Tennessee or Nebraska ?

#27
#27
Hard to sell living in Lincoln Nebraska to recruits these days. That's the tougher job to recruit at... Pruitt has to deal with playing in the SEC and getting guys that can one day play and beat the Bama's and Georgia's. Neither job is going to be easy to turn around. Not going to be quick if either do..
 
#28
#28
Memphis beat their arse in the conference championship but still found a way to lose. Wonder if frost would have all this love if Memphis finished the job.
 
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#29
#29
OnlyGodForgives said:
If "national prominence" means being a legit contender for the 4-team playoff, the answer is: neither. Too much lost time and ground to the elite, established programs.
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You would be amazed what a little winning and momentum does to a program and fan base. Everyone pulling in the same direction as Pruitt refers to it. We feed off them, they feed off us.

But even when UT was winning and nationally prominent with their 90s run, we were still kind of still the underdogs and had the us against the world Tennessee mentality. That will never change.
 
#30
#30
05_never_again said:
I thought that too. The article is clearly written by someone who isn't all that familiar with the state, or figured out what the state flag means and drew too strong a conclusion about it. There are a ton of other states with many more internal differences (geography, culture, demographics, etc.) than Tennessee. There are always going to be differences between cities and rural areas (like Atlanta and everywhere else in Georgia outside of Atlanta), but perhaps he was trying to say that even our rural areas are different (mountains vs. flat farmland). I dunno.

It is absolutely harder for Nebraska to recruit. They have zilch in-state talent (waaay less than Tennessee), have to go much further away to attract said talent, and aren't a good fit in their own conference. Tennessee obviously doesn't have to worry about conference fit at all.

What's more an issue of Knoxville's proximity to the talent that is in Western Tennessee. Tennessee isn't an overly large state, but it takes almost 6 hours to drive from Knoxville to Memphis. Memphis is a shorter drive to Tuscaloosa than Knoxville and the same length to Auburn as Knoxville, for example. The state is stretched out over a fairly large area, which makes the talent in the western part of the state susceptible to being plucked by other schools who are from outside the state but actually closer. On the other hand, Kirby Smart can get in a car, drive an hour and a half to Atlanta, and field two-thirds of his team. It might be the easiest recruiting job in the country. I suppose he does have to deal with Alabama/Auburn/FSU/Florida for the south Georgia kids, but it isn't in a bind if he misses on some of them.

The best thing that can happen for Tennessee recruiting-wise, other than having our rivals decline, is to continue to see growth in the Nashville area.

I agree that it seems really clear that Nebraska got their "right guy" though. We are still very much in wait-and-see mode about Pruitt, although I do really want to like him.
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Great points. I never really considered the ease of recruiting to Georgia and Alabama over Tennessee, purely geographically. Knoxville isn’t as centrally located in the south as some would think. Memphis is the Tennessee central city of the South (brain teaser). IE FedEx.

The thing that scares me the most about the Pruitt hire, is the way it went down. I have nothing against him or his character or the decisions he’s made (I’m actually very supportive and encouraged by his....guts). Part of me just feels like he was #26 on a list of 27 coaches we wanted to hire. But I have to remind myself about the terrible AD situation and the all so public search, etc. I just wonder if from the very beginning, Pruitt was top 3 on Fulmers list, even before he had the power to make such a decision.
 
#31
#31
05_never_again said:
Butch beat up on the soft underbelly of those conferences. Dabo built a power at Clemson in the same division with FSU and is now routinely winning recruiting battles against SEC schools.

A void existed for several years in the East before it was finally filled by Georgia. The opening was there waiting to be filled by Tennessee, Florida, or Georgia before 2016. Tennessee has a big uphill climb, but there isn't anything structural that would preclude Tennessee from doing what Clemson has done at some point in the future.

On the day Tommy Bowden was fired, if you said Clemson's next coach will routinely win the ACC, win a national title, and be in the mix every year for the national title within a span of a few years, you would have been laughed at.
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Kind of like the people who think Pruitt will get it done at Tennessee.
 
#33
#33
peaygolf said:
It's sad to see two programs with so much tradition and history struggle this much for so long. It's a very fine line between greatness and mediocrity in sports. A bad hire, poor management, a week recruiting class or two......it can all be gone.

I said it in another thread, but I can see a scenario where Nebraska gets left in the dust (no pun indented). UT should be able to come back to a National stage quicker than Nebraska for many reasons. The only feather Nebraska has is the conf/division they are in. That is all. They also screwed the pooch letting Frank Solich go.
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Boy that is an understatement!...all that guy did was win when he was there...Still ran the traditional I Option offense and was effective with it...They got rid of him and abandoned what got them where they were...I know times change but why screw up everything you had to try something different that didn't work and still doesn't.
 
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#40
#40
BigOrangeTrain said:
Yet, for some unknown reason, Frost is struggling just as much. Kelly as well. With these proven, winning head coaches, why arent these programs winning?
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Got to get the players to believe & buy in to your philosophy. Hasn't happened for either yet. Might not until they get their own recruits in there.
 
#41
#41
Definitely Tenessee.

