If you're not listening to the Swain Event, you're missing out.

[PEPPERJAX]

Way off topic but that’s a cool slayer pic in your avitar. I’ve never seen that one. Is that an album cover?

If it is, it may be from early 80s. I think it is a Tee shirt pic.

 

[wmcovol]

More him than it was last year... but how can he be responsible for any sizable group of Juniors having a bad attitude? There was a time when a coach could come in, give a swift boot to guys who didn't fit, then sign 35 new players. The new recruiting rules do not allow for that.

You're better off with 75 players motivated and committed than with 85 players with 10 cancers on the team. Running a few off would have set the standard for the others. 5 or 6 malcontents will spread to 15-20 before you know it. I think thats where it is now.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

Absolute truth. But many fans dont accept that. Better to just go ahead say he sucks and fire him. That way we can start up a whole entire new coaching search (4th in this decade). That means a new S&C coach, OC,DC and completely new staff. Recruiting class falls apart. But hey, lets get rid of Pruitt because we message board warriors on VN know what we are doing.

Thats the mindset of many now. Its beyond comical. Cannot give a coach time these days. We have to hire and fire in the hopes of landing the one.

Please, he inherited nothing worse than Dooley or Jones did, and neither one of them had a loss this bad. Pruitt isn't getting fired anytime soon, but this narrative that Pruitt inherited such a mess is a bit silly to me.

 

[Sara Clark]

Please, he inherited nothing worse than Dooley or Jones did, and neither one of them had a loss this bad. Pruitt isn't getting fired anytime soon, but this narrative that Pruitt inherited such a mess is a bit silly to me.

I'm not sure the "situation inherited" is the same. Maybe you're looking at the win vs loss record...this is different, it appears.

 

[Vol4Life2289]

I think when Pruitt took over, there were so many players who either, were not SEC caliber players or who would not buy in, that if he got rid of all of them, they might not have had enough players to field a team.

 

[BigOrangeTrain]

Please, he inherited nothing worse than Dooley or Jones did, and neither one of them had a loss this bad. Pruitt isn't getting fired anytime soon, but this narrative that Pruitt inherited such a mess is a bit silly to me.

Keep believing that if you want to further your narrative. Dooley didnt inherit a bad team from Kiffin. Butch didnt inherit anything near what Pruitt did. If you cannot see that then you are being intentionally blind or dumb. Some fans love to say that Fulmer drove this program into a ditch. Thats hilarious. Clearly that was done by Butch Jones and it is on full display still.

I agree neither Dooley or Butch had a loss this bad.

 

[Vfl2407]

Georgia St bro....lol

Remember then good ol days where people said Butch recruited pretty good and the just couldnt put it together. Many here said the next coach that came in would be able to win right way and all that.

Man, those days seem so long ago.

I think GaState changed everyone’s thinking who loves our program.
I sat there with my mouth open with the way this really bad Sun Belt team manhandled both lines of scrimmage.
I kept waiting , as we all did, for that to change but it even got worse in the third quarter.
I still don’t believe it. I now especially doubt Rocker and Ansleys work product and whether or not Pruitt is a true defensive guru without a roster stocked with all 4/5 stars.

 

[hog88]

Absolute truth. But many fans dont accept that. Better to just go ahead say he sucks and fire him. That way we can start up a whole entire new coaching search (4th in this decade). That means a new S&C coach, OC,DC and completely new staff. Recruiting class falls apart. But hey, lets get rid of Pruitt because we message board warriors on VN know what we are doing.

Thats the mindset of many now. Its beyond comical. Cannot give a coach time these days. We have to hire and fire in the hopes of landing the one.

BOT and Pruitt

 

[amavol2]

Pruitt inherited an absolute broken and busted program. Too early to judge him IMO.

This problem should have been fixed in the first two months, players not giving the effort that is. One bad apple!

 

[Sara Clark]

I think when Pruitt took over, there were so many players who either, were not SEC caliber players or who would not buy in, that if he got rid of all of them, they might not have had enough players to field a team.

Let me ask you this, again, I'm just a fan trying to figure it all out myself.

