It took one game for Jeremy Pruitt to earn my respect

#26
#26
photovol said:
I think Pruitt will be a good coach, but we may not see it on the football field for another 2-3 years.
He needs to purge this team of players as many of them just don't have the talent to play in the SEC or P5 programs, unfortunately
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100% spot on. This team is by and large devoid of SEC type talent/players. We cannot and will not win with the guys we played yesterday on our front 7 and our OL was incredibly disappointing. We have some young, talented DBs who need time and experience....both Warrior and Abernathy were below average yesterday. Despite only scoring 14 points yesterday, it’s clear we have promise with our skills players on offense....JP and Helton have to find a way to involve them more despite a poor OL...they can keep us in games with big plays if we can utilize them.
 
#27
#27
Volfan2012 said:
Pruitt should have fans total backing until he gets his own players on the roster. Players didn't perform OL was soft most of the game even though they did look better in the second half. No pressure at all from the DL made the entire defense totally vulnerable to the passing game. A lot of missed tackles that has become our trademark in the last several years. The assessment is that we can't win with the current roster not enough guys that can play at a high level. We have to hope Pruitt will get his players in here and they will be SEC quality. A long way to go he is off to a good start in recruiting in year number one. The word goes out to all recruits if you want to play early and often consider making your home Tennessee.
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Bingo. Well said.
 
#29
#29
The 4th down TD spoke volumes to me and was a clear statement Pruitt wanted to make to his players. We had the ball on the 1 for 1st and goal and Pruitt wasn't settling for a field goal. He even mentioned it in his presser that he is trying to build a culture, that is tough, confident and is able to get one yard on four tries.

I'm not sure if it showed on TV, but after the 3rd down, the offense was about to run off the field and Pruitt was vehemently yelling at them to stay and finish the drive. I think they had to call the timeout because the offense wasn't ready or in the mindset to go..I'm not sure if they even had a play call, because the offense looked a bit confused...I think Pruitt was so mad at his team for settling that he just told them to stay out there and then called the TO.. It was a breath of fresh air to see our coach put the responsibility on the offense to get the job done.
 
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#30
#30
Fact is, it’s going to take time to unButch this team and roster. CJP is known for his recruiting ability and eye for talent/potential. BJ was not. BJ recruited people that didn’t fit his own scheme, much less Pruitt’s. I think BJ’s only real talent was trying to find players with overrated star values. A lot of star power on Rocky Top that we have never seen perform for us here under BJ.

Our new staff has been here for 9 months. We got the short end of the stick this year in opening against a Heisman candidate and power offense with a roster that primarily smells like Butch Jones. I think Pruitt turns out to be a great coach. I think if we played WVU game 10 instead of game 1 it would have been closer. Most of the SEC opened against cupcake teams yesterday and were able to get a little game experience while walking away with a win. Our guys got taught some lessons. We’ve got 2 more games before Florida and sec play to iron out some problems. I think we wind up being better than last year, but it will be next year before we start seeing real results. BJ left Pruitt a soup sandwich.
 
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#31
#31
checkerboards09 said:
I gotta agree with D4H. I saw signs of life in this team, we just happened to be playing a veteran offensive unit in week 1. That was a lot for our freshman cb’s to handle and they won’t see another passing attack like that for the rest of the year. This team is gonna get better as the year goes on.
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You must not have watched Tua and bama. They could hang a lot more than 50 on us if they wanted to
 
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#33
#33
Mtnvol80 said:
You must not have watched Tua and bama. They could hang a lot more than 50 on us if they wanted to
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Don’t care about Bama, I expect a lot of corrections to be made by the time we play them. That was GAME 1 we just played with two freshman cb’s starting, it wasn’t gonna be pretty if they happened to go on an aerial raid and they did.
 
