Where would Tennessee be right now if they had hired Mike Leach?

#78
#78
VolArmy74 said:
They have better defensive numbers than we do this year and they've played 2 of the top 5 offenses in the league already.
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Let’s see how that changes when he can’t rely on Mullen and Moorhead recruits anymore.
 
#80
#80
OrangeVolMan said:
He was 55-47 at Washington St. which is in a conference that plays no defense. What makes you think he can win in SEC? It took one game for the SEC to figure out how to play defense against his offense. Don’t give me the crap that “when he gets his players”. Did he have his players his last year at Washington State (I will save you some trouble- he went 6-7). Add to that, he only averaged 32 points a game at Washington State so what makes you think his team would average more in the SEC. People love to talk about about how great he is but he is not as good as the legend.
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In his first 4 SEC games Pruitt was giving up 42ppg. Did it only take a game for the SEC to figure out his defense?
 
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#82
#82
We would have entertaining press conferences and if you get down to it all, isn't that all that matters these days???
 
#84
#84
KB5252 said:
People could tolerate him as long as he's winning. But wins aren't easy to come by here in this conference. His schtick gets old quick when you're losing.
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The same could be said for Pruitt generally, after all, Saban without the wins would just be another ***hole.
 
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#85
#85
VolArmy74 said:
He had a top 15 defense in the country and went 11-2 in year 5 at WSU. He has shown he's fine with his own recruits with 140 wins in 19 years at two of the worst P5 college football programs ever.
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Which begs the question why he went from 1 traditionally terrible program to another and stayed at both for the better part of 2 decades.

And I wasn't opposed to the idea of him coming to UT.
 
#88
#88
unfrozencvmanvol said:
The same could be said for Pruitt generally, after all, Saban without the wins would just be another ***hole.
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Nothing close to the schtick ole pirate boy does. The others you mentioned are abrasive. There is a distinct difference.
 
#91
#91
BeecherVol said:
Which begs the question why he went from 1 traditionally terrible program to another and stayed at both for the better part of 2 decades.

And I wasn't opposed to the idea of him coming to UT.
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Because college ADs at big programs make "safe" choices and then they pay buyouts every 4 years on average and by safe I don't mean on the field play, I mean safe in the press conference. Leach is in his 19th season, he's coached to date only 2 NFL first round draft picks and has won 140 games in his career at traditional graveyard schools. He's never been fired from a job for any on the field issue and it turns out what got him out at Texas Tech was Craig James and his son fabricating a story. I wanted Leach badly because of his coaching tree and what he could have set us up for in the future. The biggest failing of Fulmer was having a bare coaching tree. It's nearly unprecedented to coach as long as Fulmer did and not even accidently have someone on your staff or from your team who becomes a good head coach. With where our search was in 2018, Leach was a walk-off grand slam hire. So of course we blew it. Leach has the best season in school history at both schools where he's coached.

To start 2019 Athlon ranked Leach the 13th best coach in college football, 73 spots ahead of the guy we hired.

In the 2020 Pruitt moved up to 29 spots to 25th in the Sporting News ranking and they made the caveat that their ranking might be too high for him. He was still well behind Leach who ranked 17th. Leach was 9th in the Saturday Down South top 25, Pruitt unranked. 247 Pruitt came in at 49, Leach at 28. But I'm sure everyone will say none of the people doing the rankings know what they are talking about etc.
 
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#94
#94
We’d be 0-4. Leach is fun to watch off the field but that’s about all he brings to the table as a head coach.
 
#95
#95
VolArmy74 said:
In his first 4 SEC games Pruitt was giving up 42ppg. Did it only take a game for the SEC to figure out his defense?
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If you want to have an honest discussion. A lot of those are on the offense not the defense. Not just the pics but also not moving the ball so defense spends entire game on the field.
 
#96
#96
I wanted Leach in Knoxville, had a pirate avatar ready to go and everything. I felt vindicated watching him dismantle the might LSU, but now not so much. I thought it was Leach magic taking LSU apart, turns out they just absolutely suck this year.
 
#98
#98
Would rather have had an offensive minded coach instead of Bama Gump. If your offense is good you don't have to have the best defense in the country. It takes points to win the game. Our defense is good, but when the offense is throwing pick sixes all over the place and your offense cannot score points you are doomed. UT lost last two games only because of a poor offense and an HC that has no clue about offense and will not let his OC have full control.
 
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#99
#99
TJVol_24 said:
Leach’s offense has looked like hot trash this year aside from the LSU game. In the past 2 weeks they’ve scored 1 offensive touchdown
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And so has LSU...I watched most of the Arkansas game and everybody I respect during that game were just saying "run the ball" because Ark. was dropping 8 on every play almost. Now granted the tailback for MSU, Hill I think, was injured early in the first quarter I think and that had an effect on MSU for sure. But man that offense has looked DEAD since the LSU game. Why, pray tell, do we think he could do more with the Vols? A little more talent that MSU? Without a doubt but I think he would be grilled by now by Volnation had he been our coach!
 
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