My thoughts on the Kentucky game, after sleeping on it

[Sarms58]

Great points. My wife went outside after that sack - not because she was mad it because I was...if he steps up in the pocket He has time to throw or he could have easily run. Even if he came up a little short we would be attempting a FG...he tries to win the game on every play instead of just trying to win every play.

 

[volbound1700]

It would be difficult to add to what has already been said about the Kentucky game. There wasn't a lot of positive to take from this.

-Obviously, QB play killed us. We knew last week that JG wasn't going to get us through the season. But I didn't expect this. He usually plays okay against the Kentuckys of the world. But he was abysmal. I'm hard pressed to think of a time a QB killed Tennessee more in a single game. Maybe Peterman at Florida, but that was a freshman starting his first game in The Swamp (I'll allude to that later), this is a 5th year senior with a ton of experience. Worse, the team has given up on him. That much was obvious. After the second pick 6, they seemed to slowly fade. While I'm not saying we don't have concerns elsewhere, I will say that QB is the most important position in sports: a good one can hide other deficiencies and a bad one can make deficiencies where there otherwise aren't any. Guarantano is not only NOT lifting this team up, he's making it worse than it actually is. He took a sack in the first half that was absurd. All he had to do was feel pressure, which WASN'T FROM THE BLIND SIDE, BUT IN HIS FACE, step up, avoid pressure, and make a throw. Instead he stood there, like someone standing in front of a truck attempting suicide. It would've blown my mind if I hadn't seen it so often before.

-This staff needs to get Bailey ready. Shrout and Maurer obviously aren't the answers. After the Kentucky loss, you stand to gain nothing from this season except two things:

1) Prepare for next season.
2) Try to possibly upset Florida. Beating Florida would salvage some good from this season. And it's possible with good QB play.

Starting Bailey and getting him ready is the best way to accomplish both of those. You're not going to beat Florida with Guarantano, Shrout, or Maurer. Bailey has the highest upside and the closer you get him to that upside, the better for the team. You have until December 5 to get him ready for Florida. He'll get better as the year goes on, then you go into next season knowing who your QB is, which is best for him and best for the team.

That said, I would NOT start him against Alabama. You don't want to kill a true freshman's confidence by giving him his first start against that defense...just as they did to Peterman in The Swamp. Let JG, Shrout, or whoever take his lumps against Bama. As soon as that game is over, make Bailey your #1 and go into the off week with a plan to get him up ton speed as quickly as possible, with 2 weeks before Arkansas.

-That's also true for other freshmen. After Bama, start involving Wideman, Beckwith, Eason, Hyatt, and others.

-Eric Gray played well. I'll say that.

-The offensive line looked good run blocking...and that's not nothing against a very good Kentucky front. Unfortunately, JG's turnovers put Tennessee behind the 8-ball so early that Tennessee couldn't line up and run the ball whenever they wanted. But I'm convinced that if Tennessee had just run the ball every play on offense, this would have been a close game. Tennessee may have even won.

-The defense played a good first half. And I don't think they played poorly in the 2nd half (which they did) because they were tired. Like the rest of the team, I think they got defeated. They've seen the JG shitshow too many times. One more example of how poor QB play can kill a team.

-Many of y'all are the biggest chicken little cryass fans in the world. It's gross. No, it's not time to fire Pruitt. No, Tennessee isn't doomed to be bad forever. But if we keep firing coaches every 3-5 years, we will be. I saw a post asking "what does Pruitt give you besides recruiting?" Well, he's the best defensive mind in Knoxville in a long, long time. His players genuinely like him because he is genuine. He brings accountability. He has an understanding of how championship programs are built and maintained. He'll get Tennessee there. You can either be along for the ride or not. And no, this isn't the worst loss in...whenever. Georgia State was worse. BYU was worse. Kentucky 2011 and 2017 were worse. Some of those Vandy losses were much worse. This is actually a good Kentucky team. Those teams weren't.

This is a weird year. In a normal one, the QB problem would have been addressed in spring because the best QB on the roster would've had an entire spring practice to get up to speed. Instead, Bailey didn't get a spring or a fall practice. Pruitt was left a crap QB room when he took over. It's hard to go land a 5* QB recruit coming off a 4-8 season with terrible OLine play. But in his 2nd full recruiting class, he landed one. He didn't get a chance to develop him early. But he will. And that will make this team look much better. Dan Mullen, on the other hand, looks great because of what he inherited. He got Franks AND Trask (not to mention Kyle Pitts, who committed to the prior staff...and a bevy of other talented players). Think Pruitt wouldn't kill for either? But Pruitt has drastically increased the talent level and player development. He is a first time head coach and he is still learning. That's undeniable. But talk of firing him at this point is ridiculous.

This is kind of a throwaway season anyway. Use it to build the program. Like it or not, that's still happening. We're not there, nor should we be. You don't fire a coach based on the results of this weird year with truncated practice times, players coming and going into quarantine, a weird schedule, no spring practice, etc. I know, "everyone else is dealing with the same thing." True. But everyone else isn't building from what Tennessee was building from. Everyone else doesn't have to deal with no viable QB option from the upper class, so they HAD to rely on the true freshman.

Moreover, should Clemson have fired Dabo after he went 6-7 his third year? Should Tennessee have fired Fulmer after he started 1-3 in his 3rd year with A TON more talent? That team lost to a 3-win UCLA team and a bad Mississippi State team. Common denominator? Bad QB play...until the freshman kind named Manning got up to speed.

Jeremy Pruitt will get the job done at Tennessee. This isn't a Butch Jones or Derek Dooley situation. Feel free to screen shot this and call me on it if I'm wrong in a few years.

I don't think we saw enough of Shrout to give him a fair shake.

