briarcrest, Freeze was saying he could secure their commitments to a certain school if he were offered a job on that school's coaching staff. This really irritated Fulmer and he said no. You can guess which school said yes.
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Maybe. But Freeze was an OM guy. Born in Oxford and grew up in North Mississippi. I have discussed this with OM people along with a very good friend who had Freeze as a teacher at Briarcrest.
 
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