Pruitt needs 5 years

#1

tabrams

Supportin' the Cause
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#1
I know this thread will get destroyed here lol.. But I have 5 major reasons why Coach Pruitt needs at least 5 years at TN...

1. To get ALL his recruits in.. and really you could argue he needs 6 years bc his first recruiting class were mostly Butch’s recruits, not his.....a lot of players get redshirted every year, so 6 years would really be ideal...

2. Football is a slow developmental sport, both mentally and physically, so it takes years for players to be completely developed to their potential....

3. To send a message of stability to the recruits and their families.. that TN won’t give us on our coaches when things are not going our way, just like the coaches won’t give up on our recruits/ players.... we are a big TN family no matter what...

4. To send a message to our current coaches and any/ all future coaches.... we support all our coaches until proven otherwise over a fair amount of time.... if we don’t support our coaches then it will be that much harder to get great or even good coaches in the future....

5. Because our fans are being Totally unrealistic about this rebuild!!! We had the worst record in the entire History of TN football!! We were the WORST team in the entire SEC!! 0-8 in league play! Outside of the past 12 years, the biggest rebuild in the past 50 years was orchestrated by Coach Johnny Majors.. and his records his first 7 years.....
1977 - 4–7
1978 - 5–5–1
1979 - 7-5
1980 - 5-6
1981 - 8–4
1982 - 6–5–1
1983 - 9–3

Johnny didn’t hit 8 wins until his 5th year, and didn’t get 9 wins Until year 7....

In summary, I know it’s painful to watch us playing like this, but really if you look at the big picture, we need to give Pruitt at least 2 more years after this season....

However, all of his assistant coaches, including Friend and Chaney Need to be thoroughly assessed after the season, Bc the offense is horrendous lol...
 
#4
#4
Here's the difference between Majors and Pruitt. Majors had proven he was a very good head coach by winning a Natty at Pitt. There is absolutely nothing in Pruitt's past coaching experience that will determine if he's a good, bad, or mediocre head coach. It's easier to wait 4-5 years for a rebuild when that guy has done it before as compared to a guy that very well may be in over his head. Switching coaches just to switch coaches is never a good thing but keeping a guy 2-3 years too long is worse. I think the Arky, Auburn, and Vandy games will let us know a lot more about Pruitt.
 
#6
#6
Pruitt doesn't need 5 years anymore than Dooley needed 5 years. Pruitt needs to earn Years 4 and 5.

Pruitt will get 4 years no matter what... I think this year is going to be a train wreck... and if next year is a disaster then you may be correct, he could get fired after year 4...

But hopefully next year will be better and he is given 5-6 years to turn our program around...

Pruitt need. Great OC... that’s who should get the ax if the O is still bad imo...
 
#8
#8
Pruitt will get 4 years no matter what... I think this year is going to be a train wreck... and if next year is a disaster then you may be correct, he could get fired after year 4...

But hopefully next year will be better and he is given 5-6 years to turn our program around...

Pruitt need. Great OC... that’s who should get the ax if the O is still bad imo...

I think a lot of minds will be made up over the next 5 games. Do we see young guys develop? Do we have the same coaching issues we've seen for 2.5 years? Does the team rally around their coach or quit? Obviously, with COVID, there's little chance of a coaching change this year but those items I mentioned should help us see if Pruitt can be the guy or if he's in over his head.

We knew after 3 years (actually, after 2 with how the team quit against UK in 2011) that Dooley wasn't the guy. We knew after 2016 that Butch wasn't the guy after the team quit late although Butch got the 5th year, which really set us back.
 
#12
#12
Spot on OP.

The worst, and I mean absolute WORST thing we can do right now is fire Pruitt. That would be the official death of Tennessee football.

The man took the actual worst team in UT history and beat two Top 25 teams in year one, then won 8 games in year two. He was a fluke game and a fluke play away from 10 wins in year two.

He’s been blown out a lot and had some head scratching losses, but let’s not forget he’s trying to rebuild while our 3 biggest rivals are sitting consistently within the Top 10 every year. That’s unreasonably brutal.
 
#14
#14
Hey, Johnny and Fulmer took 20 years to repair the damage done by Bill Battle in 6. At the speed Pruitt is going, I truly think he could use 20.
 
#15
#15
I think I see the point you're trying to make. In a way, it's better to make a commitment to a set number of years and accept that it's going to be a process. By doing so, you also accept that it might be ugly along the way (how sausage is made and all that). Pruitt seems hard-headed, but maybe he's right. Maybe he's doing what needs to be done. Maybe the team is like a wild horse that needs to be broken. Maybe, if we can just be patient, we'll see a transformation that changes everything for the better.
 
#16
#16
Nobody's catching bama. Kirby and mullen both got better situations. Most of this is because of years of disrepair. The rest is because of fly by night coaching. Pruitt aint butch or Dooley. Give this guy some time. Depth and responsible playing time takes time.
 
#18
#18
Nobody's catching bama. Kirby and mullen both got better situations. Most of this is because of years of disrepair. The rest is because of fly by night coaching. Pruitt aint butch or Dooley. Give this guy some time. Depth and responsible playing time takes time.

Mullen inherited a 4 win team just like Pruitt. Remember in 2017, we were tied with the Gators 20-20 with 10 seconds to go in the Swamp. Either 0-8 SEC coach Butch Jones was a far superior coach to McElwain in 2017 or the talent levels were somewhat similar....