 

[JonGrudensAgent]

Every year turns into a throwaway year with this program.

Been in perpetual rebuild mode since 2006.

And it's basically SSDC ( same s**t different coach ) with Pruitt.

Nah...you don't fire him this year or next due to the economics of the virus and Fulmer's asinine decision to give him an extension but there isn't anything to show we are getting closer to competing with the elites again.

And now, they prove yet again they can't even consistently take care of business against the teams they should be beating.

 

[Boca Vol]

The Alabama game is in Knoxville not Tuscaloosa.

It's basically Tuscaloosa North when Bama comes to town.

 

[Chippo]

It would be difficult to add to what has already been said about the Kentucky game. There wasn't a lot of positive to take from this.

-Obviously, QB play killed us. We knew last week that JG wasn't going to get us through the season. But I didn't expect this. He usually plays okay against the Kentuckys of the world. But he was abysmal. I'm hard pressed to think of a time a QB killed Tennessee more in a single game. Maybe Peterman at Florida, but that was a freshman starting his first game in The Swamp (I'll allude to that later), this is a 5th year senior with a ton of experience. Worse, the team has given up on him. That much was obvious. After the second pick 6, they seemed to slowly fade. While I'm not saying we don't have concerns elsewhere, I will say that QB is the most important position in sports: a good one can hide other deficiencies and a bad one can make deficiencies where there otherwise aren't any. Guarantano is not only NOT lifting this team up, he's making it worse than it actually is. He took a sack in the first half that was absurd. All he had to do was feel pressure, which WASN'T FROM THE BLIND SIDE, BUT IN HIS FACE, step up, avoid pressure, and make a throw. Instead he stood there, like someone standing in front of a truck attempting suicide. It would've blown my mind if I hadn't seen it so often before.

-This staff needs to get Bailey ready. Shrout and Maurer obviously aren't the answers. After the Kentucky loss, you stand to gain nothing from this season except two things:

1) Prepare for next season.
2) Try to possibly upset Florida. Beating Florida would salvage some good from this season. And it's possible with good QB play.

Starting Bailey and getting him ready is the best way to accomplish both of those. You're not going to beat Florida with Guarantano, Shrout, or Maurer. Bailey has the highest upside and the closer you get him to that upside, the better for the team. You have until December 5 to get him ready for Florida. He'll get better as the year goes on, then you go into next season knowing who your QB is, which is best for him and best for the team.

That said, I would NOT start him against Alabama. You don't want to kill a true freshman's confidence by giving him his first start against that defense...just as they did to Peterman in The Swamp. Let JG, Shrout, or whoever take his lumps against Bama. As soon as that game is over, make Bailey your #1 and go into the off week with a plan to get him up ton speed as quickly as possible, with 2 weeks before Arkansas.

-That's also true for other freshmen. After Bama, start involving Wideman, Beckwith, Eason, Hyatt, and others.

-Eric Gray played well. I'll say that.

-The offensive line looked good run blocking...and that's not nothing against a very good Kentucky front. Unfortunately, JG's turnovers put Tennessee behind the 8-ball so early that Tennessee couldn't line up and run the ball whenever they wanted. But I'm convinced that if Tennessee had just run the ball every play on offense, this would have been a close game. Tennessee may have even won.

-The defense played a good first half. And I don't think they played poorly in the 2nd half (which they did) because they were tired. Like the rest of the team, I think they got defeated. They've seen the JG shitshow too many times. One more example of how poor QB play can kill a team.

-Many of y'all are the biggest chicken little cryass fans in the world. It's gross. No, it's not time to fire Pruitt. No, Tennessee isn't doomed to be bad forever. But if we keep firing coaches every 3-5 years, we will be. I saw a post asking "what does Pruitt give you besides recruiting?" Well, he's the best defensive mind in Knoxville in a long, long time. His players genuinely like him because he is genuine. He brings accountability. He has an understanding of how championship programs are built and maintained. He'll get Tennessee there. You can either be along for the ride or not. And no, this isn't the worst loss in...whenever. Georgia State was worse. BYU was worse. Kentucky 2011 and 2017 were worse. Some of those Vandy losses were much worse. This is actually a good Kentucky team. Those teams weren't.

This is a weird year. In a normal one, the QB problem would have been addressed in spring because the best QB on the roster would've had an entire spring practice to get up to speed. Instead, Bailey didn't get a spring or a fall practice. Pruitt was left a crap QB room when he took over. It's hard to go land a 5* QB recruit coming off a 4-8 season with terrible OLine play. But in his 2nd full recruiting class, he landed one. He didn't get a chance to develop him early. But he will. And that will make this team look much better. Dan Mullen, on the other hand, looks great because of what he inherited. He got Franks AND Trask (not to mention Kyle Pitts, who committed to the prior staff...and a bevy of other talented players). Think Pruitt wouldn't kill for either? But Pruitt has drastically increased the talent level and player development. He is a first time head coach and he is still learning. That's undeniable. But talk of firing him at this point is ridiculous.

This is kind of a throwaway season anyway. Use it to build the program. Like it or not, that's still happening. We're not there, nor should we be. You don't fire a coach based on the results of this weird year with truncated practice times, players coming and going into quarantine, a weird schedule, no spring practice, etc. I know, "everyone else is dealing with the same thing." True. But everyone else isn't building from what Tennessee was building from. Everyone else doesn't have to deal with no viable QB option from the upper class, so they HAD to rely on the true freshman.

Moreover, should Clemson have fired Dabo after he went 6-7 his third year? Should Tennessee have fired Fulmer after he started 1-3 in his 3rd year with A TON more talent? That team lost to a 3-win UCLA team and a bad Mississippi State team. Common denominator? Bad QB play...until the freshman kind named Manning got up to speed.

