Without my weekly visit to the “House of Pain” I thought I would report on a recent court case where a case was brought against Jeremy Pruitt, Head Coach of the Tennessee Volunteers, that he should be sacked. Here are my notes:
All rise, the court is now in session with Judge London Vol residing.
Judge Could the member of the Prosecution Botch Jones please stand to make the case why Mr Pruitt should be removed from Head Coach of the Tennessee Volunteers. But before you start, Mr Jones put out that cigar!!
Prosecution Thank you Judge. I believe the accused should be removed from his current position for the following reasons.
He been in the position for 2 ½ seasons and the roster is made up of mainly his players and yet in that time the Vols have lost to Georgia State (a team they paid $950K to play). Kentucky by the biggest margin since 1936 and the overall total of wins are no larger than of the first 3 years of his predecessor whom I might add built the program “brick by brick”
Defense Judge I must object, the previous head coach left the program in its worse state for 103 years.
Judge Sustained, now Prosecution please stick to the facts and not go to fantasy land
Prosecution Sorry Judge. However, it is a matter of fact that in his time The Vols have lost every time to Georgia, Florida and Alabama and at no time even made these matches close.
My next point is that Mr Pruitt has received absolutely full support from the AD and the school with record salaries to recruit the best coaching staff and one of these, a Mr Brumbaugh was even sacked after only 4 games, this shows without doubt his failure in recruiting and in which to many on this side believe was, just a ruse to deflect blame for the bad results.
Lastly, I believe that the accused is playing a style of football (a running game with a stifling defense) that is outdated, in fact its like getting a new vehicle for the family and passing the new Chevrolet Garage to go to the Horse and Buggy building. Also, on this point we believed when hiring this coach, we were getting one of the best Defensive Back coaches in the country yet I cannot see the NFL salivating as they wait for this crop of backs to enter the draft.
The Prosecution rests
Judge Thank you Prosecution, now would the member of the Defense Phillip Fulmer please state the case for the Defense.
Defense Thank you Judge. Well members of the jury you have just heard a long list of mistruths which was exactly why the job, my client holds, became vacant.
My client, I mentioned inherited a complete meltdown of the program and this was always going to be a multiyear rebuild. Mr Pruitt has recruited extremely well as illustrated by the Offensive Line, whilst not yet fully delivering on its potential, it is without doubt far better than for many years. And there are many other areas of the team that have players waiting to blossom, especially a crop of Wide Receivers that are the envy of the college football world (Hyatt and Wideman have already given you a glimpse).
My next point is that my clients loyally to the most important part of team has been not rewarded. There seems to be have been no progression and if fact if improvement of the quarterback position had been achieved, this would have resulted in maybe 1 or 2 extra wins this season alone (including one against Georgia) and therefore this case would never had come to court. I understand it must be frustrating to see Freshmen Mertz at Wisconsin, Rattler at Oklahoma and Mr unpronounceable at Clemson proving that giving Freshmen like Bailey the keys to the offense may actually be a better option. But loyalty, even misguided, can be an asset and there is no evidence yet of either the team giving up on the coach or even anyone entering the transfer portal. This I conclude supports the argument that the team is still “on board” with coach.
Lastly, you must not forget 2020 is a unique year. There was no spring training and a very much interrupted fall practice and also no cupcake games to iron out difficulties all this directly due to COVID 19. In short this is not a season to make long term judgements on.
To sum up, whilst mistakes have been made, overall, with a positive solution at quarterback, this program is healthier than before my client arrived and the fan base need to be patient a little bit longer. Thankyou my lord.
Judge Thank you. On hearing all the evidence put before me to today I rule as follows:
I agree with a number of points the prosecution made and I recognize that things are not as advanced as I had hoped, however I rule ON BEHALF OF THE DEFENSE
I do believe that the performance of the quarterback has held back the teams results and has even restricted the Offensive game planning and in short, it has masqueraded other improvements that have been made within the program from the shambles before. But my final word to Mr Pruitt is, sort this out asap and continue with your work and deliver on the hopes and aspirations of the best fan base in college football. Do not be in my court again this time next year or my judgement may be very different then. This court is now adjourned.
GO VOLS
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