I care more about trajectory than body of work. I give a B- for state of the program, with an A being something like "I am sure we will win an SEC championship in the next 3 years." There is serious reason for optimism if these dudes can start recruiting the way we need to. If I'm rating on body of work I am closer to kpt.
As requested. I am encouraged but as pointed out, we need to reload. And I need to see a better start to next season.
Well, I am on record regarding the first loss. But we started beating the teams we are supposed to...consistently. That’s a good sign. No more GaSt’s though. So while Dooley cemented his failure year 2, have to look at year 3 for Pruitt
It’s college football, you don’t go into the season as odds-on favorite for the natty. I mean if you subbed out the Miami Dolphins for the Miami Hurricanes, they could probably go 15-0 and grade out as a C coaching job. But the scenario where one team is just that dominant is one that we go into a season figuring the rest of the field doesn’t have a chance is one that I don’t believe we’ll ever see.
Those first two losses are squarely on the coaches, and they are each inexcusable. At that point in the season, this staff graded as a hard “F”, and which came damned close to standing for “FIRED”, because that’s where it was headed, and too quick to talk about it. After the first two losses, a 10-loss season wasn’t just on the table - it was more likely, than not. TEN. LOSSES. The depths that this program would have plummeted to in a scenario where we have to fire Pruitt and Papaw - make no mistake, they would have gone together - during Year 2....defies the imagination. For as deep as the hole has been for the last decade, that would have snuffed out whatever distant light remained, and for another generation, at a minimum. Do y’all not remember that? Take a second and go back to that dark place in your minds, and exhaust your silliness with heaving sobs and shrieking, until such time as you return to your senses. You want it both ways, ostensibly, because you’re stupid. You want to say that it’s Pruitt & Co.’s fault that they lost those first two games - entirely fair, because it was. But you then want to act like we just started a new season or got a new team thereafter, and which utterly fails to give full credit for both the depth from which we arose from those losses and the height still attained in this season, and which Pruitt & Co. somehow still brought about...and with the exact same team who wasn’t good enough to beat GA ST. and BYU. You can’t say that those two losses were all-time bad (they were)....then fail to also admit the masterful job it took to go on a six game winning streak, finish 7-5 and while sitting here waiting on a New Year’s Day bowl game thereafter, and with the exact same team. You can’t say that we were at an all-time low after those losses, and then essentially say that everything that then followed was pedestrian or slightly-above-average. That’s so silly as to come dangerously damned close to being flat-out shenanigans. The blame for the hole we dug has to be somewhat proportional to the credit for having climbed out of it. Given where we were after those first two losses, to where we now find ourselves, is nothing short of miraculous. You sit here now, with the full benefit of hindsight, and say, “Well, of course it ended this way!” But when 1-2 people predicted that getting to 7-5 was still even possible, you didn’t even bother arguing with them, because it was such an utterly preposterous proposal. But here we are. And what is your collectively stupid response? “Meh, C-“. This is a solid B effort for this staff and team, right now, today. If they can finish with a great class and a bowl win (hell, even a hard fought loss), it’ll be a solid - SOLID - A. If Pruitt starts shitting the bed, hereafter, we’ll say so. I’ll be right there with you. But right now, taking a full account of the entirety of this season, it’s amazing where we find ourselves today. Amazing. The hell is wrong with y’all? Dummies.
The turn around this season is nothing short of a miracle. The stain on this program left over from [uck fay]ing Butch Jones was far worse than I imagined. And while the first two games fall squarely on the coaches, at least they had the presence of mind to finally jettison the last vestiges of the Butch Era (I believe we had a few people leave the team around that time), but they also were not so hard for their own egos that they didn't say "we gotta change". And they did. The defense gelled, the offense stripped down and while we didn't run the score up on people, we didn't lose the games on offense either. And love or hate him (I fall solidly in both camps), JG manned up after the Alabama debacle, the coaches had his back and he really grew. Until the Vandy game, but that is neither here nor there. The in game adjustments this staff can do is such a breath of fresh air. The defense shut teams down after the first quarter. I am optimistic about the future of Tennessee Football, and I was ready to fire Pruitt after the BYU loss. Pass the crow.
To JG's credit, his grandmother died on Thanksgiving and it was shit conditions outside Saturday. I still thinks he leaves after the bowl and I don't blame him.
My biggest fear if he comes back is that he’s written in as the starter. I wouldn’t mind having him around as an experienced hand if needed but I’m ready to give the reins to someone else
no more ordained starters. hopefully Pruitt learned to keep it competitive even if there is a clear leader.
I was adamant he would get bowl eligible when Tennessee was at 1-4. He did a good job digging out of a self induced hole. He's got a little hope going into 2020. He kicks a slow, overrated Big 10 team's ass in a bowl game, everyone is happy and Tennessee is a fringe top 25 team. 5-3 in the SEC is a good year for a team that started 3 quarterbacks, two freshmen offensive tackles and a freshman linebacker.
I don’t disagree. But if he holds any hope of ever playing in the NFL, he has no better chance to do so, than by staying here, winning the job, and balling out. I don’t think that we can win more than 8 with him starting at QB, but I’d much rather have a trusted 5th year senior QB, than not. My biggest fear is not that he immediately leaves or stays around for another season, but that he doesn’t win the gig and leaves late in the summer, after having hung around and taking snaps and attention in the spring and summer, while trying to win the job. He needs to quickly decide, either way. I have nothing but my own blind-assed guess, but I think he stays...and would probably be the odds-on favorite to win the gig to start next season. I hope that Bailey is good enough to beat him out as soon as he hits campus, but for some reason (another blind-assed guess), I don’t think that he will be. Again, you’d know and I wouldn’t, but I think he stays.
Except he's not trusted and he was benched for two different quarterbacks. He played well against Missouri, but followed it up with Saturday's 6 completion performance. He's not an NFL quarterback, either.
Hey Farva what's the name of that restaurant you like with all the goofy shit on the walls and the mozzarella sticks?
I say AMEN! Preach it brother. The most amazing 7-5 season you could imagine. So many interesting story lines.