Jeremy Pruitt will get the job done at Tennessee. This isn't a Butch Jones or Derek Dooley situation. Feel free to screen shot this and call me on it if I'm wrong in a few years.

I just wish Pruitt would read this post. I think you did a great analysis of the situation and laid it out pretty well but for the life of me I just can't figure out Pruitt's fixation with the guarantano it's just mind-boggling.I think Fulmer or somebody in the athletic department or his coaches are just going to have to say look we got to go a different route with quarterback.

 

[photovol]

Mullen inherited Franks and Trask, huh.

Like walking into a gold mine. A Florida version of JG and a 2* recruit who hadn’t started a game since 9th grade.

Everyone thought he was set with that combo

Both would be 5 stars compared to JG

 

[DowntownVol]

I agree with pretty much everything OP said except this is not a throwaway year ... but I digress.

I think starting JG and letting him take the beating against Bama's 1's and 2's and having already pre-determined to play Bailey the entire second half could work ... then use the bye week to get Bailey ready for the rest of the season. Once the game is out of hand, and it's obvious to all that both teams are just finishing the game, Saban will call off the dogs (ie blitzes) and go deep into the bench, giving Bailey a chance to play without running for his life. But if starting JG doesn't mean Bailey is taking over from the 2nd half on, then just start Bailey and get on with it.

Bailey has to be the guy going forward because JG's failures has sucked the life out of the entire team, and it was obvious after the 3 and out to start the 2nd half. The whole team just seemed to lay down, defense included.

That's just my two cents, which, along with everyone else's, will buy a Pepsi.

I'm with you. Give Bailey all the reps with the 1s in the two weeks between Bama and Arkansas. We could still end up 5-5 or even 6-4 with some breaks. This season, I mean, with COVID, the postponed games (and there will be more of 'em), who cares? Get into another crappy bowl game at 5-5, take the extra practices, gently nudge JG out the door so he can transfer to Rutgers for his senior year, and roll with Bailey next year.

 

[ShoalCreekVol]

Scenario: we start Bailey against Bama and somewhere late in the first quarter or early second quarter their defense literally breaks Bailey into multiple pieces. After a brief moment of silence, we are stuck finishing out the entire rest of the season with JG.

Hmmm maybe we don't start HB here. IDK.

 

[DonDiego]

It would be difficult to add to what has already been said about the Kentucky game. There wasn't a lot of positive to take from this.

-Obviously, QB play killed us. We knew last week that JG wasn't going to get us through the season. But I didn't expect this. He usually plays okay against the Kentuckys of the world. But he was abysmal. I'm hard pressed to think of a time a QB killed Tennessee more in a single game. Maybe Peterman at Florida, but that was a freshman starting his first game in The Swamp (I'll allude to that later), this is a 5th year senior with a ton of experience. Worse, the team has given up on him. That much was obvious. After the second pick 6, they seemed to slowly fade. While I'm not saying we don't have concerns elsewhere, I will say that QB is the most important position in sports: a good one can hide other deficiencies and a bad one can make deficiencies where there otherwise aren't any. Guarantano is not only NOT lifting this team up, he's making it worse than it actually is. He took a sack in the first half that was absurd. All he had to do was feel pressure, which WASN'T FROM THE BLIND SIDE, BUT IN HIS FACE, step up, avoid pressure, and make a throw. Instead he stood there, like someone standing in front of a truck attempting suicide. It would've blown my mind if I hadn't seen it so often before.

-This staff needs to get Bailey ready. Shrout and Maurer obviously aren't the answers. After the Kentucky loss, you stand to gain nothing from this season except two things:

1) Prepare for next season.
2) Try to possibly upset Florida. Beating Florida would salvage some good from this season. And it's possible with good QB play.

Starting Bailey and getting him ready is the best way to accomplish both of those. You're not going to beat Florida with Guarantano, Shrout, or Maurer. Bailey has the highest upside and the closer you get him to that upside, the better for the team. You have until December 5 to get him ready for Florida. He'll get better as the year goes on, then you go into next season knowing who your QB is, which is best for him and best for the team.

That said, I would NOT start him against Alabama. You don't want to kill a true freshman's confidence by giving him his first start against that defense...just as they did to Peterman in The Swamp. Let JG, Shrout, or whoever take his lumps against Bama. As soon as that game is over, make Bailey your #1 and go into the off week with a plan to get him up ton speed as quickly as possible, with 2 weeks before Arkansas.

-That's also true for other freshmen. After Bama, start involving Wideman, Beckwith, Eason, Hyatt, and others.

-Eric Gray played well. I'll say that.

-The offensive line looked good run blocking...and that's not nothing against a very good Kentucky front. Unfortunately, JG's turnovers put Tennessee behind the 8-ball so early that Tennessee couldn't line up and run the ball whenever they wanted. But I'm convinced that if Tennessee had just run the ball every play on offense, this would have been a close game. Tennessee may have even won.

-The defense played a good first half. And I don't think they played poorly in the 2nd half (which they did) because they were tired. Like the rest of the team, I think they got defeated. They've seen the JG shitshow too many times. One more example of how poor QB play can kill a team.

-Many of y'all are the biggest chicken little cryass fans in the world. It's gross. No, it's not time to fire Pruitt. No, Tennessee isn't doomed to be bad forever. But if we keep firing coaches every 3-5 years, we will be. I saw a post asking "what does Pruitt give you besides recruiting?" Well, he's the best defensive mind in Knoxville in a long, long time. His players genuinely like him because he is genuine. He brings accountability. He has an understanding of how championship programs are built and maintained. He'll get Tennessee there. You can either be along for the ride or not. And no, this isn't the worst loss in...whenever. Georgia State was worse. BYU was worse. Kentucky 2011 and 2017 were worse. Some of those Vandy losses were much worse. This is actually a good Kentucky team. Those teams weren't.

