Pruitt is a terrible hire and here is why

#177
#177
As far as recruiting, he was originally hired to be director of player development and recruiting at Alabama. This is due to him coaching at the HS level in Alabama and having connections to many coaches. We basically can have a pipeline to Alabama with him hopefully. He was important for GA to recruit as well.

Player development, well he was the director of it at one point, which emphasized everything. Development in terms of playing, look at GA’s defense ranking before he came, 45th then 17th and 7th his first and second year.

We’re not going to know if he’ll win it all for us until he actually plays. You take a chance on many coaches. The only people proven to coach at any level and school would probably be Nick Saban and Urban Meyer. We’re not getting them if you haven’t noticed. However, he has at least coaches at high levels with in SEC and ACC with championship experience. That counts for something.
 
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#178
#178
3. "He's a great defensive mind!"

Is he? He has had very good defenses. He's also always had a talent advantage.
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By that logic, we should've gotten someone who has coached at Crap U in the Turd-belt conference because by god if he can coach those kids up he can win anywhere! Except you'd turn that into a knock; you'd say "he's another mid-major with no big time experience and he will fail at this level - you'll see"

Some people simply can't be pleased. Enjoy your piss soaked cornflakes this morning
 
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#179
#179
oregonvol said:
I know battered vol syndrome is a real thing and people here just want to feel positive about whatever they get at this point, but I don't feel that we've benefitted in any way by ignoring logic and facts over the years, so I figured I would point out why other schools weren't interested in Pruitt and why it won't work out here.

Let's tackle the "virtues" posters will reiterate ad nauseam:

1. "He's a great recruiter!"

Well, he has traditionally been at schools that have great recruiting. Has he really been the impetus behind it, or just part of a team?

Also, weren't we told the exact same about Dooley? Didn't Dooley come from a similar recruiting background?

Also, does it really matter so much that your head coach was a great recruiter as an assistant? If that were the case, wouldn't other Power 5 schools immediately go for the best recruiting assistants for their head jobs? Or are we just smarter than the rest of them? Does anyone actually believe that?

Haven't we gone down this road again and again? How many top recruits have we singed over the years that weren't properly developed or utilized? Haven't we learned, at this point, that a coach is much more valuable than a recruiter?

2. "He's just like Kirby Smart!"

Actually, looking at the differences between the two resumes is enlightening. Smart was Saban's defensive coordinator for 8 years. Pruitt has only been a defensive coordinator for 5 years total. He has only been Saban's coordinator for 2 years. So, we are certainly looking at less experience.

In fact, one looks at Pruitt's time as a coordinator, and the fact that he has never been at a school for more than 2 years, and you realize that he has very little experience developing personnel. This is a guy you want to rebuild with? By contrast, Kirby Smart was Saban's top assistant as he built the Alabama dynasty. That's far different than being a hired gun that is inserted into already established staffs and programs.

Do you really believe that every Alabama defensive coordinator will make an effective head coach just because Smart has done well this year? That doesn't seem like a good bet. We've seen plenty of successful coordinators fail over the years, guys with more consistent resumes and longer periods of production.

3. "He's a great defensive mind!"

Is he? He has had very good defenses. He's also always had a talent advantage.

The thing I don't understand about Tennessee is that, while the administrations' mouthpieces in the local media keep telling us how hard it is to recruit and win here against the likes of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, etc…we never really try to hire a coach with a history of getting more out of less. Pruitt definitely continues that trend.

If you believe that he will be able to out-recruit the rest of the SEC, then I guess there is cause for hope. But hasn't that been what we've pinned our hopes on in coach after coach? Why would we think the result will be different this time?

One of the best measures of a coach is what they do in the big games and against teams of similar talent. Since Pruitt has never been the head guy, we have to go by his coordinator experience. In his biggest games (his two national championship appearances) Pruitt's defense has given up an average of 33 points (by contrast, Kirby Smart's defenses never allowed more than 21 points in the national championship game, and averaged 11.7 points allowed per NC game). That's not really the work of a defensive mastermind, especially considering the incredible talent he had at his disposal.

