The difference in mentality between Jeremy Pruitt and Butch Jones

#76
#76
The key words “after the disastrous losses to Ga state & BYU”. What if Pruitt hadn’t **** the bed in those two games? 10 wins were clearly there. This was the best schedule Tennessee has played in the past 10 years yet our coach lost to a middle road Sun Belt team and the weakest major non-conference team Tennessee has played in many years.
I figure we broke even on Ga State. Logic: Beat them, and get a tougher opponent in a bowl that we lose to. BYU was in the bag with :55 seconds left. That was really sort of a fluke - the stench of Butch Jones giving up the big play was still alive and well.
 
#77
#77
The key words “after the disastrous losses to Ga state & BYU”. What if Pruitt hadn’t **** the bed in those two games? 10 wins were clearly there. This was the best schedule Tennessee has played in the past 10 years yet our coach lost to a middle road Sun Belt team and the weakest major non-conference team Tennessee has played in many years.

We'll never know what fate had in store for the team had they beaten Ga State and BYU but the fact is they didn't. You can't say they would have won 10 games as if it was a given though because it wasn't and never was. We didn't curb stomp anyone in fact most of the following games we won were close and easily could have gone either way. We simply weren't good enough to take advantage of the weak schedule.
 
#78
#78
Idk, don’t kill me for saying this but I don’t think Hurd makes it under Pruitt. I think they’d knock heads faster than CBJ did


You may be right, but I'll bet that if Pruitt had told the kid 'We're going to line up in the I and hand it to you 20 times a game', they would have lined up in the I and handed it to him 20 times a game.
 
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#79
#79
Got a cousin who coaches football in the SEC and talks about how recruit rankings are not near as big of a deal as people think. They have merit but I would guess the culture and mentality a coach creates does far more than being ranked very highly. I would say being in the top 15 every year, combined with the culture Pruitt has created, Will bring us into prominence sooner rather than later.
 
#80
#80
Got a cousin who coaches football in the SEC and talks about how recruit rankings are not near as big of a deal as people think. They have merit but I would guess the culture and mentality a coach creates does far more than being ranked very highly. I would say being in the top 15 every year, combined with the culture Pruitt has created, Will bring us into prominence sooner rather than later.
I guess, in a manner of speaking, it is the W vs L's that count. "Great recruiting" doesn't get you a win, just look at our boy butch! There were a lot of weak minded followers of boy butch (we still have some) that thought he was a Devine recruiter-didn't work out all that well, for anyone but the boy.
 
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#81
#81
One's a football player/coach. The other...
iu
 
#82
#82
Tee Martin said Hurd was soft. Of course I was one of those who torched Tee about it at the time, turns out he was correct.
I don't think i would describe him as soft. He would be the leading rusher at UT had he played just a couple more games. Sadly he just didn't want to play running back. Dude was a beast tho.
 
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#83
#83
The thing that got me about the anti Tee backlash is that Tee was just showing that he still cared about the Tenn program after he had moved on with his career. Also everyone reacted as if Tee had been doing it for the cameras, when it was clearly just an open mike situation ESPN was just eavesdropping.
Tee was salty that Hurd chose UT over USC. That's what he was showing.
 
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#85
#85
Didn’t expect to beat a Miss St team starting a Freshman QB? Didn’t expect to beat a Mizzou who lost to Vandy? Who here doesn’t expect to beat Vandy every year? I guess you’ll say everyone here expected to lose to Indy also. Your post is BS.

Well Vegas didn’t have us as favorites in any SEC games this season other than Vandy and some sites had us -1.5 against IU.
 
#86
#86
Thats exactly right. Practically no-one here on VN expected to beat any of those teams after the disastrous losses to Georgia State and BYU. Go back and look at all the whining. Most people were expecting the worst season ever. There was one poster who after the BYU loss correctly picked every win and loss to come and he was laughed out of the place then after the Indiana game somebody quoted his prediction. No-one expected to beat Vandy or Mizzou who had win streaks against us and everyone thought Ms State was the better team on paper.
I was pessimistic then as well. Those were really dark days, and they extended way beyond BYU. A win over UTC, the we stunk it up in the swamp. That was a low point.. Can probably extrapolate that on to the Georgia game. Ugly season up to that point.