This is a weird year. In a normal one, the QB problem would have been addressed in spring because the best QB on the roster would've had an entire spring practice to get up to speed. Instead, Bailey didn't get a spring or a fall practice. Pruitt was left a crap QB room when he took over. It's hard to go land a 5* QB recruit coming off a 4-8 season with terrible OLine play. But in his 2nd full recruiting class, he landed one. He didn't get a chance to develop him early. But he will. And that will make this team look much better. Dan Mullen, on the other hand, looks great because of what he inherited. He got Franks AND Trask (not to mention Kyle Pitts, who committed to the prior staff...and a bevy of other talented players). Think Pruitt wouldn't kill for either? But Pruitt has drastically increased the talent level and player development. He is a first time head coach and he is still learning. That's undeniable. But talk of firing him at this point is ridiculous.

This is kind of a throwaway season anyway. Use it to build the program. Like it or not, that's still happening. We're not there, nor should we be. You don't fire a coach based on the results of this weird year with truncated practice times, players coming and going into quarantine, a weird schedule, no spring practice, etc. I know, "everyone else is dealing with the same thing." True. But everyone else isn't building from what Tennessee was building from. Everyone else doesn't have to deal with no viable QB option from the upper class, so they HAD to rely on the true freshman.

Moreover, should Clemson have fired Dabo after he went 6-7 his third year? Should Tennessee have fired Fulmer after he started 1-3 in his 3rd year with A TON more talent? That team lost to a 3-win UCLA team and a bad Mississippi State team. Common denominator? Bad QB play...until the freshman kind named Manning got up to speed.

Jeremy Pruitt will get the job done at Tennessee. This isn't a Butch Jones or Derek Dooley situation. Feel free to screen shot this and call me on it if I'm wrong in a few years.

Great post!

 

[LittleVol]

It would be difficult to add to what has already been said about the Kentucky game. There wasn't a lot of positive to take from this.

-Obviously, QB play killed us. We knew last week that JG wasn't going to get us through the season. But I didn't expect this. He usually plays okay against the Kentuckys of the world. But he was abysmal. I'm hard pressed to think of a time a QB killed Tennessee more in a single game. Maybe Peterman at Florida, but that was a freshman starting his first game in The Swamp (I'll allude to that later), this is a 5th year senior with a ton of experience. Worse, the team has given up on him. That much was obvious. After the second pick 6, they seemed to slowly fade. While I'm not saying we don't have concerns elsewhere, I will say that QB is the most important position in sports: a good one can hide other deficiencies and a bad one can make deficiencies where there otherwise aren't any. Guarantano is not only NOT lifting this team up, he's making it worse than it actually is. He took a sack in the first half that was absurd. All he had to do was feel pressure, which WASN'T FROM THE BLIND SIDE, BUT IN HIS FACE, step up, avoid pressure, and make a throw. Instead he stood there, like someone standing in front of a truck attempting suicide. It would've blown my mind if I hadn't seen it so often before.

-This staff needs to get Bailey ready. Shrout and Maurer obviously aren't the answers. After the Kentucky loss, you stand to gain nothing from this season except two things:

1) Prepare for next season.
2) Try to possibly upset Florida. Beating Florida would salvage some good from this season. And it's possible with good QB play.

Starting Bailey and getting him ready is the best way to accomplish both of those. You're not going to beat Florida with Guarantano, Shrout, or Maurer. Bailey has the highest upside and the closer you get him to that upside, the better for the team. You have until December 5 to get him ready for Florida. He'll get better as the year goes on, then you go into next season knowing who your QB is, which is best for him and best for the team.

That said, I would NOT start him against Alabama. You don't want to kill a true freshman's confidence by giving him his first start against that defense...just as they did to Peterman in The Swamp. Let JG, Shrout, or whoever take his lumps against Bama. As soon as that game is over, make Bailey your #1 and go into the off week with a plan to get him up ton speed as quickly as possible, with 2 weeks before Arkansas.

-That's also true for other freshmen. After Bama, start involving Wideman, Beckwith, Eason, Hyatt, and others.

-Eric Gray played well. I'll say that.

-The offensive line looked good run blocking...and that's not nothing against a very good Kentucky front. Unfortunately, JG's turnovers put Tennessee behind the 8-ball so early that Tennessee couldn't line up and run the ball whenever they wanted. But I'm convinced that if Tennessee had just run the ball every play on offense, this would have been a close game. Tennessee may have even won.

-The defense played a good first half. And I don't think they played poorly in the 2nd half (which they did) because they were tired. Like the rest of the team, I think they got defeated. They've seen the JG shitshow too many times. One more example of how poor QB play can kill a team.

-Many of y'all are the biggest chicken little cryass fans in the world. It's gross. No, it's not time to fire Pruitt. No, Tennessee isn't doomed to be bad forever. But if we keep firing coaches every 3-5 years, we will be. I saw a post asking "what does Pruitt give you besides recruiting?" Well, he's the best defensive mind in Knoxville in a long, long time. His players genuinely like him because he is genuine. He brings accountability. He has an understanding of how championship programs are built and maintained. He'll get Tennessee there. You can either be along for the ride or not. And no, this isn't the worst loss in...whenever. Georgia State was worse. BYU was worse. Kentucky 2011 and 2017 were worse. Some of those Vandy losses were much worse. This is actually a good Kentucky team. Those teams weren't.

