Who Deserves the Blame?

#1

VolFreakJosh

“Don’t you put that evil on me Ricky Bobby!”
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#1
If Pruitt somehow doesn’t get us 6-7 wins into a Bowl game this season, is it fair to blame Pruitt or the Administration for putting the program in bad position for the future HC’s of Tennessee?

Say what you want too but I believe even the best proven coaches, would have a hard time recruiting this year due to having zero draft picks in the NFL and poor development from Butch Jones.

Pruitt was used to being at a place where they put their program in the best position to win. Bama is serious about winning, we were not.

This is why I’m hoping Fulmer can turn this culture around, someone who truly cares about Tennessee athletics and not just the money in their pockets.

Pruitt is a really knowledgeable guy who understands football. He’s said over & over again that he wants to win right away but it seems like he’s having a lot of negative things going against him right now.

I don’t think it’s entirely his fault because I don’t think even he knew, it would be this hard of a job to win here considering the circumstances.
 
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#2
#2
I think its often not understood that Pruitt took over the worst roster in UT history. We had never gone 4-8 before and for him to take the nucleus of that team & still beat #11 UK at home & Auburn on the road shows we have the right guy at the top.

Im not sure we should blame anyone, rather just understand its a process & it will take time to right the ship. I mean, 8 of our 10 worst records in history have come in this last decade, it'll take a long, long time.

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#3
#3
I think its often not understood that Pruitt took over the worst roster in UT history. We had never gone 4-8 before and for him to take the nucleus of that team & still beat #11 UK at home & Auburn on the road shows we have the right guy at the top.

Im not sure we should blame anyone, rather just understand its a process & it will take time to right the ship.
2019 will be the season when Tennessee finally starts turning the corner:cool:
 
#4
#4
well, we'll know more after this season...just not enough info available right now to know exactly how this staff will pan out...slow as she goes...:D

GO BIG ORANGE!
 
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#6
#6
If Pruitt somehow doesn’t get us 6-7 wins into a Bowl game this season, is it fair to blame Pruitt or the Administration for putting the program in bad position for the future HC’s of Tennessee?

Say what you want too but I believe even the best proven coaches, would have a hard time recruiting this year due to having zero draft picks in the NFL and poor development from Butch Jones.

Pruitt was used to being at a place where they put their program in the best position to win. Bama is serious about winning, we were not.

This is why I’m hoping Fulmer can turn this culture around, someone who truly cares about Tennessee athletics and not just the money in their pockets.

Pruitt is a really knowledgeable guy who understands football. He’s said over & over again that he wants to win right away but it seems like he’s having a lot of negative things going against him right now.

I don’t think it’s entirely his fault because I don’t think even knew, it would be this hard of a job to win here considering the circumstances.

I'm not the President of the Jeremy Pruitt fan club, but it's not his fault our administration gave football the bird by consecutively hiring 4 cheap head coaches.....

It takes more than 1 year to overcome a decade of administrative indifference...
 
#8
#8
There's too many involved to name them all, but I will start with Mike Hamilton and the Haslams. Hammy's failures, combined with the stubbornness of the Haslam regime, followed by the subsequent failures of the next couple AD's got us into this pickle. There are too many factors involved to discuss since then, but mismanagement of the program under their control is how we fell so far so fast.

There's not a coach in the world that could inherit what Pruitt inherited and have instant success.
 
#9
#9
Shorter OP Post:

"So who do we Fire first....before the season even starts?"


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#10
#10
I'm not the President of the Jeremy Pruitt fan club, but it's not his fault our administration gave football the bird by consecutively hiring 4 cheap head coaches.....

It takes more than 1 year to overcome a decade of administrative indifference...

Lane Kiffin and his staff clearly was not on the cheap.
 
#12
#12
Lane Kiffin and his staff clearly was not on the cheap.

Lane Kiffin was cheap. He was in bottom half of SEC head coaches in compensation. Even factoring in his staff, UT wasnt in top quartile in 2009. (Note, I said head coach and not staff when talking about cheapness)

From late 2008 to 2017 - (Public schools only)

There was 1 SEC school that hired 4 head coaches that started in bottom half of SEC salary, wanna take a guess who that was?
There was 1 SEC school that hired at least 3 head coaches that started in bottom half of SEC salary, wanna take a guess who that was?
There have been 3 SEC schools that have hired at least 2 head coaches that started in bottom half of SEC salary - UK, Ole Miss (one was an interim promoted up), and us
 
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#13
#13
At the risk of sounding like I am attacking some of the posters on here (which I am not), There is nothing you can do about history except learn from it. I am tired of hearing about whos fault it is. My wife has a little plaque that says, "Having a bad day? Cry yourself a river; build yourself a bridge and then get over it." Come this fall we will know if its all better or not.
 
#14
#14
If a moving object is moving backwards, it must come to a complete stop before it can start forward. Now the pause may be so small as to hardly (or not at all) be seen. But it will come to a stop. An object a heavy as this football program will take some time to stop going backwards and start forward. Being so heavy, building up momentum will take time. ( I see a long heavy train as I write this). As to why??? Here again, a train going up a long grade may not be noticed to be slowing down if the engineer is not paying close attention. All at once the conductor and passengers say "hey! what's happening?" By the time they figure it out and start doing something about it, the train (program) has started to pause and slip backwards.
 