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#36
#36
peddi631 said:
Less than intelligent fans are still the same as last year. No change till we recruit better fans. Bunch of products of time out wanting everything all at once and then getting a shot of reality. Time to grow up and give the man a chance.
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You do realize we haven’t legitimately competed for the SEC since 2007? I don’t think patience is what the fans lack. Many would like to see some actual results from our perpetual rebuilding. Not overnight, but at some point
 
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#37
#37
I dont see many positives to take from the game yesterday in regards to Pruitt. His defense was atrocious. We collapsed as a team in the second half. We came out flat and confused. Had some some stupid penalties. Took a 10 point spread and got beat by 26. Ugly.
 
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#38
#38
This is the first year I have been in Volnation forums for a season, but I have been a TN fan all my life. I don’t care who takes blame either, but I think we were hoping for the big turnaround and that isn’t happening probably. We will be average this season for a new staff and scheme. Like Saban went 6-6 at bama. I think the teams we lose to this year will end up being Top 10 by the end of the season. I am still hopeful for FL, MO, KY, and Vandy. SCar may be to tough after the gauntlet. We will get better and look more like what we can expect in the future by the time we get to KY and MO. We will have it dialed in and be winning. I still think we can do 7-5.
 
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#40
#40
Tough loss, WV is better than I thought they would be, maybe very good, there is a reason they are ranked and they may be better than their ranking. Good for them.
My take aways for the game:

1. All of our skill positions are better than last year, WR, RB, QB, They had some rough spots but all in all pretty good, good enough to win a lot of games.
2. Offensive Line, not very good, but some signs they will get better. I believe they will be much better late in the season, not great but serviceable. And the offense will be much improved and by the end of the year will be the strength of the team.
3. Defensive Line was pretty bad. That was my biggest concern for the season. And it is worse than I thought. It wouldn't surprise me if Pruitt starts playing a bunch of young guys there if they reach game conditioning. Some of our upper classmen are not SEC caliber and they won't get better by playing where the young guys will.
4. Defensive backfield was rough. I hope (and I think) they will learn a lot from this game and get better. Pruitt had already made his decisions on the upper classemen and knew they couldn't compete and played the young guys knowing the risks. I believe and hope this will pay off later in the season. If it doesn't then we are 4-8 again. But I believe he did they right thing.

Any loss is bad but I see a lot of positives to take away from this game. As some others have noted his press conference was first class, call it as it is but don't throw the players under the bus. It will get better.

One other thing, this wasn't a conference game. As bad as it was to lose it's better than losing to FL or SC, so if it prepares us for later games I'm "Aight" with it.
 
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#41
#41
landscapingvol said:
You do realize we haven’t legitimately competed for the SEC since 2007? I don’t think patience is what the fans lack. Many would like to see some actual results from our perpetual rebuilding. Not overnight, but at some point
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@KBVol. Look KB, perpetual rebuilders is making it into the lexicon.
 
#42
#42
It's laughable how so many are falling over themselves trying to compare CJP favorably to Butch. Who are you trying to convince? Yourselves?

Pruitt may be the answer. Or not. Only time will tell. A post-game press conference don't mean squat.

And, for the record, Pruitt did make a point to say that the coaches had good calls in the second half that the players just failed to execute. Did everybody just miss that? Then he puts the blanket disclaimer at the end that the coaches are ultimately responsible and have to do a better job. It's almost verbatim what a Butch Jones presser sounded like. Or any other coach, for that matter.

But if you want to give Pruitt points for winning the press conference, go right ahead. We still can't tackle or get any pressure anywhere along the defensive line. I'm more concerned about that.
 
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#43
#43
Honestly, I'm not seeing a whole lot I disagree. I think I'm net encouraged after yesterday as weird as that is.
 
#44
#44
the presser was nice. he's living up to his no non sense billing and telling it like it is. which is fine. no issue with anything he said and pretty much agreed with all of it. which i couldn't always say about butch. so whatever that's worth......i'll take it at least.

but this staff doesn't bring the baggage, the fans do. and rightfully so. we've seen this program at it's lowest point ever, and we've been middling around mediocre to bad for a long time now.

that's not this staff's fault. so patience, logically, warranted.

but for fans...patience be damned. we want to win. we've seen the losing. and we're tired of it. heck, i'd settle for being really competitve RIGHT NOW.

what this boils down to me is that most anyone with any common sense will tell you that if Pruitt and co have this team relevant again in this conf in 3 years, that's a helluva job. and they're probably right.

but for us....it's just another 3 years of suck. hoping it gets better, hanging on every play, game, recruit, signee etc.....

it is what it is. we aren't there. we do have a ways to go, and it probabl is at least a 3 year deal.

i do expect this team will get better, so long as it stays healthy. you could see glimpses of what they COULD be yesterday. but we also saw what the are, currently.
 
