It's a very weird year for trying to eval....pretty much anyone. Obviously fans are going to pass judgement, it's what we do.
Jim Harbaugh, who took a team to the super bowl, has Michigan looking worse than we've ever looked in year 5 of his program.
James Franklin, who took Vandy to consecutive Top 25 seasons and has had Penn State on the cusp of the playoffs, is 0-4 in year 6 of his program.
Indiana, a team who's most recent loss is Tennessee, is surging in the Top 10.
I personally don't think those guys all of a sudden forgot how to coach. I don't think Indiana is all of a sudden way better than Tennessee, Michigan, and Penn State. I think forced disruptions to "the process" has artificially chosen winners and losers. Football is a game of inches when all things are equal. Throw in mandated practice cancellations and uneven player unavailability at random? Massive swings. Particularly for a program that was 0-8 in the SEC 2 seasons ago.
I don't think Pruitt or Chaney are dumb. I think they're likely still 2 of the best on their respective sides of the ball. I do find some of the strategic criticism to be valid. For instance, in a season that was almost always going to be a throw away year, it's hard for me to understand why we haven't been repping the freshman more.
Anyway, we can lose out and Pruitt is still going to get next year to show whether this will stay his program. I hope he's successful and we continue to keep loading up on sought after recruits. If he fails and Fulmer decides to go in a different direction, someone with a contemporary offensive philosophy at the helm wouldn't hurt my feelings.
The next part of the equation then becomes, who? And why? Essentially every name mentioned will be associated with a circumstance similar to what we're currently facing.
floats
