Most of the guys listed were a head coach in waiting and/or moved up within their own organization. Then there’s a couple like Kirby who turned down multiple jobs waiting for the chance to go home. Pruitt is a glaring exception and exhibit A as to why it’s a stupid idea for a major program to roll those dice.
I went back and read some stuff about his (Pruitt ) tenure at Georgia where he had to leave the year Richt left. There were signs he was risky hire as a HC. Mostly my information comes from Georgia sports journalist articles.
He was pretty solid as a DC if things were run the way Saban does. CMR though had a very different way of running things. It wasn’t necessarily a bad way just he was not a super confrontational dude.
Pruitt on the other hand was very confrontational and he also had gotten very involved in a lot of the day to day where’s Richt had been stepping back and allowing his OC to run the other side of the ball for a long time. This worked until his former OC was replaced by one who was less effective.
Apparently incoming OC was supposed to run the old playbook but decided instead to run his own, which Pruitt didn’t find out about until spring practice. There was a big blow up and Pruitt said things and behaved in practice to Richt that a coordinator should not say and do to a head coach. Richt being non-confrontational didn’t push back and lost a lot of respect. Pruitt apologized the next day but the damage was done.
He caused a lot of drama in general there with the gist being he was brash and unlikeable making him a lot of enemies in the athletic department and university as a whole. One well known example was the practice field drama.
He decided to have a press conference saying that the program should have an indoor practice facility and would have it. Plans for one were already in the works but he came off as critical of it not being there and then it looked like he made it happen.
Apparently the staff ended up split between Richt guys and Pruitt guys. The latter had mostly been brought in to give the program a culture similar to Saban. The two sides could probably both form pieces of great teams but their approaches did not compliment one another and work as a whole. Apparently an assistant loyal to Richt had to be held back from going after Pruitt at point.
So as a whole it was believed Pruitt knew football, especially defense, but he was prone to saying things he shouldn’t and a hothead who overstepped at times. It worked fine under Saban because Saban would let him know real quick that he was in charge.
The guys who Pruitt coached on defense did love him though. When they heard Richt was going to be fired some of them went to the AD and asked for Pruitt to be made the coach. The AD told them that there was no way that was happening, he couldn’t do it because Pruitt had already stepped on too many toes.
When Smart took over he never even considered retaining Pruitt even though they were both Saban guys with a history at Georgia. On paper it might look like he would fit right in, but his antics had caused enough behind the scenes trouble that he was disqualified.
One article I read from 2018 on a Georgia site talked about the Pruitt hire and thought it would either be one of the best choices Tennessee ever made or one of the worst. Pointed out that Pruitt had a knack for recruiting and talent evaluation that might enable him to find some real overlooked gems. Also pointed out that his people skills and impulse control could easily cause him problems.
Obviously we saw how it worked out, and it was not pretty. As for the Georgia drama, I feel like the guy was toxic and I think Richt is a great coach but owns some responsibility for not running a tight ship. If it comes to character, there is no comparison between Richt and Pruitt. It was not good leadership though to allow things to get so out of hand.
He even he acknowledged and addressed this when he went to Miami. Said he would be more involved in the day to day aspects and would be coaching the QB and doing the offense mostly himself. Also said he would make sure he had the right people and take his time.