#15
#15
Two things are going to have to happen before we ever get back to what Majors had built. One, all of the other top notch coaches in the SEC are going to have to retire or get into NCAA trouble and resign. The second is a top notch Athletic Director who can actually perform the functions of being an AD.
 
#16
#16
At the risk of sounding like I am attacking some of the posters on here (which I am not), There is nothing you can do about history except learn from it. I am tired of hearing about whos fault it is. My wife has a little plaque that says, "Having a bad day? Cry yourself a river; build yourself a bridge and then get over it." Come this fall we will know if its all better or not.

Here, here!!! Who's at fault does not make a DAMN at this point. LETS move forward. Pissing and moaning about the past will do no good. It will only portray gloom and doom. MOVE ON.
 
#17
#17
There's too many involved to name them all, but I will start with Mike Hamilton and the Haslams. Hammy's failures, combined with the stubbornness of the Haslam regime, followed by the subsequent failures of the next couple AD's got us into this pickle. There are too many factors involved to discuss since then, but mismanagement of the program under their control is how we fell so far so fast.

There's not a coach in the world that could inherit what Pruitt inherited and have instant success.
Dead on assessment right there. It is extremely hard to overcome failures at the top over a long period of time. Hamilton was good at fund raising, but that was about it. Hart fired Dooley and hired Barnes so I he has those as accomplishments. But he also hired Butch sooooo. Currie was just a bad joke. It will simply take time to get back even if the right pieces are in place.
 
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#18
#18
Two things are going to have to happen before we ever get back to what Majors had built. One, all of the other top notch coaches in the SEC are going to have to retire or get into NCAA trouble and resign. The second is a top notch Athletic Director who can actually perform the functions of being an AD.
What “Majors built”? Lol. What exactly was that? 4 awful seasons followed by 8-9 up and down seasons, followed by, FINALLY, 3 good to very good seasons in a row before being the head coach on the sidelines responsible for all 3 losses his last season while the interim coach goes 4-0?
 
#20
#20
At the risk of sounding like I am attacking some of the posters on here (which I am not), There is nothing you can do about history except learn from it. I am tired of hearing about whos fault it is. My wife has a little plaque that says, "Having a bad day? Cry yourself a river; build yourself a bridge and then get over it." Come this fall we will know if its all better or not.
"Is that a song? It sounds like a song...I feel a trumpet solo coming."
images
 
#22
#22
Two things are going to have to happen before we ever get back to what Majors had built. One, all of the other top notch coaches in the SEC are going to have to retire or get into NCAA trouble and resign. The second is a top notch Athletic Director who can actually perform the functions of being an AD.

Hello Johnny, hitting the bottle early today?
 
#23
#23
What “Majors built”? Lol. What exactly was that? 4 awful seasons followed by 8-9 up and down seasons, followed by, FINALLY, 3 good to very good seasons in a row before being the head coach on the sidelines responsible for all 3 losses his last season while the interim coach goes 4-0?
Yeah, those back to back SEC Championships just one year removed before his ouster! That's exactly what that was!
 
#24
#24
2019 will be the season when Tennessee finally starts turning the corner:cool:

Sadly, I'm thinking 2020 at the earliest, with a marginal improvement this year at most. Generally, it takes about three years to develop a lineman, and that position is still the weakest link . . . and it's the link that holds everything together.
 
#25
#25
The right coach will overcome the circumstances... or be the beneficiary of divine providence. It doesn't matter who you blame. It only matters what standards you demand and how decisive you are when they aren't met. "Patience" with Jones is a major contributor to the hole Pruitt inherited. If someone had been bold enough to recognize the fatal weaknesses in Jones after he won 8 games with an 11 win roster... and take action... someone else might have built on that talent. But it is hard to fire a coach that wins 9 games. Hard but in retrospect the right thing to have done.

This thread and conversation are deja vu all over again. When Jones arrived, people blamed Dooley for Jones lack of success. Only us "traitors" dared to cast a critical eye toward what Jones was doing with what he was left. Now... a significant number who once excused Jones are blaming him. The truth is that every coach since Fulmer ran the program into the ditch has inherited a crappy situation. The roster Kiffin inherited was downright awful. It had a few really good players with some bad players to compliment... and no depth. Dooley inherited a roster completely dependent on youth then handed Jones one that was similar to what Kiffin inherited. Now Pruitt has inherited a roster with lots of issues. Hopefully some of those issues were just development rather than talent. We'll know soon.

But the bottom line is that great coaches, coach great. They coach great when they have Bama talent. They coach great when they have bottom level talent. A great coach gets more out of a roster than the sum of its raw talent. Because they do, players want to play for them.

I like Pruitt. I like him better than any of the previous 3. I think he's a better "coach" of the game than the previous 3. UT has poured more money into hiring a top shelf staff than at any point I can remember in the last 30+ years. But he has to show significant results within 3 years or the chances are he never will. There's a momentum to turning a program around that relies on a good start to sustain recruiting among other things.
 

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