And.. we really didn't win big except for a couple. I'd say USCe, Vandy and MSU were games where we had it under control. Thing is, on those close wins - there wasn't "quit" in the team like there was during the "Brady Hoke era". Lots of reasons for optimism at this point based on that + recruiting.
 
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#87
#87
Yeah for sure and I'm not taking anything away from those wins. I just think people who claim it should have automatically been a 10 win season last year need a little dose of reality in that we were very fortunate to even click off 8 wins.
 
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#88
#88
Well Vegas didn’t have us as favorites in any SEC games this season other than Vandy and some sites had us -1.5 against IU.
Being the favorite to win, isn't as important as covering the spread, for total dollars bet. This will mean very little once the big dollars are available to all SEC players-pay (ola) for the use of their likeness.
 
#89
#89
Idk, don’t kill me for saying this but I don’t think Hurd makes it under Pruitt. I think they’d knock heads faster than CBJ did
I would like to see Dwayne Hendrix and Jalen Hurd under this coaching staff, as opposed to cBJ.

I think CJP would have made Hurd a TE..And maybe JH has a totally different career at UT.....

JMHO
 
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#90
#90
Congratulations to Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt on his marriage yesterday and Watt was signed by CBJ when he was at Central Michigan and then transferred to Wisconsin.
 
#91
#91
Hurd would have been a Heisman candidate under Pruitt. I have always believed Jones' mismanagement of Hurd was criminal. The guy could have gone anywhere and was probably more responsible than Jones in bringing in that great class. He wanted to be coached hard. He wanted to be made better. Jones failed on every count.

Plus... Pruitt establishes early that no one is bigger than the team and you earn what you get. That would have meant a world of difference to Hurd.
Heck, what about Jones’ mismanagement of Alvin Kamara? Only the best all purpose back in the NFL and Botch couldn’t figure out how to use him.
 
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#93
#93
Butch was all smoke and mirrors...his goal was to look like a good coach. I don’t know if Pruitt will end up being a really good head coach - I certainly hope he does - but I do believe he is genuine
 
#94
#94
Butch doesn't deserve this much attention and therefore doesn't deserve to be used as a standard.
Jesus, everyone hopes their coach has more going on than Butch
 
#95
#95
The key words “after the disastrous losses to Ga state & BYU”. What if Pruitt hadn’t **** the bed in those two games? 10 wins were clearly there. This was the best schedule Tennessee has played in the past 10 years yet our coach lost to a middle road Sun Belt team and the weakest major non-conference team Tennessee has played in many years.
Well geeze, stand him up against a wall with a blindfold on, and let the firing squad have at him.

Did we have two inexcusable losses at the beginning of the season? Yes, we certainly did. Did we turn it around? Yes, we did.

There’s a learning curve in most aspects of life. I sure wish that it had happened sooner with CJP, but the fact is that it DID happen, and we’re a better team.

Trends are more important than just W-L stats.
 
#96
#96
Butch doesn't deserve this much attention and therefore doesn't deserve to be used as a standard.
Jesus, everyone hopes their coach has more going on than Butch
I don't disagree with your take on boy butch; however, not everyone hopes their coach has more going on than boy butch. You'd be surprised at the number of boy butch butt buddies there are, many on this board-they just can't get over their love for the guy, in fact if they had their way, he would have gotten another pay raise, and another extension-I'm not kidding. Nonetheless, you're thoughts about boy butch are right on!
 
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#97
#97
We'll never know what fate had in store for the team had they beaten Ga State and BYU but the fact is they didn't. You can't say they would have won 10 games as if it was a given though because it wasn't and never was. We didn't curb stomp anyone in fact most of the following games we won were close and easily could have gone either way. We simply weren't good enough to take advantage of the weak schedule.
I've said something like this in another thread and tons of people got butt hurt lol
 
#99
#99
There's no doubt that Jones's best seasons were a mirage based upon Josh Dobb's extraordinary ability to put his team on his back and carry it. I don't think anyone really appreciated how good he was at making something out of nothing. Once those 15 yard scrambles on 3rd and 12 graduated, you could see how poorly coached those teams were.
 
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