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#45
#45
After a good night sleep and rehydrating from that hot, humid game, I have to actually agree with D4H. Offense overall looked better than I expected. Oline is weak, but I think we all expected that.

Defense is missing developed playmakers. Maybe they will develop or maybe he will recruit some. Time will tell but I think it will take a lot longer than one offseason for that to happen.

All in all, I think we are on the right track finally.
 
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#46
#46
G8rh8r said:
After a good night sleep and rehydrating from that hot, humid game, I have to actually agree with D4H. Offense overall looked better than I expected. Oline is weak, but I think we all expected that.

Defense is missing developed playmakers. Maybe they will develop or maybe he will recruit some. Time will tell but I think it will take a lot longer than one offseason for that to happen.

All in all, I think we are on the right track finally.
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I think if we had a stronger DL, our secondary would benefit tremendously.
 
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#47
#47
KingtUT said:
While going for it on 4th down worked and we scored, I don't think it was a smart move. I can definitely see reasons for doing it but in general I didn't agree with it at the time. I definitely don't think going for it makes him a better coach than if he had decided to kick a FG. I predicted a 17 pt loss so I pretty much got what I expected. I was more encouraged by JG at qb than I was discouraged by the defense. The defense will get better, I have no doubt about that. With that being said, if JG continues to play well, Jordan stays healthy, and our defense improves game after game, I can still see us winning 6 or 7 games.
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But if he had went for 3 how many including yourself would be calling him gutless no better than Butch? Maybe just maybe he wanted to put some confidence in his kids that he knows they can get the TD.
 
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#48
#48
EastTN said:
But if he had went for 3 how many including yourself would be calling him gutless no better than Butch? Maybe just maybe he wanted to put some confidence in his kids that he knows they can get the TD.
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This makes no sense. Pruitt will coach circles around Butch regardless of his decision to go for it instead of kicking a FG.. If he had kicked the FG, I would be on here today defending his choice (because it wouldn't have been the wrong choice) against all the criers on here that would've blamed losing the game on that decision. It has nothing to do with a coach having balls, it has to do with making sure you get points on the board early in the game. I aint mad that he went for it, I just didn't agree with it at the time. No biggie, glad it worked.
 
#49
#49
KingtUT said:
This makes no sense. Pruitt will coach circles around Butch regardless of his decision to go for it instead of kicking a FG.. If he had kicked the FG, I would be on here today defending his choice (because it wouldn't have been the wrong choice) against all the criers on here that would've blamed losing the game on that decision. It has nothing to do with a coach having balls, it has to do with making sure you get points on the board early in the game.
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Of course they would be blaming that. Either way I understand his choice to kick or go for it. But it was refreshing to see a coach who feels if we cannot get 1 yard they don’t deserve to score anyway. He knew 3 points wasn’t gonna get him back in the ballgame at that point. So why not put faith in your offense and gain them confidence. And that’s exactly what he did. Guarantee his offensive players gained more respect from him on that play.
 
#50
#50
EastTN said:
Of course they would be blaming that. Either way I understand his choice to kick or go for it. But it was refreshing to see a coach who feels if we cannot get 1 yard they don’t deserve to score anyway. He knew 3 points wasn’t gonna get him back in the ballgame at that point. So why not put faith in your offense and gain them confidence. And that’s exactly what he did. Guarantee his offensive players gained more respect from him on that play.
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The best part about that decision was it was obvious it wasn't made by looking at some chart. I just happened to disagree with it at the time. I dang sure aint mad at him and I wouldn't have blamed the loss on his decision if they had failed.
 
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