Will Pruitt have the toughest opener as a Tennessee coach ever?

#5
#5
Going to California for a season opener is much harder from a logistics standpoint. long flights, longer stay in hotel/away from home, etc. At least they have ta short bus ride to Charlotte and don't have to leave several days before the game to get there.
 
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#8
#8
Opening at Syracuse with McNabb was tough. You youngsters must trust me that Syracuse was decent at one time
 
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#9
#9
UT Hill Man said:
Threads like these are part of an overall effort to lower expectations for Pruitt.
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I don’t think that’s true , it is what it is West Virginia is going to be a tough game . The expectation we all have is to win the game so it’s not lowered just because he’s knew and they are good . I mean is West Virginia upping their coaches expectations ? Nah everybody just wants to win and until the game is over , believes they can .
 
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#11
#11
VOLfrombama said:
Going to California for a season opener is much harder from a logistics standpoint. long flights, longer stay in hotel/away from home, etc. At least they have ta short bus ride to Charlotte and don't have to leave several days before the game to get there.
Click to expand...

That wasn’t Fulmer’s first opener as a HC. Which was my impression of the OP?
 
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#13
#13
Looking back through the history books, I think the toughest opener ever faced by a Vols coach may have been the start of General Neyland's third stint, in 1946, when he faced off against one of his former players, Bobby Dodd, and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Tennessee won that opener 13-9, but the Jackets went on to post a 9-2 season.

If you rule that game out because Neyland had coached at Tennessee before (in two other stretches, even), then maybe the toughest career opener ever for a Vols coach was Bowden Wyatt's 1955 game against the Miss State Bulldogs. We lost that one, 7-13. Coach Darrell Royal was in his 2nd season. MSU ended the season 6-4.

Will our opener this year against West Virginia be as tough as either of those games? Hard to tell, because we don't yet know how good West Virginia's squad will prove to be. It could be up there with the toughest, though.

Certainly a lot tougher than J.D. DePree's opener in 1905 against the Tennessee School for the Deaf.
 
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#14
#14
CJP has a very tough job in general and it's part of the reason why I predict he won't make it here. GA is stout. FL hired a proven winner. Muschamp seems to be figuring out the offensive side of football. Bama
.... Well nothing needs to be said. If Pruitt wins here he will have accomplished a major feat in my opinion. But, his task is brutal. He will be tried by maybe the hottest fire any coach in UT history has ever been tried by.
 
#15
#15
I'm confident the players expect to win. There would be a problem otherwise. My expectation is for the team to exhibit discipline through few penalties while being aggressive enough to make the other team work hard for their gains. A win? No, and many reasonable fans will agree with that.
 
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#17
#17
I’m going out on a limb and say, that this opener will be the toughest for a new coach ever in the history of UT football. This is a game that he can get off on the right track. 👌💥
 
#25
#25
We’ve had seasons with much more difficult openers. As mentioned earlier the Syracuse game comes to mind....as does some UCLA games back in the day, Georgia in 1980 and ‘81, Iowa in 1987, #5 Colorado in 1990. There are surely many others when we played in Kickoff classics and whatnot.
 
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