I wonder if BJ was more inclined to be a friend, show them a good time...The loud music at practice, the expensive car...because recruits like it. Not really working hard during practice, or maybe not that as much as it being a light hearted good time...

Now you have a coach, nothing fancy, just being a coach who works their backside off. His recruits don't have the luxury, if you will, of comparing two different coaching styles...? The older guys I'm starting to think, not all, are resentful of it. JMO even though I fumbled through it.

 

[Doberman]

Keep believing that if you want to further your narrative. Dooley didnt inherit a bad team from Kiffin. Butch didnt inherit anything near what Pruitt did. If you cannot see that then you are being intentionally blind or dumb. Some fans love to say that Fulmer drove this program into a ditch. Thats hilarious. Clearly that was done by Butch Jones and it is on full display still.

I agree neither Dooley or Butch had a loss this bad.

Funny, but I remember Kiffins class almost completely vanishing, and Dooley recruiting 0 OLine in a year.

Every coach has been hamstrung. This ain’t a new thing.

 

[Vfl2407]

Let me ask you this, again, I'm just a fan trying to figure it all out myself.

I wonder if BJ was more inclined to be a friend, show them a good time...The loud music at practice, the expensive car...because recruits like it. Not really working hard during practice, or maybe not that as much as it being a light hearted good time...

Now you have a coach, nothing fancy, just being a coach who works their backside off. His recruits don't have the luxury, if you will, of comparing two different coaching styles...? The older guys I'm starting to think, not all, are resentful of it. JMO even though I fumbled through it.

I’ll weigh in.
If you read much about managerial change, most companies and political bodies and even sports teams tend to go in a complete temperament direction when they make atop level change. Sometimes the change can be so radical that the members of the organization can not adjust rapidly enough to be successful.

 

[TJVol95]

I can only assume every player has interviewed with JP and Phil in a 1 on 1 setting giving each player a gut check. That’s the basic 101 stuff.

 

[De La Cloobs]

Swain's Comments on the fans and social media is spot on. The fan vitriol on this level is making it so much worse. I hope the players are wiser and more mature than the shouting minority of childish Vol fans.

 

[BigOrangeTrain]

Let me ask you this, again, I'm just a fan trying to figure it all out myself.

I wonder if BJ was more inclined to be a friend, show them a good time...The loud music at practice, the expensive car...because recruits like it. Not really working hard during practice, or maybe not that as much as it being a light hearted good time...

Now you have a coach, nothing fancy, just being a coach who works their backside off. His recruits don't have the luxury, if you will, of comparing two different coaching styles...? The older guys I'm starting to think, not all, are resentful of it. JMO even though I fumbled through it.

Here is my 2 cents. I think you make some really good,points. The loud music, the dances, the juice bar. Those were things that got players to like him on a friend level. I think Pruitt is more demanding and dare I say militant like in his coaching style. Look who he has learned under. I think there are players that are turned off by Pruitt because they are not used to working this hard and they dont like it.

 

[loosedog]

Five of highlighted are CJP recruits correct? Surely there are not that many bad apples on this team however, maybe just not good at football.

Not that it matters, but technically you can also bold D. Gibbs and K. George as Pruitt recruits.

 

[BigOrangeTrain]

Funny, but I remember Kiffins class almost completely vanishing, and Dooley recruiting 0 OLine in a year.

Every coach has been hamstrung. This ain’t a new thing.

True. But not all of Kiffins guys left. And he built relationshipsmthat allowed Dooley to land a good class in 2010. Dooley not recruiting any OL really set the program back and hamstrung Butch. But at least Dooley left Butch with an NFL OL. Also, was there ever a 12+ month period during Kiffin or Dooleys tenure where there were no strength and conditioning program? Dont think so. People dont take into account how long it takes to really get guys back into football shape. I remember reading somewhere that for every year you have no S&C program, you lose 2 years of physicality. What was Pruitts comments when he saw them for the first time? Man we are a small team.

Kiffin, Dooley nor Butch ever had to rebuild from 4-8 either. Also factor in the attrition, be it for medical reasons or other. I know some want to think Pruitts situation is exactly the same as Dooley or Butch but its not.