This is a weird year. In a normal one, the QB problem would have been addressed in spring because the best QB on the roster would've had an entire spring practice to get up to speed. Instead, Bailey didn't get a spring or a fall practice. Pruitt was left a crap QB room when he took over. It's hard to go land a 5* QB recruit coming off a 4-8 season with terrible OLine play. But in his 2nd full recruiting class, he landed one. He didn't get a chance to develop him early. But he will. And that will make this team look much better. Dan Mullen, on the other hand, looks great because of what he inherited. He got Franks AND Trask (not to mention Kyle Pitts, who committed to the prior staff...and a bevy of other talented players). Think Pruitt wouldn't kill for either? But Pruitt has drastically increased the talent level and player development. He is a first time head coach and he is still learning. That's undeniable. But talk of firing him at this point is ridiculous.

This is kind of a throwaway season anyway. Use it to build the program. Like it or not, that's still happening. We're not there, nor should we be. You don't fire a coach based on the results of this weird year with truncated practice times, players coming and going into quarantine, a weird schedule, no spring practice, etc. I know, "everyone else is dealing with the same thing." True. But everyone else isn't building from what Tennessee was building from. Everyone else doesn't have to deal with no viable QB option from the upper class, so they HAD to rely on the true freshman.

Moreover, should Clemson have fired Dabo after he went 6-7 his third year? Should Tennessee have fired Fulmer after he started 1-3 in his 3rd year with A TON more talent? That team lost to a 3-win UCLA team and a bad Mississippi State team. Common denominator? Bad QB play...until the freshman kind named Manning got up to speed.

Jeremy Pruitt will get the job done at Tennessee. This isn't a Butch Jones or Derek Dooley situation. Feel free to screen shot this and call me on it if I'm wrong in a few years.

Wrong in a few years?? Okay .
I've seen this movie before, starring that little guy who played basketball as a werewolf in that other movie .

You're obviously a true fan, because you choose not to acknowledge the same behavior has persisted to year 3.

You went on rant about Jarrett Gaurantano, and then grouped Maurer with him who was just a true freshman LAST SEASON. Yet you know he never could have been the answer?
What leads you to believe Bailey is? What because he is a 5 star?? "Was" a 5 star okay. None of that means crap now. Truth is we haven't seen enough of him to come to that conclusion. So how could you with Brian Maurer? who BTW helped spearhead that turnaround last year.

You want to talk about cryingass fans. What the heck are you doing right now with this post hahah? You trying to sound like the voice of reason, and defend a guy (Pruitt) who has not even gotten close to playing a close game with the BIG 3 ( Bama, UGA, and UF) much less beat them! And has lost to UK at home, Ga State at home, BYU at home and dominated by a Vandy team that wasn't coached by James Franklin. AND he's accomplished this in not even 3 full seasons. But he's got this thang in gear now right??...

I mean it's a just "throw away season".
Tell that to Nick Saban who somehow beat Covid-19 just to coach in person against The Legendary 2020 Georgia Bulldogs and beat the crap out of them to go 4-0!!
But hey ! 2-2 ,4-0, 2-8 it doesn't matter this year right!!? They're just playing for nothing, right???! Cade could have waited. Didn't need any of that drama to begin the seaon...

Well. I'm glad you figured everything out.

 

[vegasvolfan]

It would be difficult to add to what has already been said about the Kentucky game. There wasn't a lot of positive to take from this.

-Obviously, QB play killed us. We knew last week that JG wasn't going to get us through the season. But I didn't expect this. He usually plays okay against the Kentuckys of the world. But he was abysmal. I'm hard pressed to think of a time a QB killed Tennessee more in a single game. Maybe Peterman at Florida, but that was a freshman starting his first game in The Swamp (I'll allude to that later), this is a 5th year senior with a ton of experience. Worse, the team has given up on him. That much was obvious. After the second pick 6, they seemed to slowly fade. While I'm not saying we don't have concerns elsewhere, I will say that QB is the most important position in sports: a good one can hide other deficiencies and a bad one can make deficiencies where there otherwise aren't any. Guarantano is not only NOT lifting this team up, he's making it worse than it actually is. He took a sack in the first half that was absurd. All he had to do was feel pressure, which WASN'T FROM THE BLIND SIDE, BUT IN HIS FACE, step up, avoid pressure, and make a throw. Instead he stood there, like someone standing in front of a truck attempting suicide. It would've blown my mind if I hadn't seen it so often before.

-This staff needs to get Bailey ready. Shrout and Maurer obviously aren't the answers. After the Kentucky loss, you stand to gain nothing from this season except two things:

1) Prepare for next season.
2) Try to possibly upset Florida. Beating Florida would salvage some good from this season. And it's possible with good QB play.

Starting Bailey and getting him ready is the best way to accomplish both of those. You're not going to beat Florida with Guarantano, Shrout, or Maurer. Bailey has the highest upside and the closer you get him to that upside, the better for the team. You have until December 5 to get him ready for Florida. He'll get better as the year goes on, then you go into next season knowing who your QB is, which is best for him and best for the team.

That said, I would NOT start him against Alabama. You don't want to kill a true freshman's confidence by giving him his first start against that defense...just as they did to Peterman in The Swamp. Let JG, Shrout, or whoever take his lumps against Bama. As soon as that game is over, make Bailey your #1 and go into the off week with a plan to get him up ton speed as quickly as possible, with 2 weeks before Arkansas.

-That's also true for other freshmen. After Bama, start involving Wideman, Beckwith, Eason, Hyatt, and others.

-Eric Gray played well. I'll say that.

-The offensive line looked good run blocking...and that's not nothing against a very good Kentucky front. Unfortunately, JG's turnovers put Tennessee behind the 8-ball so early that Tennessee couldn't line up and run the ball whenever they wanted. But I'm convinced that if Tennessee had just run the ball every play on offense, this would have been a close game. Tennessee may have even won.

-The defense played a good first half. And I don't think they played poorly in the 2nd half (which they did) because they were tired. Like the rest of the team, I think they got defeated. They've seen the JG shitshow too many times. One more example of how poor QB play can kill a team.