4. "We couldn't get anyone else!"

Well, that may be true. If so, though, that is due to the administration not the fans or the program. Accepting that result and supporting that administration does nothing to improve the state of the program. Haven't we learned anything at this point? Isn't "getting behind the new coach" and having patience the exact reason Dooley and Jones got big extensions, resulting in ridiculous buyouts?

If you truly couldn't get anyone who had a decent chance of winning here due to our administrative mess, wouldn't it be wiser to install an interim until we fixed the mess? Committing longterm to a weak hire simply doesn't make sense for anyone, save those hoping to continue bilking the fans while selling false hope. Sure, an interim would probably kill the recruiting class. But is it better to waste 1 year or 3-4 years?

5. "We got to give him a chance! He hasn't coached a game yet!"

Yes, we're back to that familiar point where the unknowable future is our new coach's best quality. Of course, no one can say for certain that Pruitt will fail, but given that there is so little evidence that he will succeed, it's a sucker's bet to think he'll ever be anything more than average here.
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Wow. Your so right. Really opened my eyes. We should have given the job to one of the many great cos he’s beating down the door to coach for TN. Oh wait......there weren’t any.
 
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#180
#180
oregonvol said:
I know battered vol syndrome is a real thing and people here just want to feel positive about whatever they get at this point, but I don't feel that we've benefitted in any way by ignoring logic and facts over the years, so I figured I would point out why other schools weren't interested in Pruitt and why it won't work out here.

Let's tackle the "virtues" posters will reiterate ad nauseam:

1. "He's a great recruiter!"

Well, he has traditionally been at schools that have great recruiting. Has he really been the impetus behind it, or just part of a team?

Also, weren't we told the exact same about Dooley? Didn't Dooley come from a similar recruiting background?

Also, does it really matter so much that your head coach was a great recruiter as an assistant? If that were the case, wouldn't other Power 5 schools immediately go for the best recruiting assistants for their head jobs? Or are we just smarter than the rest of them? Does anyone actually believe that?

Haven't we gone down this road again and again? How many top recruits have we singed over the years that weren't properly developed or utilized? Haven't we learned, at this point, that a coach is much more valuable than a recruiter?

2. "He's just like Kirby Smart!"

Actually, looking at the differences between the two resumes is enlightening. Smart was Saban's defensive coordinator for 8 years. Pruitt has only been a defensive coordinator for 5 years total. He has only been Saban's coordinator for 2 years. So, we are certainly looking at less experience.

In fact, one looks at Pruitt's time as a coordinator, and the fact that he has never been at a school for more than 2 years, and you realize that he has very little experience developing personnel. This is a guy you want to rebuild with? By contrast, Kirby Smart was Saban's top assistant as he built the Alabama dynasty. That's far different than being a hired gun that is inserted into already established staffs and programs.

Do you really believe that every Alabama defensive coordinator will make an effective head coach just because Smart has done well this year? That doesn't seem like a good bet. We've seen plenty of successful coordinators fail over the years, guys with more consistent resumes and longer periods of production.

3. "He's a great defensive mind!"

Is he? He has had very good defenses. He's also always had a talent advantage.

The thing I don't understand about Tennessee is that, while the administrations' mouthpieces in the local media keep telling us how hard it is to recruit and win here against the likes of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, etc…we never really try to hire a coach with a history of getting more out of less. Pruitt definitely continues that trend.

If you believe that he will be able to out-recruit the rest of the SEC, then I guess there is cause for hope. But hasn't that been what we've pinned our hopes on in coach after coach? Why would we think the result will be different this time?

One of the best measures of a coach is what they do in the big games and against teams of similar talent. Since Pruitt has never been the head guy, we have to go by his coordinator experience. In his biggest games (his two national championship appearances) Pruitt's defense has given up an average of 33 points (by contrast, Kirby Smart's defenses never allowed more than 21 points in the national championship game, and averaged 11.7 points allowed per NC game). That's not really the work of a defensive mastermind, especially considering the incredible talent he had at his disposal.