Nebraska has a much easier conference and doesn't have to play Alabama, Florida and Georgia every year but they also don't recruit nearly as well.

When Nebraska left the B12, their Texas recruiting dried up and they can't recruit nationally like an SEC team of Tennessee's caliber can. In the 80s and 90s, Nebraska fans outnumbered Colorado or CSU fans 3-1 in Colorado, now the Colorado Buffalos hold the upper hand with Air Force, Nebraska and CSU making a respectable showing.

Nebraska's big recruiting grounds: Nebraska, small state, Iowa: Iowa/Iowa State competition. Illinois: Northwestern/Illinois. None of these recruiting grounds can even begin to make up for loses of Texas recruits.

Also the quality of the recruits are not even close to the same level as those coming from GA, FL, LA, TX, Southeast in general...especially regarding speed.
 
#44
#44
I was at that Fiesta Bowl mentioned in the article. Nebraska was good. I never understood why they fired Solich. They played harder than we did, but they also got away with a lot of pass interference. One amusing thing: when the Vols came out to start the second half, Smokey ran down and vomited in the Nebraska end zone. That was very amusing in a night when nothing else was.
 
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#45
#45
Johnnyreb#VFL said:
Great points. I never really considered the ease of recruiting to Georgia and Alabama over Tennessee, purely geographically. Knoxville isn’t as centrally located in the south as some would think. Memphis is the Tennessee central city of the South (brain teaser). IE FedEx.

The thing that scares me the most about the Pruitt hire, is the way it went down. I have nothing against him or his character or the decisions he’s made (I’m actually very supportive and encouraged by his....guts). Part of me just feels like he was #26 on a list of 27 coaches we wanted to hire. But I have to remind myself about the terrible AD situation and the all so public search, etc. I just wonder if from the very beginning, Pruitt was top 3 on Fulmers list, even before he had the power to make such a decision.
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Truth be told, that was reported the first one Fulmer went after when he became AD, we really don’t know if this was his first choice in his head. We are where we are. Period. Pruitt is the head coach and besides being on a fan message board, we have to be in “watch in see mode”. Me and mine will continue to support and hope to heck this is the perfect storm to get us trending up to better than what it’s been. We are all just guessing at this point and throwing out our frustrations from the last 11 years.
 
#46
#46
jakez4ut said:
they've both made their fair share of mistakes the past decade.

as to who gets back faster? a lot depends on whether or not either, or both, made the right hire this year.

as for framework or set up for the programs, you have pluses and minuses for each.

i think it will be easier to recruit at a high level at TN, and while both schools historically have to recruit nationally, we have a geographic advantage, and playing at TN and in the SEC is a big deal to a lot of kids in this part of the country. advantage TN.

but NE plays in one of the worst divisions of college football, and while the SEC east lately hasn't been anything to write home about, GA certainly presents a tougher challenge than Wisconsin, and Nebraska doesn't have to play anyone like Alabama on a yearly basis.

i think record wise, Nebraska will probably get back to the 8 or 9 win type seasons faster than TN.

i don't know that they'll be nationally prominent faster than TN will be.
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The SEC and the Big Ten both have 2-3 teams in the top 8-10 teams in the nation, However the SEC has , by far, the most teams in the top 25 and has for a number of years. In fact, The Big Ten has two teams that must be so bad that they do not count them in their Conference Title or they would be titled the big 12, but they can not do that because there is already a Big Twelve. Maybe they should add one more school and change their Title to the Big Thirteen.
 
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#47
#47
GreyWolf1129 said:
Are we basing this on actual National Championships, or just claimed ones?
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MiramarVol said:
Credentials of what his undefeated season vs Pruitt's multiple NCAA rings?
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Ugggh.

How many NC's has CJP won?

Answer: Zero

Frost turned an 0-12 UCF team to 14-0 in 2 years. Hmmm. I really wonder if he's a proven head coach. :rolleyes:
 
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#48
#48
BigOrangeTrain said:
Yet, for some unknown reason, Frost is struggling just as much. Kelly as well. With these proven, winning head coaches, why arent these programs winning?
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Idiotic take. Scott Frost is proven to turn programs around in a couple of years; CJP has none of that on his resume.

I'm not bashing CJP. All I'm saying is that he's an unproven HC, while Scott Frost is proven to turn around dumpster fire programs.
 
#49
#49
Matt2496 said:
Idiotic take. Scott Frost is proven to turn programs around in a couple of years; CJP has none of that on his resume.

I'm not bashing CJP. All I'm saying is that he's an unproven HC, while Scott Frost is proven to turn around dumpster fire programs.
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My point is Frost is struggling because he doesnt have the players. Just like Pruitt. People on here want to blame coaches for everything. Yet, in the case of Frost and Kelly, proven winners, are struggling because they dont have the players.
 
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#50
#50
BigOrangeTrain said:
My point is Frost is struggling because he doesnt have the players. Just like Pruitt. People on here want to blame coaches for everything. Yet, in the case of Frost and Kelly, proven winners, are struggling because they dont have the players.
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I would agree with this.
 
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