How serious is Leonard Little about coaching?

#27
#27
DuckinVol said:
Sure thought I recalled Pruitt being a very successful DC at some other big time programs. Must have some early onset creeping in.
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He was a very good DC at FSU (granted, that was the ACC) and did a good job at UGA. Again, he's never not had Top 5 talent before he got here.

The difference between him and Smart was Smart was seen as a HC candidate for several years before he took the UGA gig. I'm not sure why that was the case (not sure if people wanted to see Pruitt build something on his own or some of the rumored personality issues).
 
#28
#28
DuckinVol said:
Sure thought I recalled Pruitt being a very successful DC at some other big time programs. Must have some early onset creeping in.
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Pruitt seems to be a lot like Butch in this way. Butch followed other great coaches and "seemed" to have success and rode that all the way to a HC gig in the SEC.

Everyone needs to remember that Pruitt was on NOBODY's list as a potential HC until Fulmer went after him literally out of nowhere.
 
#29
#29
BigOrangeMojo said:
Smart was the long-time DC at Bama that built up the Bama defense (2008-2015) and was widely thought of as a potential HC candidate for most SEC jobs that came open during that timeframe.

Pruitt took over a great defense and maintained it at Bama. Other than some tepid interest by MSU as a favor to Sexton (who was going Moorhead all along), Pruitt was never thought of as a SEC HC candidate until we hired him.
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It was Saban's defense. He built it and Smart stuck around the DC job long enough to learn everything he knows from Saban (good move on his part).

With that said, Pruitt was on that same staff in one capacity or another for 8 season. He SHOULD have had as much hype as Smart did. And yet he did not.
 
#30
#30
Don't know how he would coach.

Last I heard he was a business owner and armchair talent consultant that gushes over linebackers that look like Jamal Lewis 😮🇺🇸👍!

Yeah. Pruitt might feel threatened. Don't think this would happen.
 
#31
#31
BigOrangeMojo said:
He was a very good DC at FSU (granted, that was the ACC) and did a good job at UGA. Again, he's never not had Top 5 talent before he got here.

The difference between him and Smart was Smart was seen as a HC candidate for several years before he took the UGA gig. I'm not sure why that was the case (not sure if people wanted to see Pruitt build something on his own or some of the rumored personality issues).
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I think it was just because Kirby was such a longtime Saban assistant and had been there from the beginning, meaning he had played a role in building the defense from nothing. Pruitt was with Saban at the beginning too, but as their director of player development, not an on-field coach.
 
#33
#33
MWAVolfan said:
It was Saban's defense. He built it and Smart stuck around the DC job long enough to learn everything he knows from Saban (good move on his part).

With that said, Pruitt was on that same staff in one capacity or another for 8 season. He SHOULD have had as much hype as Smart did. And yet he did not.
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Just 2 as DC though. Pruitt was with Saban from the beginning as well, but his first 3 years there were as director of player development, which isn't even an on-field position. Then he coached DBs for 3 years, then got his first college DC job at FSU. Pruitt is quite accomplished as a DC - 2 national titles - but he did take those jobs at already fully loaded programs.

Before Kirby started to recruit the daylights out at Georgia and almost won a title in his second year, there were rumblings of the same thing about Kirby. Remember, a lot of people wondered why he stuck around at Alabama so long and thought maybe there was some reason why other schools hadn't poached him. After he took the job, a lot of people said he was just Saban's order-taker and didn't know how to build anything himself. It wasn't until Georgia started winning at a high level that those comments went away, and people will continue to wonder that about Pruitt until he starts winning on his own too.
 
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#34
#34
MWAVolfan said:
Pruitt seems to be a lot like Butch in this way. Butch followed other great coaches and "seemed" to have success and rode that all the way to a HC gig in the SEC.

