I'm going to swim against the tide a bit here. Let me make VERY CLEAR that I am NOT predicting that Pruitt will turn it around. But let's assign a low probability to it, say 20%, what would it take? (Warning this will be long)
First, what was the problem this year? Largely it could be traced to JG. JG definitely cost us the Kentucky and Auburn games and arguably Arkansas. Setting Arkansas aside, if we had beaten Kentucky and Auburn, would we even be having this discussion? Or alternatively, Pruitt benches JG permanently after Kentucky (or at least benched and on a short leash if he ever goes back in as a reliever), and we go on to beat Arkansas and Auburn. At 5-5 in a pandemic year, I would not be completely happy but it would be acceptable, and I think it would be to most Vol fans. Disclosure, my expectation was 6-4.
Second, speaking of 6-4 (or 3-7!), they were all SEC games and this made things much tougher. Yes, I know it made it tougher for the entire SEC (but there are other teams struggling, no?). Let's say we play the schedule with no pandemic, that's two losses gone (Auburn and Tamu), and instead we get four patsies that probably even Pruitt can beat. Then we are 7-5, which again is acceptable to me (my expectation was 8-4).
So in either alt scenario above, for me at least, Pruitt would have just squeezed by this year. I always say that one game less than my expectations is acceptable (though not desirable) but two games less is not.
Thus had Pruitt (a) made the obvious adjustment everyone thought he needed to, or (b) not had to deal with the pandemic, he likely just barely makes the cut this year,and there might be some cause for optimism going forward, since JG has finally been replaced.
Having said all that, I can finally get to the meat of this discussion. I think going forward, the only hope Pruitt has is that (and this has been overlooked) he does seem to learn (if only very slowly) from his mistakes. This is a contrast with Butch Jones, who would never admit he was wrong and would never make any adjustments AT ALL (just take the HS offense he never adjusted, for one). An example is that we were unprepared for GSU and suffered a humiliating loss. But from that day, have we ever been unprepared? Not really. On the contrary most of the time we play well in the first half and then get skunked in the second.
I will point to another example, which has not really been discussed, and from which Pruitt apparently took the lesson a little too much to heart. Last year, he yanked JG very quickly. In fact, he probably yanked him too quickly in some games, and was even criticized for it a bit. Mauer and Shrout got all kinds of chances last year (and if Mauer could ever learn not to dive head first into opposing DLs, he might have stayed the starter but I digress). This year, he seemed to go completely against that, to a fault. However, there is no doubt that he modified his behavior.
So other than JG, what were his other faults this season? Inability to adjust at half time is the most glaring, but also a puzzling loss of ability in pass defense (which looked adequate if not good during most of the 8 game win streak. Also under performance of the OL at times. But those problems do seem fixable.
Bottom line...what if JG was the thing mostly holding us back, and now that (thank GOD!) he is finally gone, the Vols actually do well next year? And Pruitt addresses the halftime adjustments and other things?
Like I said, not LIKELY, but still POSSIBLE. We will see.
