Ranking ACC and SEC football coaches from No. 1 Dabo Swinney to No. 28 Willie Taggart

#4
#4
Complete crap rankings. All they are doing is taking last year's records and assuming that's where a coach should be ranked. I don't know where Pruitt should be but it's not #24.

Fwiw, I'd take Pruitt without hesitation over Dave Doeren, Pat Narduzzi, Mark Stoops, Barry Odom, Ed Orgeron, Steve Addazio, and Derek Mason.

I'd probably rank Pruitt somewhere in the #8 - #12 range right now between the ACC / SEC. Until he proves otherwise, he's behind Dabo, Saban, Mullen, Kirby, Jimbo, Cutcliffe, and Dave Clawson. He in the same range as Moorhead, Malzahn, Dino, Bronco, Muschamp, and Fuente for now.
 
#5
#5
Complete crap rankings. All they are doing is taking last year's records and assuming that's where a coach should be ranked. I don't know where Pruitt should be but it's not #24.

Fwiw, I'd take Pruitt without hesitation over Dave Doeren, Pat Narduzzi, Mark Stoops, Barry Odom, Ed Orgeron, Steve Addazio, and Derek Mason.

I'd probably rank Pruitt somewhere in the #8 - #12 range right now between the ACC / SEC. Until he proves otherwise, he's behind Dabo, Saban, Mullen, Kirby, Jimbo, Cutcliffe, and Dave Clawson. He in the same range as Moorhead, Malzahn, Dino, Bronco, Muschamp, and Fuente for now.
Why? Honest question. Besides your hope and likely belief in his potential, why? He got his brains beat out by both Odom and Mason with what should’ve been a better roster than either one.

Look, I’m a Pruitt guy, think he was a good hire, that’s he’s exactly what the program needs in terms of no nonsense toughness and attitude and I still have hope that he’ll turn it around this year and get Tennessee football back to where it belongs, which competing for the East and SEC. But outside a couple of anomaly upsets last year, there’s nothing to go on which says he doesn’t CURRENTLY deserve that #24 ranking. Just the way it is. A big 2019 where he exceeds expectations can change everything, but it’s gotta happen first.
 
#7
#7
Why? Honest question. Besides your hope and likely belief in his potential, why? He got his brains beat out by both Odom and Mason with what should’ve been a better roster than either one.

Has little to do with "potential." He's already a better defensive coach than Odom and Narduzzi. He's also a better recruiter. So it seems like a stretch to say those coaches are better simply because they either (a) inherited better situations or (b) have had more time to establish themselves.

Be honest: if you could trade Pruitt today for Narduzz, Odom, or Mason, would you? I wouldn't.


But outside a couple of anomaly upsets last year, there’s nothing to go on which says he doesn’t CURRENTLY deserve that #24 ranking. Just the way it is. A big 2019 where he exceeds expectations can change everything, but it’s gotta happen first.

If you think that, then you're not a "Pruitt guy."

Either you'd hire Narduzzi or Odom over Pruitt, or Pruitt should be ranked higher. I wouldn't take Pruitt over more proven coaches such as Saban, Dabo, and Mullen until he proves otherwise, but I'd take him in a heartbeat over Narduzzi and Odom, simply based on what I've seen thus far.

And that's how they should be ranked.

I don't claim to know how Pruitt will turn out in the long-run, but as of today, I'd pick him over Narduzzi, Odom, Mason, Mark Stoops, Ed Orgeron, Dave Doeren, and Steve Addazio.

By the same token, Chad Morris is also underrated on that list. I'd take Morris over many of those coaches as well. For that matter, I'd take Willie Taggert over many of them, too.

But it's silly to say "Joe Moorhead is a better coach than Jeremy Pruitt" based off 1 season where Joe Moorhead inherited a great situation and Pruitt inherited a terrible one.
 
Last edited:
#10
#10
Seems I remember hearing the same about Butch... And, Dooley before him.

You did. But if you look a little deeper,there is some evidence to suggest big improvement. Look at how much the defense improved in Pruitts first year. While the offense struggled again, at least there was significant improvement on the defenseive side.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Alto1
#11
#11
they missed on #1 and didn't get many others right either. Hard to argue either way, at this point on Pruitt, but maybe we'll give folks something to start thinking about this year.
 