Everyone needs to remember that Pruitt was on NOBODY's list as a potential HC until Fulmer went after him literally out of nowhere.
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Simply untrue. I remember looking at the time and he was on a lot of lists like this: (and look who is at the top of it)

Stupid url gets messed up by VN
Bleacher Report /articles/2640427-college-football-coordinators-who-should-be-head-coaches-already

I remember Scott Frost was at the top of a lot of these lists too and how are the cornhuskers doing lately?

Point is, however Pruitt ends up here, lets not act like he was some no name, mid market guy that Fulmer brought in on the cheap or that it made no sense - especially given the crap show of that coaching search.
 
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#36
#36
Gandalf said:
Simply untrue. I remember looking at the time and he was on a lot of lists like this: (and look who is at the top of it)

Stupid url gets messed up by VN
Bleacher Report /articles/2640427-college-football-coordinators-who-should-be-head-coaches-already

I remember Scott Frost was at the top of a lot of these lists too and how are the cornhuskers doing lately?

Point is, however Pruitt ends up here, lets not act like he was some no name, mid market guy that Fulmer brought in on the cheap or that it made no sense - especially given the crap show of that coaching search.
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I think it'd be an exaggeration to call Pruitt a "no-name, mid market guy" given his resume, but his name also wasn't being thrown around on the coaching carousel that year. His name never came up in our own coaching search until Fulmer took over.

To your point though, given the crap show of a coaching search that we had, I think we were lucky to have ended up with a guy with that kind of resume. I think we were very close to a situation where we were going to have to hire the WR coach at a G5 school or something.
 
#37
#37
05_never_again said:
I think it'd be an exaggeration to call Pruitt a "no-name, mid market guy" given his resume, but his name also wasn't being thrown around on the coaching carousel that year. His name never came up in our own coaching search until Fulmer took over.

To your point though, given the crap show of a coaching search that we had, I think we were lucky to have ended up with a guy with that kind of resume. I think we were very close to a situation where we were going to have to hire the WR coach at a G5 school or something.
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Again, Pruitts name was on a lot of those (top 10, top 5) lists that year but not as high as bigger stars like Frost or Brohm. I am guessing he wasnt higher because he was/is pretty young for a P5 HC and he is not a flashy spokesman (an understatement if ever there was one lol). For a fact though, when his Bubba defense utterly destroyed the Dawg offense (Chaney's) in the 2017 NC game, you can bet his name would have been at the top of those lists if we had not already had him signed for the good guys.

But for sure, I was getting worried we would have a coach at all after that disaster.
 
#38
#38
Gandalf said:
Again, Pruitts name was on a lot of those (top 10, top 5) lists that year but not as high as bigger stars like Frost or Brohm. I am guessing he wasnt higher because he was/is pretty young for a P5 HC and he is not a flashy spokesman (an understatement if ever there was one lol). For a fact though, when his Bubba defense utterly destroyed the Dawg offense (Chaney's) in the 2017 NC game, you can bet his name would have been at the top of those lists if we had not already had him signed for the good guys.

But for sure, I was getting worried we would have a coach at all after that disaster.
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I don't recall it being on top 5 or 10 lists that year, maybe it was and I just didn't see it. If he stayed at Alabama another year or 2 and their defense continued to be elite, his name definitely would have been really high on those lists.
 
#42
#42
even talking about LL taking over is about as dumb as the last post I read about the defense leading a revolt
 
#43
#43
No thanks. Just because he was a very good player doesn't mean he would be a good coach. I think Pruitt will hold out till the end of the season and try to get Lupoi or poach someone else from the NFL. If he wants a former player Marion hobby should get the call.
 
#45
#45
Devo182 said:
Fo real? Has dude even coached before?? He was probably 20% serious about doing a day camp and 0% chance he would ever be hired as a D1 coach out of nowhere.
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I’m glad someone gets it. I love me some Leonard Little, but the last thing we need is to hire another coach with little to no experience.
GBO!!
 
#49
#49
05never again,no Pruitt wasn't on Currie's list.Schiano was.N.C.State.coach was.That was a stellar.crew you had going there.
 
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