-Many of y'all are the biggest chicken little cryass fans in the world. It's gross. No, it's not time to fire Pruitt. No, Tennessee isn't doomed to be bad forever. But if we keep firing coaches every 3-5 years, we will be. I saw a post asking "what does Pruitt give you besides recruiting?" Well, he's the best defensive mind in Knoxville in a long, long time. His players genuinely like him because he is genuine. He brings accountability. He has an understanding of how championship programs are built and maintained. He'll get Tennessee there. You can either be along for the ride or not. And no, this isn't the worst loss in...whenever. Georgia State was worse. BYU was worse. Kentucky 2011 and 2017 were worse. Some of those Vandy losses were much worse. This is actually a good Kentucky team. Those teams weren't.

This is a weird year. In a normal one, the QB problem would have been addressed in spring because the best QB on the roster would've had an entire spring practice to get up to speed. Instead, Bailey didn't get a spring or a fall practice. Pruitt was left a crap QB room when he took over. It's hard to go land a 5* QB recruit coming off a 4-8 season with terrible OLine play. But in his 2nd full recruiting class, he landed one. He didn't get a chance to develop him early. But he will. And that will make this team look much better. Dan Mullen, on the other hand, looks great because of what he inherited. He got Franks AND Trask (not to mention Kyle Pitts, who committed to the prior staff...and a bevy of other talented players). Think Pruitt wouldn't kill for either? But Pruitt has drastically increased the talent level and player development. He is a first time head coach and he is still learning. That's undeniable. But talk of firing him at this point is ridiculous.

This is kind of a throwaway season anyway. Use it to build the program. Like it or not, that's still happening. We're not there, nor should we be. You don't fire a coach based on the results of this weird year with truncated practice times, players coming and going into quarantine, a weird schedule, no spring practice, etc. I know, "everyone else is dealing with the same thing." True. But everyone else isn't building from what Tennessee was building from. Everyone else doesn't have to deal with no viable QB option from the upper class, so they HAD to rely on the true freshman.

Moreover, should Clemson have fired Dabo after he went 6-7 his third year? Should Tennessee have fired Fulmer after he started 1-3 in his 3rd year with A TON more talent? That team lost to a 3-win UCLA team and a bad Mississippi State team. Common denominator? Bad QB play...until the freshman kind named Manning got up to speed.

Jeremy Pruitt will get the job done at Tennessee. This isn't a Butch Jones or Derek Dooley situation. Feel free to screen shot this and call me on it if I'm wrong in a few years.

Anyone who thinks we should fire Pruitt has no respect for money. We are still paying Butch. Pruitt has a 6 year contract, thanks to a premature contract extension that I will never understand. Firing Pruitt simply isn’t going to happen nor should it.

That said, it is hard to argue he SHOULD be the guy. Why we just fired the DL coach while we are still paying him, I also will never understand. Now our team has no DL coach for the rest of the season. As much as Pruitt knows D, he does not know what it is like to play with an offense that leaves the D on the field the entire game. He has never had to deal with that. The question is why is that happening?

When you pair that question with the questions:

Why are our RBs going down easily?
Why is our Dline struggling to put pressure on the QB and to get off blocks?
Why are our receivers not getting separation?

I point to S&C.

I have heard the technique argument, but to suggest it is technique means each of these position coaches are not coaching well. There are some proven names on our staff. I am not buying that argument. Not hollistically.

It is more likely there is a common denominator, and considering all of those questions CAN point to S&C, it probably is IMO. All you have to do is watch us get whipped everywhere on the field and on both sides of the ball. It helps that we saw the exact same thing happen to Butch Jones as well. Once we lost that S&C coach, noone played the way they were playing before that point. It was easy to see.

Regardless of whether or not Pruitt has assembled a slew of incapable coaches or he simply appointed one wrong coach whose product influences every position, that is on Pruitt. I hate to see our staff disassembled and us go into further debt, because of one bad decision that was never addressed.

What all of us do know is what is on the field is not going to cut it in year 3. There is no good excuse for having issues at just about every position group. I have my ideas and others have other opinions, but clearly it is not our job to figure it out for Pruitt. It is his and he doesn’t seem like he truly knows what is going on with the entirety of his team. Thus, it is hard to say Pruitt should be the guy, but he is going to be the guy and one very good reason for that is we cannot afford to fire him right now. So, we might as well accept it and hope he turns it around.

I am not drinking cool aid, but I am also not throwing out everything in the cupboard, because I don’t like the taste of what I bought. So, I will leave out the mix, drink the water and see if Pruitt can figure out how to make it taste better or it becomes affordable and remains sensical to go in another direction. Because I really like Pruitt, I hope he, his staff and his players figure it out. I wonder if Pruitt has thought to call on coaches who have rebuilt programs. Maybe they wouldn’t talk to him. Maybe they would?

 

[superdave1984]

1. Losing to UK gets you fired. The precedent has been set,
2. JG should not be allowed to touch a football again for UT

 

[cgrish]

I think Maurer played well in spurts last year and deserves a chance as well. He reacts and responds like a quarterback, is more mobile, etc. and may be able to help us win a few games on the back end. I don't think Bailey is anywhere near ready.

Imo Maurer is the best possible qb on the team. He is a true duel threat, and unlike jg. I believe he will take training and instruction to get better. No ol in the country will protect a qb who does not have some mobility, which jg has none that he uses. On at least 2 of the sacks last week he could have run for a first down, or at least stepped up in the pocket, but he just stood there and was sacked. I have seen this several times from jg and the ol is blamed for it instead of jg.

 

[VOL Campbell]

It would be difficult to add to what has already been said about the Kentucky game. There wasn't a lot of positive to take from this.

