LAVol1
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Pruitt's answer does not make a lot of sense. Pruitt's answer tells me that the way in which he frames his approach to coaching is built upon an outdated mindset where we value seniority over ability and talent. when you look at the programs that are winning consistently, they have accelerated or abandoned this old fashioned notion, which I would maintain relies upon the old rules that A - students commit to a school, cannot transfer, and persist to graduation, and B - transfer students is a rarity and not dignified. You have to earn your playing time.
This framework for understanding coaching in the SEC will result in Pruitt circling back to DC job in a few years.
Ability and talent does not always translate to competence. Knowledge of what the offense or defense is trying to do every play is a very important factor, in most every case more important than talent. When a player doesn't earn playing time, the players know it and it creates discord. Pruitt's answer makes perfect sense to me. It is the right approach to building a team.
When I coached, we had a player that had more talent than almost all the other players, but he didn't play as much as others because he was lazy, didn't take coaching well, and didn't demonstrate that he was a team player. The team was much better for it because they understood if they didn't work hard and put the team first, they would sit on the bench a lot more. The team was better because he didn't play as much. We won the state championship, not because we were the most talented team, but because we had the best TEAM.