4. "We couldn't get anyone else!"

Well, that may be true. If so, though, that is due to the administration not the fans or the program. Accepting that result and supporting that administration does nothing to improve the state of the program. Haven't we learned anything at this point? Isn't "getting behind the new coach" and having patience the exact reason Dooley and Jones got big extensions, resulting in ridiculous buyouts?

If you truly couldn't get anyone who had a decent chance of winning here due to our administrative mess, wouldn't it be wiser to install an interim until we fixed the mess? Committing longterm to a weak hire simply doesn't make sense for anyone, save those hoping to continue bilking the fans while selling false hope. Sure, an interim would probably kill the recruiting class. But is it better to waste 1 year or 3-4 years?

5. "We got to give him a chance! He hasn't coached a game yet!"

Yes, we're back to that familiar point where the unknowable future is our new coach's best quality. Of course, no one can say for certain that Pruitt will fail, but given that there is so little evidence that he will succeed, it's a sucker's bet to think he'll ever be anything more than average here.
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#182
#182
So he only has 5 years experience as a DC and only 2 under Saban compared to Smart's 8. He has still worked for Saban for 6-8 seasons, Mark Richt for 2, and one under Jimbo Fisher. I'd say the guy has had a chance to learn from some pretty good coaches.
 
#183
#183
He's not a terrible hire. He's a wait and see hire. And for all those pumping sunshine, if someone would have told you Pruitt would be the choice when this search began, there is no way in hell you would be excited by it. The truth is very simple. Once more, due to how screwed up our "leaders" are, we have to settle for a coach that is far from a proven commodity. Maybe he'll work out. I'll hope for that but not trust in it. Or maybe he'll fail. Time will tell us. But don't expect everyone to jump on the Pruitt train and yell, "Good hire!" Many did that with Dooley. Just as many did it with Butch. We've seen where that got us. I'm willing to sit back and watch Pruitt prove himself(not as if I have a choice) but this bull **** of trying to convince me he's a great hire is just that. None of us know that. And if our last two coaches have taught you anything, it should be, the coach is not the team. He's only the steward, and only so long as he's successful. He'll get a chance to prove himself, but the Vol on Vol hatred because someone has a different opinion than you do on the hire serves no purpose. All of this, " get on board or leave" bull ****. If everyone had that mentality, then we'd still be stuck with Dooley or Jones as coach. To those who think it's a terrible hire, if you truly bleed orange, give it a chance. To those claiming it's a great hire, let's actually see him do something to show that. Pruitt now has the rope. He'll either succeed or hang himself. Time will show us which.
 
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#184
#184
As I have said before. I think our program will again see immediate improvement but after the third season we will go back down again
Dooley had us in a bowl game his first season then the second and third year were bad
Butch had us improved in the second third and forth season then we hit rock bottom
I predict that this will happen again
 
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#185
#185
OP thought you were gone for good...You bring objective arguments to this board when they are FACT based. When you pitch out your OPINION it's worthless.

Again, nothing you can do with it or about it, except throw a fit....

Well we are all in a wait and see mode, but as I have stated before to you. Support the program and get over it.

You cannot control the things you have no control over....Again, you sound like sour grapes....LOL

Who was your choice to rebuild this program?

Trust Fulmer and get in line...You will and you will have potentially an opportunity to voice your opinion in the future....but to come out now is only self serving....

Must be a Haslam fan.
 
#186
#186
When Pruitt was being vetted for MSU, Saban's chief of staff told my neighbor that he was the best coordinator/assistant coach Saban has had and will be greatly missed. He went on to say that there's zero doubt in his mind that Pruitt will have more success than Smart.
 