What happened is Mullen developed a 2* QB (Trask) into a very good SEC starter. Pruitt has multiple 4* QBs on the roster and none have been developed into competent SEC starters...
 
#19
#19
I know this thread will get destroyed here lol.. But I have 5 major reasons why Coach Pruitt needs at least 5 years at TN...

1. To get ALL his recruits in.. and really you could argue he needs 6 years bc his first recruiting class were mostly Butch’s recruits, not his.....a lot of players get redshirted every year, so 6 years would really be ideal...

2. Football is a slow developmental sport, both mentally and physically, so it takes years for players to be completely developed to their potential....

3. To send a message of stability to the recruits and their families.. that TN won’t give us on our coaches when things are not going our way, just like the coaches won’t give up on our recruits/ players.... we are a big TN family no matter what...

4. To send a message to our current coaches and any/ all future coaches.... we support all our coaches until proven otherwise over a fair amount of time.... if we don’t support our coaches then it will be that much harder to get great or even good coaches in the future....

5. Because our fans are being Totally unrealistic about this rebuild!!! We had the worst record in the entire History of TN football!! We were the WORST team in the entire SEC!! 0-8 in league play! Outside of the past 12 years, the biggest rebuild in the past 50 years was orchestrated by Coach Johnny Majors.. and his records his first 7 years.....
1977 - 4–7
1978 - 5–5–1
1979 - 7-5
1980 - 5-6
1981 - 8–4
1982 - 6–5–1
1983 - 9–3

Johnny didn’t hit 8 wins until his 5th year, and didn’t get 9 wins Until year 7....

In summary, I know it’s painful to watch us playing like this, but really if you look at the big picture, we need to give Pruitt at least 2 more years after this season....

However, all of his assistant coaches, including Friend and Chaney Need to be thoroughly assessed after the season, Bc the offense is horrendous lol...
Not a chance.
 
#20
#20
I guess the thing I feel better about as compared to Butch is at least Pruitt cares about football. Butch was just a showman, it was all about his brand and slogans. I think Pruitt needs time because unlike any of our previous hires this last decade, he wasn't a head coach before this. You can argue that Tennessee isn't the place to learn on the job (and that's fair), but who else wanted to come here? This is the situation we're in at this point.

He's clearly not without his faults, but I don't see us being so far off that he can't get us there. Last year we were two lousy games against teams we should have beat from being a 10 win team. Obviously, first and foremost, we need to be beating the teams we should beat, but he's mostly done that since he's been here and stolen a couple of wins as well. He's surrounded himself with top quality coaches, and has recruited well, and we have to give it time to see if that will pay off.
 
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#22
#22
Pruitt should and will get 2 more years no matter what. I am not ready to give up on him yet, he is recruiting better and bigger talent. He needs to cut bait with assistants that don't get it done, and he needs to rethink his positions on qb's. I don't agree with how he has stayed with JG, but he has 2 more years to get us winning. Actually next year is going to be important for him, I hope Pruitt makes it I think he could evolve into a great coach. I think he not only inherited a mess he has been on a learning curve himself he hasn't been a head coach before. But we are moving in the right direction in some areas. I hope we go another direction with our qb the rest of the way and start to show some improvement as the season moves forward. Lot's of football left, it's time to buckle down and go get some wins. GBO!!!!!
 
#23
#23
Mullen inherited a 4 win team just like Pruitt. Remember in 2017, we were tied with the Gators 20-20 with 10 seconds to go in the Swamp. Either 0-8 SEC coach Butch Jones was a far superior coach to McElwain in 2017 or the talent levels were somewhat similar....

What happened is Mullen developed a 2* QB (Trask) into a very good SEC starter. Pruitt has multiple 4* QBs on the roster and none have been developed into competent SEC starters...

Here’s the difference:

-The previous 3 recruiting classes were better than ours when Mullen arrived. Hence they beat us in both coaches’ year 1. Plus Helton’s playcalling that game was notoriously bad, and let’s be honest, we don’t beat Florida anyways.

-Mullen won 5 more games than us, so here they are: Mullen didn’t get Bama in year 1, instead he got Miss State and LSU. Mullen also didn’t get WVU his first game out of the gate, instead his big OOC games were 3-9 Colorado State and the dumpster fire that is FSU. Mullen barely beat SC, we barely lost to SC (Mullen got them at home, we got them at their place for a night game).

It’s not hard to figure out why Mullen had so much more success his first year. That carried into year 2, where he won 3 more games than Pruitt. One of those can again be explained by the gift of FSU, who BYU would have wiped the floor with.
 
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#24
#24
Mullen inherited a 4 win team just like Pruitt. Remember in 2017, we were tied with the Gators 20-20 with 10 seconds to go in the Swamp. Either 0-8 SEC coach Butch Jones was a far superior coach to McElwain in 2017 or the talent levels were somewhat similar....

What happened is Mullen developed a 2* QB (Trask) into a very good SEC starter. Pruitt has multiple 4* QBs on the roster and none have been developed into competent SEC starters...
Floriduh has not been in the woods as long as we have. Their record against us is proof over the last 10 years. We have to stop the revolving door. Pruitt is a damn football coach. From head to toe. He knows what it takes. I'm proud that he can take the tough questions and give the answers that smart fans can appreciate. It took us a decade or more to get here. Give it 5 years and I'll shut the f*** up and drown in coors lite.
 
#25
#25
Truthfully, I'm too damn drunk to be on this damn thang right now anyway. I'm stupid sober. So carry on volnation.
 
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