-Obviously, QB play killed us. We knew last week that JG wasn't going to get us through the season. But I didn't expect this. He usually plays okay against the Kentuckys of the world. But he was abysmal. I'm hard pressed to think of a time a QB killed Tennessee more in a single game. Maybe Peterman at Florida, but that was a freshman starting his first game in The Swamp (I'll allude to that later), this is a 5th year senior with a ton of experience. Worse, the team has given up on him. That much was obvious. After the second pick 6, they seemed to slowly fade. While I'm not saying we don't have concerns elsewhere, I will say that QB is the most important position in sports: a good one can hide other deficiencies and a bad one can make deficiencies where there otherwise aren't any. Guarantano is not only NOT lifting this team up, he's making it worse than it actually is. He took a sack in the first half that was absurd. All he had to do was feel pressure, which WASN'T FROM THE BLIND SIDE, BUT IN HIS FACE, step up, avoid pressure, and make a throw. Instead he stood there, like someone standing in front of a truck attempting suicide. It would've blown my mind if I hadn't seen it so often before.

-This staff needs to get Bailey ready. Shrout and Maurer obviously aren't the answers. After the Kentucky loss, you stand to gain nothing from this season except two things:

1) Prepare for next season.
2) Try to possibly upset Florida. Beating Florida would salvage some good from this season. And it's possible with good QB play.

Starting Bailey and getting him ready is the best way to accomplish both of those. You're not going to beat Florida with Guarantano, Shrout, or Maurer. Bailey has the highest upside and the closer you get him to that upside, the better for the team. You have until December 5 to get him ready for Florida. He'll get better as the year goes on, then you go into next season knowing who your QB is, which is best for him and best for the team.

That said, I would NOT start him against Alabama. You don't want to kill a true freshman's confidence by giving him his first start against that defense...just as they did to Peterman in The Swamp. Let JG, Shrout, or whoever take his lumps against Bama. As soon as that game is over, make Bailey your #1 and go into the off week with a plan to get him up ton speed as quickly as possible, with 2 weeks before Arkansas.

-That's also true for other freshmen. After Bama, start involving Wideman, Beckwith, Eason, Hyatt, and others.

-Eric Gray played well. I'll say that.

-The offensive line looked good run blocking...and that's not nothing against a very good Kentucky front. Unfortunately, JG's turnovers put Tennessee behind the 8-ball so early that Tennessee couldn't line up and run the ball whenever they wanted. But I'm convinced that if Tennessee had just run the ball every play on offense, this would have been a close game. Tennessee may have even won.

-The defense played a good first half. And I don't think they played poorly in the 2nd half (which they did) because they were tired. Like the rest of the team, I think they got defeated. They've seen the JG shitshow too many times. One more example of how poor QB play can kill a team.

-Many of y'all are the biggest chicken little cryass fans in the world. It's gross. No, it's not time to fire Pruitt. No, Tennessee isn't doomed to be bad forever. But if we keep firing coaches every 3-5 years, we will be. I saw a post asking "what does Pruitt give you besides recruiting?" Well, he's the best defensive mind in Knoxville in a long, long time. His players genuinely like him because he is genuine. He brings accountability. He has an understanding of how championship programs are built and maintained. He'll get Tennessee there. You can either be along for the ride or not. And no, this isn't the worst loss in...whenever. Georgia State was worse. BYU was worse. Kentucky 2011 and 2017 were worse. Some of those Vandy losses were much worse. This is actually a good Kentucky team. Those teams weren't.

This is a weird year. In a normal one, the QB problem would have been addressed in spring because the best QB on the roster would've had an entire spring practice to get up to speed. Instead, Bailey didn't get a spring or a fall practice. Pruitt was left a crap QB room when he took over. It's hard to go land a 5* QB recruit coming off a 4-8 season with terrible OLine play. But in his 2nd full recruiting class, he landed one. He didn't get a chance to develop him early. But he will. And that will make this team look much better. Dan Mullen, on the other hand, looks great because of what he inherited. He got Franks AND Trask (not to mention Kyle Pitts, who committed to the prior staff...and a bevy of other talented players). Think Pruitt wouldn't kill for either? But Pruitt has drastically increased the talent level and player development. He is a first time head coach and he is still learning. That's undeniable. But talk of firing him at this point is ridiculous.

This is kind of a throwaway season anyway. Use it to build the program. Like it or not, that's still happening. We're not there, nor should we be. You don't fire a coach based on the results of this weird year with truncated practice times, players coming and going into quarantine, a weird schedule, no spring practice, etc. I know, "everyone else is dealing with the same thing." True. But everyone else isn't building from what Tennessee was building from. Everyone else doesn't have to deal with no viable QB option from the upper class, so they HAD to rely on the true freshman.

Moreover, should Clemson have fired Dabo after he went 6-7 his third year? Should Tennessee have fired Fulmer after he started 1-3 in his 3rd year with A TON more talent? That team lost to a 3-win UCLA team and a bad Mississippi State team. Common denominator? Bad QB play...until the freshman kind named Manning got up to speed.

Jeremy Pruitt will get the job done at Tennessee. This isn't a Butch Jones or Derek Dooley situation. Feel free to screen shot this and call me on it if I'm wrong in a few years.

I just want to say Thank You! This is everything I've been thinking through my head this weekend after reading everyone's post but haven't had the balls to sit down and write it out for everyone to flame me to death. I couldn't agree more with you!

 

[cgrish]

As usual, this is a good post. However, I do totally disagree on one point. Short of Manning coming back, JG was going to be the starter regardless of how spring or a regular preseason would have gone at the QB position. Pruitt has said that repeatedly so maybe the best would still not have played.