 

[volfannbama]

Swain's Comments on the fans and social media is spot on. The fan vitriol on this level is making it so much worse. I hope the players are wiser and more mature than the shouting minority of childish Vol fans.

Im assuming he means comments on twitter and fb directed at players?

 

[BigOrangeTrain]

Interesting list of players who are potential problems if you count the RS Jrs too (scholarship players only):

JG
Jordan Allen
K George
Blakeley
J Johnson
Tatum
R Johnson
Pope
Palmer
Gibbs
Chandler
T Jordan
Shamburger
D Johnson
Reid
Ignont
T Jackson
S Williams
Locklear
T Smith
Bumphus
Butler
Middleton
Solomon

That's a big chunk of the team and most of the guys playing on the DL.

How are these guys problems?

 

[BigOrangeTrain]

Im assuming he means comments on twitter and fb directed at players?

Probably. Some of those comments are just ridiculous.

 

[05_never_again]

Here is my 2 cents. I think you make some really good,points. The loud music, the dances, the juice bar. Those were things that got players to like him on a friend level. I think Pruitt is more demanding and dare I say militant like in his coaching style. Look who he has learned under. I think there are players that are turned off by Pruitt because they are not used to working this hard and they dont like it.

The disturbing thing to me is that some of these players who are turned off by it seem to be guys Pruitt has recruited. That's one thing if he's pissed off some of Butch's players...that is to be expected and honestly if he has made a contingent of them mad it can be an indication he is successfully changing the culture in a positive direction. If he can't connect with the guys he has recruited himself, that's a gigantic problem.

 

[BigOrangeTrain]

The disturbing thing to me is that some of these players who are turned off by it seem to be guys Pruitt has recruited. That's one thing if he's pissed off some of Butch's players...that is to be expected and honestly if he has made a contingent of them mad it can be an indication he is successfully changing the culture in a positive direction. If he can't connect with the guys he has recruited himself, that's a gigantic problem.

Agreed. But the question has to be why? Why would these guys be put off by hard work?

 

[05_never_again]

Agreed. But the question has to be why? Why would these guys be put off by hard work?

I'm not there, so I don't know, but I don't think they are put off by hard work necessarily. I think they are put off by being held accountable and having someone on them about every little thing.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

Keep believing that if you want to further your narrative. Dooley didnt inherit a bad team from Kiffin. Butch didnt inherit anything near what Pruitt did. If you cannot see that then you are being intentionally blind or dumb. Some fans love to say that Fulmer drove this program into a ditch. Thats hilarious. Clearly that was done by Butch Jones and it is on full display still.

I agree neither Dooley or Butch had a loss this bad.

Give me a f'n break. The exact same stuff being said RIGHT now was said ad nausem when Butch took over. The exact same thing. Same for Dooley, that Kiffin left it a train wreck and Dooley should have been praised for taking the job "nobody else wanted"......hey that sound familar? So just maybe you're the blind/dumb one here buddy.

And you're bellyaching that we don't give coaches enough time, so you think Dooley and Butch deserved more time?

 

[JacketVol]

I was told last year that Pruitt told parents and players who were already on the team that he didn’t have time to stay and talk with them because he needed to get with his recruits. The way it was presented was he was going to build with his players and guys we had for the most part were not up to what was needed to win.

He was probably right but it created guys to be resentful and no buy in.

On the other hand and this parent agreed, their kid was still going to give best effort and try to win because he’s a competitor and it was the way he was raised. The problem with a few still on the team is they don’t have the same kind of drive. So now, you have what we got.

 

[chef3531]

You know, I read this and other similar comments and I even mentioned it in another thread.

If this is such a big problem, which I believe it is, and its out of control because Pruitt is in over is head as a first time HC....I think this would be huge for an experienced HC, but Im not there so I don't really know.

Long story short....I don't understand why Phil can't help with this. I know there are probably some things he can't do, but he's an experienced, NC winning HC at the University of Tennessee. What would Saban, Spurrier, Stoops, Fulmer do if Pruitt was fired today and one of those guys took over?

Phil, Chaney, and Tee are on their way to Golden Corral. He can't fix this either, heck, it's happening under his watch already.