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#188
#188
dancinoutlaw said:
No one can say he's a terrible hire. We have no data. That's my biggest problem with the hire though. We should've ponied up the $ and got someone who's proven their trade at Head Coach. I trust Fulmer's best guess though. Its hard for me to not to ask 'Why is Miles still unemployed?' That's a helluva resume at the highest level in college football. You KNOW you're getting a proven coach. With Pruitt, you're HOPING you've got a good coach. The head coaching job brings on more stuff than just a coordinator and time will tell if Pruitt can do it. I'll do what I've been doing for the past decade...cheer my Vols and hope they figure it out. Its just frustrating to constantly hope we've made a good hire.
Click to expand...

You’re the Oklahoma fan who said the same thing when Florida’s DC was hired, after a string of failed hires post NC winning icon Barry Switzer. :)
 
#190
#190
oregonvol said:
I know battered vol syndrome is a real thing and people here just want to feel positive about whatever they get at this point, but I don't feel that we've benefitted in any way by ignoring logic and facts over the years, so I figured I would point out why other schools weren't interested in Pruitt and why it won't work out here.

Let's tackle the "virtues" posters will reiterate ad nauseam:

1. "He's a great recruiter!"

Well, he has traditionally been at schools that have great recruiting. Has he really been the impetus behind it, or just part of a team?

Also, weren't we told the exact same about Dooley? Didn't Dooley come from a similar recruiting background?

Also, does it really matter so much that your head coach was a great recruiter as an assistant? If that were the case, wouldn't other Power 5 schools immediately go for the best recruiting assistants for their head jobs? Or are we just smarter than the rest of them? Does anyone actually believe that?

Haven't we gone down this road again and again? How many top recruits have we singed over the years that weren't properly developed or utilized? Haven't we learned, at this point, that a coach is much more valuable than a recruiter?

2. "He's just like Kirby Smart!"

Actually, looking at the differences between the two resumes is enlightening. Smart was Saban's defensive coordinator for 8 years. Pruitt has only been a defensive coordinator for 5 years total. He has only been Saban's coordinator for 2 years. So, we are certainly looking at less experience.

In fact, one looks at Pruitt's time as a coordinator, and the fact that he has never been at a school for more than 2 years, and you realize that he has very little experience developing personnel. This is a guy you want to rebuild with? By contrast, Kirby Smart was Saban's top assistant as he built the Alabama dynasty. That's far different than being a hired gun that is inserted into already established staffs and programs.

Do you really believe that every Alabama defensive coordinator will make an effective head coach just because Smart has done well this year? That doesn't seem like a good bet. We've seen plenty of successful coordinators fail over the years, guys with more consistent resumes and longer periods of production.

3. "He's a great defensive mind!"

Is he? He has had very good defenses. He's also always had a talent advantage.

The thing I don't understand about Tennessee is that, while the administrations' mouthpieces in the local media keep telling us how hard it is to recruit and win here against the likes of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, etc…we never really try to hire a coach with a history of getting more out of less. Pruitt definitely continues that trend.

If you believe that he will be able to out-recruit the rest of the SEC, then I guess there is cause for hope. But hasn't that been what we've pinned our hopes on in coach after coach? Why would we think the result will be different this time?

One of the best measures of a coach is what they do in the big games and against teams of similar talent. Since Pruitt has never been the head guy, we have to go by his coordinator experience. In his biggest games (his two national championship appearances) Pruitt's defense has given up an average of 33 points (by contrast, Kirby Smart's defenses never allowed more than 21 points in the national championship game, and averaged 11.7 points allowed per NC game). That's not really the work of a defensive mastermind, especially considering the incredible talent he had at his disposal.

4. "We couldn't get anyone else!"

Well, that may be true. If so, though, that is due to the administration not the fans or the program. Accepting that result and supporting that administration does nothing to improve the state of the program. Haven't we learned anything at this point? Isn't "getting behind the new coach" and having patience the exact reason Dooley and Jones got big extensions, resulting in ridiculous buyouts?