#12
#12
Has little to do with "potential." He's already a better defensive coach than Odom and Narduzzi. He's also a better recruiter. So it seems like a stretch to say those coaches are better simply because they either (a) inherited better situations or (b) have had more time to establish themselves.

Be honest: if you could trade Pruitt today for Narduzz, Odom, or Mason, would you? I wouldn't.




If you think that, then you're not a "Pruitt guy."

Either you'd hire Narduzzi or Odom over Pruitt, or Pruitt should be ranked higher. I wouldn't take Pruitt over more proven coaches such as Saban, Dabo, and Mullen until he proves otherwise, but I'd take him in a heartbeat over Narduzzi and Odom, simply based on what I've seen thus far.

And that's how they should be ranked.

I don't claim to know how Pruitt will turn out in the long-run, but as of today, I'd pick him over Narduzzi, Odom, Mason, Mark Stoops, Ed Orgeron, Dave Doeren, and Steve Addazio.

By the same token, Chad Morris is also underrated on that list. I'd take Morris over many of those coaches as well. For that matter, I'd take Willie Taggert over many of them, too.

But it's silly to say "Joe Moorhead is a better coach than Jeremy Pruitt" based off 1 season where Joe Moorhead inherited a great situation and Pruitt inherited a terrible one.
No offense Ghost, but I just see very little logic and a whole lotta “I’m gonna give Pruitt the nod because he’s the coach of my team” in this post.

And when I say “I’m a Pruitt guy”, it has zero to do with a list, whether he’s ranked high or low....it has everything to do with his pedigree and his mindset, I really like em both. I love the guy’s mentality and how he goes about things. He’s a football guy, something our last clown head coach was not.

But for the purposes of discussing where the author think he falls on this list, there’s just nothing that he did in his first year as Tennessee’s HEAD COACH (not just a defensive guy) that recommends him being higher than guys who cleaned his freaking clock last year with supposed much weaker rosters on paper.

I think his grade is far from being complete, that last year didn’t give us a big enough sample size to say one way or the other. But when you go 5-7 with 6 bad blowout losses of 25 or more points, nobody outside of a UT fan who’s hoping he’s the right guy is gonna give him the benefit of the doubt, something that the outcome of the 2018 season surely didn’t earn him
 
#13
#13
Dabo over Saban is hilarious.
Wouldn’t quite call it hilarious. He’s beaten him 2 out of 3 times in the national title game straight up, and had him on the ropes in a third game.

If it were me, I’d have had Saban #1 as well, but the case can be made for Dabo right now. Dude is 116-30 at Clemson and won 2 of the last 3 national titles.
 
#14
#14
Wouldn’t quite call it hilarious. He’s beaten him 2 out of 3 times in the national title game straight up, and had him on the ropes in a third game.

If it were me, I’d have had Saban #1 as well, but the case can be made for Dabo right now. Dude is 116-30 at Clemson and won 2 of the last 3 national titles.

Saban has six rings and has lost 14 games at Bama since 2008. While playing a much tougher schedule than Dabo.

Dabo has lost to 4-8 Syracuse and 8-5 Pittsburgh since building up a Bama-like roster. Can you imagine Saban losing to teams like that?
 
#17
#17
No offense Ghost, but I just see very little logic and a whole lotta “I’m gonna give Pruitt the nod because he’s the coach of my team” in this post.

The question is, "if there were a coach draft, who would you pick?" Would you honestly pick 23 of those coaches above him?

Mullen, Saban, Dabo, Jimbo are more proven than Pruitt. They deserve to be ranked over him.

How do you rank Barry Odom over him, though? Or Dave Doeren? Or Addazio?

If you pick Dave Doeren over Pruitt, then fine. You can say Pruitt deserves to be #24. But I'm not picking Doeren over Pruitt. We don't know how good Pruitt is yet, but just based on his work as a DC and his 1 year as coach, I'd take Pruitt over Dave Doeren in a heartbeat.

If you really think he's #24, then you would pick 23 of the others above him to be our head coach. I'd probably take maybe 8 - 10 of them above him today. And there are a few others who might end up being better than him that we don't really know yet (e.g. Joe Moorhead). No way am I picking 23 of those coaches over him, though. I'd probably even take Pruitt over Muschamp (who he beaten us like 7 times in a row, but still has a pretty mediocre track record as coach).


And when I say “I’m a Pruitt guy”, it has zero to do with a list, whether he’s ranked high or low....it has everything to do with his pedigree and his mindset, I really like em both. I love the guy’s mentality and how he goes about things. He’s a football guy, something our last clown head coach was not.

