I’m being serious here, did Fla win or did UT lose? Look at this game, it wouldn’t have mattered the opponent, just stings more because of who it was. This game wasn’t what Florida did, it was the mistakes that Tennessee did. Look at the first half, each and every position was fumble, interception, bad tackling, or the such. Basically UT shooting itself in the foot.
I’ve never seen UT play this bad, ever. I’m wondering if this staff overemphasized this game and made it bigger than it should have? If coaches put it at practice that this was a must win, a game “to show the nation” UT football, simply these players aren’t there yet and they showed those types of mistakes, simple mistakes. TN simply wasn’t ready for the big stage,
BUT, here is the thing, as I said, it wasn’t Fla winning, it was Tn losing, ALL of these are correctable and easily correctable. You will hear over the next few years, the word standard, play to the standard. That is THE staple of Saban, Smart, etc. Pruitt will create a standard he expects from his players and each player will know what is expected of them. Just like business, employees perform better when they know exactly what is expected of them. Players will get better as will coaching.
Speaking of coaching, every coach has growing pains their first year, it can be overwhelming, for every coach. I can’t think of one single HC that didn’t have growing pains, Pruitt will be much better next year, and so will this team. You did see a glimpse of what some people were concerned about with Pruitt, getting a penalty, panicking a little in the 2nd qtr, and showing immaturity kicking a whiteboard. That is stuff that he can grow the most from, or should if he is going to be what he wishes to become as HC.
Simply put, this is more of what UT didn’t do on the field but not lack of talent on this team or lack of effort. If you have the last two, talent/effort, you can fix the mistakes.