If you truly couldn't get anyone who had a decent chance of winning here due to our administrative mess, wouldn't it be wiser to install an interim until we fixed the mess? Committing longterm to a weak hire simply doesn't make sense for anyone, save those hoping to continue bilking the fans while selling false hope. Sure, an interim would probably kill the recruiting class. But is it better to waste 1 year or 3-4 years?

5. "We got to give him a chance! He hasn't coached a game yet!"

Yes, we're back to that familiar point where the unknowable future is our new coach's best quality. Of course, no one can say for certain that Pruitt will fail, but given that there is so little evidence that he will succeed, it's a sucker's bet to think he'll ever be anything more than average here.
Click to expand...

Some valid points there and a case can also be made that it is indeed a great hire... but fact is we simply don't know how this movie ends but I'm willing to sit through it and find out. :hi:
 
#191
#191
Pruitt obviously passed the CPF eye test with flying colors. That is probably because CPF saw a lot of similarities with his own football approach/philosophy which is exactly what we desperately needed to get back too (great recruits properly coached to play physical, no nonsense, not cute, pro/nfl style football).
 
#192
#192
The future with Pruitt is a mystery. I do understand both sides concerning CJP due to what we've been throught. Once bitten twice shy sorta thing. Maybe he surrounds himself with great coaches.
 
#193
#193
Here's something I was thinking about last night..With Pruitt coaching for Bama and Presser coaching for UGA there is a very good chance that we will have 2 coaches in the National Title game this year coaching against each other.... Let that sink in....
To me that is huge because these guys are immediately coming to UT to get to work afterwards...the experience this will bring and the attention from recruits is priceless..
Id say this was a home run hire that has layers to it that are just beginning to pay off...so to all the people who are mad and comparing this hire to Dooley you couldn't be more wrong!! Fulmer made a great hire who is bringing in guys that know how to coach in the SEC, and has finally given us a real shot to be relevant again... as others on here have said, get on board or get the F out!!
 
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#194
#194
Sudden Impact said:
OP thought you were gone for good...You bring objective arguments to this board when they are FACT based. When you pitch out your OPINION it's worthless.

Again, nothing you can do with it or about it, except throw a fit....

Well we are all in a wait and see mode, but as I have stated before to you. Support the program and get over it.

You cannot control the things you have no control over....Again, you sound like sour grapes....LOL

Who was your choice to rebuild this program?

Trust Fulmer and get in line...You will and you will have potentially an opportunity to voice your opinion in the future....but to come out now is only self serving....

Must be a Haslam fan.
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His entire post was well thought out, with facts to back up his reasoning. For comparison, your post is lined with insults and accusations. Trust phil and get in line. Yea ok, thats what fans like you have been saying the past three hires. Up and comers, coordinator promotions, wait and see type hires.
These hires are why we are in the position we are in, nobody in the SEC was clamoring for jeremy pruitt as head coach, just like no one was clamoring for schiaNO. Leave it to Tennessee to pass out more on the job training in the toughest conference in America. Fact.
 
#195
#195
luthervol said:
Two sides to every coin. This hire is nothing more than a coin toss in my mind. I don't even consider it 50 - 50.
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I think I also read a report that when he arrived at UGA they were soft. Not everyone is going to like it when the new guy comes in and starts changing things... and especially if the changes are painful and necessary.

My company went through something similar a year ago. Previous executive level mgt avoided making personnel changes that were necessary. New guy came in, made very painful changes... that no one liked. A year later there has been a several million $ turnaround in our business unit.... some people still hate the new executive team because of the changes.

The testimony of your two friends may indeed mean that Pruitt is a jerk... or it may just mean that he had the gumption to make some tough decisions and changes.
 
#197
#197
JonGrudensAgent said:
I have never thought Gruden was a serious option. If Currie, Fulmer, Haslam, or anyone else thought he was, then that's their own fault.
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Nope. Gruden could have shot that down at least with UT's admin before it ever became anything. He DID show interest. All of those "vegas odds" things had him as UT's next coach for weeks before Jones was even fired.

