How did you know?

[volsknx]

Forgive me, but when we lost to Georgia State I told my wife he was done. No matter how long he stayed, when he got fired it would be because he lost the Georgia State game. That is not what they would say, but that loss put the writing on the walls for him. Every mistake he ever made led back to Georgia State.

And then Fulmer gives him a raise and extension at the end of the season.

 

[Boca Vol]

This was the opening play of the Pruitt era...just sayin'!

 

[GetYouSomeofThat]

He had never been anything more than coordinator on uber talented teams that also had pretty solid head coaches. I didnt "know" he would fail but i doubted from day one he was a good choice.as a SEC head coach.

Then when he choose coordinators....my only thought was that a lot of learning would be going on in 2018. I was wrong about that...none of the three seemed to learn very much.

 

[GetYouSomeofThat]

I almost feel like anyone who responds to this should provide evidence that they doubted Pruitt from the beginning.

Feel free to search my history...

 

[FLVOL_79]

My insider texted me while I was in a business meeting

 

[Behr]

I didn't know, if I had I would have taken my talent to Vegas. I was pissed off more than I should have been when he stayed on at Alabama to coach the NC game while being our coach. That was just messed up.

 

[Credo]

Rarely is your 9th choice “the guy “

 

[Behr]

And then Fulmer gives him a raise and extension at the end of the season.

Still haven't figured out your angle for the Fulmer hate, unless it's just to kick start others' hate for him. That is what a gator troll would do.

 

[Behr]

Rarely is your 9th pick “the guy “

He wasn't Fulmer's 9th pick and it's dishonest to use that point anyway. We hired a coach and it seemed to be the AD at the time first choice.

But whatever, I don't know why "we" love to relive this kind of crap and seem to enjoy wallowing in our misery.

go vols.

 

[MurphyVol]

I would say that you could make an argument that Mark Stoops is a moderately successful first time HC, at least by UKFB standards . 49-50 overall & 3-2 in bowl games over 8 years. First 3-4 pretty abysmal but trending up last few years & SEC COY a few years back

Good catch. He's had a winning season 4 out of the last 5

 

[volfan51128]

Forgive me if this this has been posted before. But for you folks who correctly predicted Pruitt would fail (I was very much on the Pruitt bandwagon) What was your clue that he would be a disaster?

Probably the initial press conference when he used aight 523 times in 10 seconds!

 

[robby487]

Because it was on Vol Nation?

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

I didn't know, in fact I was cautiously optimistic. Then GSU happened. My take after that game was that just does not happen to a decent coach in the first game of Year 2. I talked myself off the ledge the back half of 2019 culminating in the Gator Bowl win. After Kentucky this year I knew Pruitt was a dead man walking. I felt that the sooner the better from that point, I was just worrying about the recruiting fallout.

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

It’s hard to believe that a guy as inarticulate as Pruitt would have interviewed very well.

I think Fulmer just saw Pruitt as someone he could control.

 

[TNinSC]

when we ended the worst coach search in history by hiring a man with zero head coaching experience.

 

[jarnol32]

I agree I honestly thought he would have a stellar defense. With Chaney's offense how could we fail. I thought this guy knows what good football should look like. I honestly thought he'd get us back to 10-3 11-2 type seasons..

We never got to see Chaneys offense. We got to see Pruitts offense and it was atrocious.

 

[Chattanooga Butchslappers]

I was excited and on the bandwagon initially. I liked the idea of power football in a world going spread, thought it might give us a little something different than our peers, a little different challenge than others when they play TN.
I guess I just didn’t realize, early on on, how quickly some of these high octane Os we’re going to outpace us on the scoreboard.

That being said, if we’d not trotted out “he who must not be named” over and over again we might have had different results, but who knows....I do know less INTs and pick sixes would have been a pretty big deal.

I stayed pretty loyal and reasonable until midway in year 3......you keep trotting him out there and he keeps turning it over. I get it, I don’t know what’s going on on practice. Maybe he was the only QB on the roster that showed out.....but at the end of the day enough is enough
I hate to lose....but that dumpster fire would have been easier to dive into if we were losing with a freshman that still carried hope for the future

That was the point at which I hung it up on JP

 

[Illinoisvolfan2]

The horrid performance against West Virginia in his first game. Came out not ready to play and completely pooped the bed.

 

[OrangeBeachVol]

HIs constant hiring and firing asst coaches was a bit of a red flag but I ignored it because I wanted him to succeed. Not that I liked Pruitt but was so tired of bad FB teams. Turns our he couldn't hire good assts or keep them because of his confrontational personality. Also heard his inability to control or fire T really grated on him.

 

[Brave Volunteer]

.

 

[RDU VOL#14]

Here’s a troubling sign. The games where I’ve thought Dooley, Butch and Pruitt could’ve been the answer were all losses. Their best coached games were vs LSU (debacle), 2013 UGA (fumble) and Bama 2019 .

 

[Brave Volunteer]

Forgive me if this this has been posted before. But for you folks who correctly predicted Pruitt would fail (I was very much on the Pruitt bandwagon) What was your clue that he would be a disaster?

Georgia State. No coach worth their salt loses a game like that. And we didn't just lose. They whipped our ass. Not on the scoreboard but you could just see it on the field. They were more physical, more motivated, more prepared. It was really tough to watch that game.

 

[05_never_again]

I started to have serious doubts about his coaching ability after the start to the 2019 season (not just the Georgia St loss, but how they looked against BYU/Florida/Georgia after that) but then he pulled a gigantic head fake after than and somehow was able to rally the team to not give up.

It wasn't until after the Kentucky game in 2020 that I thought his days were likely numbered, though. As others have pointed out he had red flags before he even coached a game, but you don't get fired on the basis of those. You get fired because you don't win enough.

 

[BigOrangeMojo]

I almost feel like anyone who responds to this should provide evidence that they doubted Pruitt from the beginning.

From 2017

My concern is that every coordinator of Saban's looks like a million bucks. Some do great things (Smart) on their own while others best accomplishment away from Bama is humping a shark..

From 2018

Well Friend's OL did help churn out a whole 7 offensive points against Charlotte...

Here is how I view it. A C is an average grade. We had 2 games that were above average (UK and Auburn). We had 3 games that were below average (UF, Vandy, Mizzou). The other 7 for the most part kinda fell in line with expectations. Had we lost close games to Vandy and Mizzou, I would have been OK with a C+ ranking; however, we were unprepared, not competitive, and had numerous players that looked like they quit....I can't give above average for that.

Fulmer hired a football coach whose team quit the last 2 games and extended Holly.

Put him in line with Mid Major Mike, Bama Dave, and Currie in UTAD failures...

Ahhhhhh, the mental gymnastics some will go to explain why coaches were outcoached and why players quit.

If I recall correctly (and there was alcohol involved), Vandy had 3 long drives in the 2nd half where they pounded us into submission and only 1 drive like you mentioned (that drive was the backbreaker since it was only 17-6 at that time).

I was a dozen rows up there at the Peabody HS stadium and at the end of the 3rd quarter, I saw a team that had quit and mailed it in...

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

When I found out he didn't know what asparagus was

As others have said, he'd had a recruiting expenses credit card for over a decade by the time he got to Knoxville but was never intellectually curious enough to find out what asparagus is.

I'm not asking him to like it (I don't) but to not know what it is, at his age and with his access to decent meals over the years, is scary on a "This guy is raising children?" level much less coaching.