If that's true, then you shouldn't think he's the 24th best coach on that list ;)

I want to fire the 24th best coach on that list. I don't know if he's the next Dabo or Saban, but right now, I'd easily put him above about half the names on that list.

Has he proven it yet? No. But that's a totally different question.
 
#18
#18
Dino Babers way too low.

Babers is very tough to rank.

He's only had 1 good season at a P5 program and only had 4 seasons split between 2 different mid-major programs before that. He looked great last year, think it's going to take another few years before we know if that was an aberration or not. But I guess that's my point about "recency bias"; everyone would've ranked Babers near the bottom of the list last season, simply because he inherited a tough situation at Syracuse. But he looked great this year!

Malzahn is also tough. 5 years ago and he was considered the 2nd best coach in the SEC. Went to national title game in 1st season. Has never been able to come close to replicating that.

I honestly feel like the list would be better organized by "proven coaches" (of which there are maybe 7), "coaches with potential" (of which there are maybe 10), and "coaches that have been mediocre" (Addazio, Doeren, Mason, etc).
 
#19
#19
Dabo plays a crap schedule and has a cake walk to the National Championship game every year.

I’ll admit he’s had Saban’s number here lately but Saban’s resume is still more superior.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sbm362
#20
#20
Dabo is #2 until Saban retires. Its not even debatable. There are good arguments that Pruitt should be lower on this list.

It honestly isn't debatable. Lord, that guy probably goes down as the greatest in the history of the game. Someone wins a game against him and the bandwagon jumps on board the other coach every time. Remember ESPN blowing smoke up Urban's rear and they said Kelly was better headed into that ND obliteration. The fact that people marvel so heavily over any opposing winning coach tells you all you need to know @ Nick Sabans place.

Note: I'll be thrilled if the guy retires tomorrow and never steps foot on a field again. Still no need to be brain dead @ his accomplishments.
 
#21
#21
Complete crap rankings. All they are doing is taking last year's records and assuming that's where a coach should be ranked. I don't know where Pruitt should be but it's not #24.

Fwiw, I'd take Pruitt without hesitation over Dave Doeren, Pat Narduzzi, Mark Stoops, Barry Odom, Ed Orgeron, Steve Addazio, and Derek Mason.

I'd probably rank Pruitt somewhere in the #8 - #12 range right now between the ACC / SEC. Until he proves otherwise, he's behind Dabo, Saban, Mullen, Kirby, Jimbo, Cutcliffe, and Dave Clawson. He in the same range as Moorhead, Malzahn, Dino, Bronco, Muschamp, and Fuente for now.

Dave Clawson? If it wasn't for Dave Clawson, Fulmer would probably still be our coach and the "Lost Decade" wouldn't have happened. I put him at #125 out of 28.
 
#22
#22
Dabo is #2 until Saban retires. Its not even debatable. There are good arguments that Pruitt should be lower on this list.

No, there aren’t arguments that Pruitt should be lower. You’re just being your typical negative self. Must be miserable to actually know you in real life.....
 
#24
#24
No offense Ghost, but I just see very little logic and a whole lotta “I’m gonna give Pruitt the nod because he’s the coach of my team” in this post.

And when I say “I’m a Pruitt guy”, it has zero to do with a list, whether he’s ranked high or low....it has everything to do with his pedigree and his mindset, I really like em both. I love the guy’s mentality and how he goes about things. He’s a football guy, something our last clown head coach was not.

But for the purposes of discussing where the author think he falls on this list, there’s just nothing that he did in his first year as Tennessee’s HEAD COACH (not just a defensive guy) that recommends him being higher than guys who cleaned his freaking clock last year with supposed much weaker rosters on paper.

I think his grade is far from being complete, that last year didn’t give us a big enough sample size to say one way or the other. But when you go 5-7 with 6 bad blowout losses of 25 or more points, nobody outside of a UT fan who’s hoping he’s the right guy is gonna give him the benefit of the doubt, something that the outcome of the 2018 season surely didn’t earn him

As usual you can’t admit he dumpster fire he inherited. My god, you and BOT have to trash our players, coaches and program EVERY single time you are on here. Why even be a fan if you hate UT so much? If you say you don’t, you’re obviously not being honest.
 
  • Like
Reactions: I_Bleed_Orange77

VN Store



Back
Top