I'll try to keep this to an approachable length. My attention span is likely as far gone as many of yours are at this point. But please, save the tl;dr schtick for the kiddie pool.
The tl;dr is "we're going to be alright." There, now you can go.
Without going into all the boring details, my dissertation work is on transition, transaction, persistence, and grit in performance-related fields. Observing the team from a distance limits my accuracy tremendously, but I believe these four items are at play right in front of us. How I see the staff handling them is what keeps me positive.
1. Transition. There are three stages to transition, and the older players look like they are stuck in the first stage (starting to transition). This is usually marked by extreme difficulty adjusting to new environments or expectations. Many of these older kids didn't transition for CBJ either; the ones stuck in transition tend to be those who weren't used to sharing the spotlight with anyone else at the high school level. Primadonnas tend to want to maintain their primadonna identities. Teams built around them often falter when the player moves on because the entire team has to transition to fit the next big recruiting catch rather than the other way around. Expect to see less of this and more completed transitions (aka buy-in) as Pruitt and staff evaluate talent on ability to integrate as well as just raw talent. Completed transitions by a greater number of players lead to more efficient...
2. Transaction. Athletics are built around transactional relationships. A coaching staff and their team exists in a symbiotic relationship. The coaching staff provides training and exposure to the players, who are then supposed to put on display what they've been taught. When they display what they were taught at a high enough level, the coaching staff is able to move to next-level skills. The performance of the players also helps to bring notoriety to the coaches, who can then recruit a higher echelon of players. When Pruitt kicked the board on the sideline early in the season, it was out of frustration that the unit was failing to perform what they'd been taught; the transactional relationship had broken down. Personnel who are stuck in transition are notorious for contributing to a breakdown of the transactional process and make it more difficult for those who are committed to overcome the mess that's been created. Like a cog in a watch or clock, one broken cog tooth is all it takes to throw the whole thing out of whack. Traditionally, it's up to the players / personnel to fit into the transactional expectations of the coach / CEO / director. Primadonnas and go-it-alone players are especially dangerous. Pruitt has been brought up in effective systems that removed or mitigated the effects of aberrant participants, and we can see some signs of that happening here.
3. Persistence and grit. These are two sides of the same coin but are still markedly different. Persistence is related to how an individual handles external issues to get where they want to go, while grit is largely an internal dialogue and reaction. Players who have been handed everything in the past and not expected to earn their place on the squad outside of their raw ability often have low persistence metrics because they have't had to push through external difficulties. Bad press, pressure from another player nipping at their heels in the depth chart, and struggles with life away from the field put players in the position to demonstrate their ability to persist in the face of adversity. Grit is the inner dialogue; pushing through doubts, staying focused on the end result instead of being trapped by what ifs and why did Is, Grit can be taught; good coaches do it all the time. Persistence has to be learned the hard way of actually dealing with the issues at hand.
This year's Vols had plenty opportunities to demonstrate persistence, but when it came down to it they were lacking the wherewithal to push through to the other side. A lack of grit by many players was evident on the field tonight, but there is more and more being demonstrated by the younger members of the team. Assuming Pruitt can continue to lock down players who are willing to transition fully into the team's group identity and the incoming players feel they are receiving a quality product from Pruitt and staff and reciprocate with high-quality gameplay, we should see marked improvements next year and beyond.
It's easy to look at Mullen and Florida and be pissed off that we don't have that level of success this year. I wanted it, too. Florida didn't have the pernicious, program-sapping personnel issues because they had a stable of players who were more willing to transition into a new team ethos than we did. As CBJ's players matriculate out, we'll likely see greater buy-in, better play, and less of the team giving up in tough situations. We're going to be alright.