There was WAY too much smoke for Gruden to have shown no interest. Currie probably thought he was on the verge of the greatest grand slam hire in history. That also likely left him without credibility when talking to other "big names" since they read the predictions that it was Gruden too.

Gruden did NOTHING to dispel those rumors. He screwed UT.

Pruitt is a complete over the shoulder dart toss based more on the desperation of the past few weeks than anything on his resume that screams head coach material.
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Simply not true. He may fail. We'll have to wait and see. But it is NOT a high risk hire in the way it was done. They didn't sign him for a big initial contract which means the buyout will be low also if needed. They ARE pouring money into putting a great staff around him. Again, they may or may not choose the right people.... but the greatest indicator of success for any leader in any profession is the quality of the people around them. If they spend their money well... it will give him a greater chance to succeed than if they'd poured $8 million into overpaying someone else leaving nothing for the staff.

I'll ask a simple and legitimate question again. Who else was looking at him for a head coaching position?
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I believe that's been answered around here so I'll answer with a question. Who was looking at James Franklin when Vandy hired him?

Again, I don't know how he'll do. I'll give him the exact same chance I gave Jones. If he underperforms his talent or does stupid stuff then you can expect me to say so.

You also can't say I'm some blind Fulmerite. I've consistently said that Fulmer is primarily responsible for driving the program into a ditch. But there are people who were apparently involved in this hire that I do trust... like Manning.

His supporting cast will be critical. UT doesn't bring in enough talent to play defense and 3 yards and a cloud of dust on offense anymore compared to the rest of the SEC.
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I could have lived with Kiffin even though he was never going to make it through the boosters and big contributors. The one thing he had was that he could take what he had and optimize it. UT had no business being that close to UF or Bama in '09. He and his staff were able to scheme and game plan a vastly inferior team into an opportunity to win.

Some of the reports that have come out suggest that Pruitt may have that kind of creativity. Nothing I've read suggests he's another Jones determined to pound that square peg through that round hole no matter how many games you lose.

That formula worked more often than not for Fulmer but it won't in today's landscape. That's why I was hoping for a Leach, Morris, or Brohm who have proven they can win with less than stellar talent instead of a guy who has always had the biggest and baddest toys to play with on the chess board.
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Love Brohm. Like Morris. I think Leach would have flopped. His system was designed to depend almost completely on execution. One commentator during a WSU game said they basically run the same play repeatedly and depend on players to make plays.

That's fine... until someone has the talent to take things away... like Bama and UGA now have and UF traditionally has. Leach has always been limited by this. I think his O would be fun to watch most of the time. I don't think he would have ever really competed for a championship.


I hope that Pruitt has that quality though. Find ways to win with what you have. I'm not them... but if I were in his shoes I would start with finding a couple of FB/HB type players then unteaching everything UT's OL was taught under Jones. Let them first master an aggressive run blocking scheme in front of a pretty good stable of backs. I'd build everything else off of that.

Three yards and a cloud of dust? No. But one of the truths of CFB is that success with lesser talent usually means you zig when everyone else zags. Everyone is "spread" now. You have to have some of that in your scheme. But there is an opportunity to have success with an O similar to what Kiffin ran at UT. Power running. Misdirection play action. Scheming receivers open rather than depending on pure talent.

For Kiffin, talent seems to be his concern AFTER the receiver is open and makes the catch.
 
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#198
#198
The fact of the matter with this thread is that the OP makes as many leaps in logic in thinking Pruitt will fail as he claims the rest of us do in thinking/hoping Pruitt will be successful.

To be fair to OP, he makes some decent points, but you lose me when you start acting like those with hope are "ignoring facts and logic" as the post says.

The facts are that Jeremy Pruitt has recruited well and had good defenses everywhere he's been. And that is unquestionably a good thing and a good sign. Sure it might not end up translating, but there's every reason to think it will, until it doesn't. We've been humbled this last decade, but we aren't some small-time school where it's impossible to attract elite talent.
 
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