And if Pruitt doesn't make a change now, Jg will be our qb next year as well

 

[cgrish]

I don't think we saw enough of Shrout to give him a fair shake.

I totally agree we have only seen Shrout in a few series of plays, and he looked pretty good in spurts last year. None of our backups have been given a fair chance. Even last Sat. yes Shrout threw a bad pass, 1 bad pass and he is replaced by jg who had already thrown 2 and fumbled also.

 

[Vol_guy]

It would be difficult to add to what has already been said about the Kentucky game. There wasn't a lot of positive to take from this.

-Obviously, QB play killed us. We knew last week that JG wasn't going to get us through the season. But I didn't expect this. He usually plays okay against the Kentuckys of the world. But he was abysmal. I'm hard pressed to think of a time a QB killed Tennessee more in a single game. Maybe Peterman at Florida, but that was a freshman starting his first game in The Swamp (I'll allude to that later), this is a 5th year senior with a ton of experience. Worse, the team has given up on him. That much was obvious. After the second pick 6, they seemed to slowly fade. While I'm not saying we don't have concerns elsewhere, I will say that QB is the most important position in sports: a good one can hide other deficiencies and a bad one can make deficiencies where there otherwise aren't any. Guarantano is not only NOT lifting this team up, he's making it worse than it actually is. He took a sack in the first half that was absurd. All he had to do was feel pressure, which WASN'T FROM THE BLIND SIDE, BUT IN HIS FACE, step up, avoid pressure, and make a throw. Instead he stood there, like someone standing in front of a truck attempting suicide. It would've blown my mind if I hadn't seen it so often before.

-This staff needs to get Bailey ready. Shrout and Maurer obviously aren't the answers. After the Kentucky loss, you stand to gain nothing from this season except two things:

1) Prepare for next season.
2) Try to possibly upset Florida. Beating Florida would salvage some good from this season. And it's possible with good QB play.

Starting Bailey and getting him ready is the best way to accomplish both of those. You're not going to beat Florida with Guarantano, Shrout, or Maurer. Bailey has the highest upside and the closer you get him to that upside, the better for the team. You have until December 5 to get him ready for Florida. He'll get better as the year goes on, then you go into next season knowing who your QB is, which is best for him and best for the team.

That said, I would NOT start him against Alabama. You don't want to kill a true freshman's confidence by giving him his first start against that defense...just as they did to Peterman in The Swamp. Let JG, Shrout, or whoever take his lumps against Bama. As soon as that game is over, make Bailey your #1 and go into the off week with a plan to get him up ton speed as quickly as possible, with 2 weeks before Arkansas.

-That's also true for other freshmen. After Bama, start involving Wideman, Beckwith, Eason, Hyatt, and others.

-Eric Gray played well. I'll say that.

-The offensive line looked good run blocking...and that's not nothing against a very good Kentucky front. Unfortunately, JG's turnovers put Tennessee behind the 8-ball so early that Tennessee couldn't line up and run the ball whenever they wanted. But I'm convinced that if Tennessee had just run the ball every play on offense, this would have been a close game. Tennessee may have even won.

-The defense played a good first half. And I don't think they played poorly in the 2nd half (which they did) because they were tired. Like the rest of the team, I think they got defeated. They've seen the JG shitshow too many times. One more example of how poor QB play can kill a team.

-Many of y'all are the biggest chicken little cryass fans in the world. It's gross. No, it's not time to fire Pruitt. No, Tennessee isn't doomed to be bad forever. But if we keep firing coaches every 3-5 years, we will be. I saw a post asking "what does Pruitt give you besides recruiting?" Well, he's the best defensive mind in Knoxville in a long, long time. His players genuinely like him because he is genuine. He brings accountability. He has an understanding of how championship programs are built and maintained. He'll get Tennessee there. You can either be along for the ride or not. And no, this isn't the worst loss in...whenever. Georgia State was worse. BYU was worse. Kentucky 2011 and 2017 were worse. Some of those Vandy losses were much worse. This is actually a good Kentucky team. Those teams weren't.

This is a weird year. In a normal one, the QB problem would have been addressed in spring because the best QB on the roster would've had an entire spring practice to get up to speed. Instead, Bailey didn't get a spring or a fall practice. Pruitt was left a crap QB room when he took over. It's hard to go land a 5* QB recruit coming off a 4-8 season with terrible OLine play. But in his 2nd full recruiting class, he landed one. He didn't get a chance to develop him early. But he will. And that will make this team look much better. Dan Mullen, on the other hand, looks great because of what he inherited. He got Franks AND Trask (not to mention Kyle Pitts, who committed to the prior staff...and a bevy of other talented players). Think Pruitt wouldn't kill for either? But Pruitt has drastically increased the talent level and player development. He is a first time head coach and he is still learning. That's undeniable. But talk of firing him at this point is ridiculous.

This is kind of a throwaway season anyway. Use it to build the program. Like it or not, that's still happening. We're not there, nor should we be. You don't fire a coach based on the results of this weird year with truncated practice times, players coming and going into quarantine, a weird schedule, no spring practice, etc. I know, "everyone else is dealing with the same thing." True. But everyone else isn't building from what Tennessee was building from. Everyone else doesn't have to deal with no viable QB option from the upper class, so they HAD to rely on the true freshman.

Moreover, should Clemson have fired Dabo after he went 6-7 his third year? Should Tennessee have fired Fulmer after he started 1-3 in his 3rd year with A TON more talent? That team lost to a 3-win UCLA team and a bad Mississippi State team. Common denominator? Bad QB play...until the freshman kind named Manning got up to speed.

Jeremy Pruitt will get the job done at Tennessee. This isn't a Butch Jones or Derek Dooley situation. Feel free to screen shot this and call me on it if I'm wrong in a few years.

Wish i could like this post more than once!!