I think we can all agree Jeremy Pruitt is on his last gasp here, barring Harrison Bailey looking like a 1st rounder and winning some shootouts and bringing hellacious blitzes because Tennessee can't cover. Where did he screw up? 1. Identifying a qb and rolling with him: Pruitt let Helton replace Penix with JT Shrout and didn't press on Sam Howell. Penix is a feel good story for Indiana and Howell is a pretty good qb for UNC (he gets more hype than he should, but he's good). Chryst was a lazy flop as a grad transfer, another Helton recommendation. JT Daniels, the other grad transfer Pruitt went after, can't get on the field at UGA despite his competition being a future investment banker and a guy who had brain surgery. Kirby picked Fromm over Fields, however, so it may not be a damning indictment of Pruitt. 2. Staff moves: He's moved Niedermeyer to LBs, hired Felton as OLB coach and Osovet at TE coach. That's a lot of inexperience there, though Chip Long as an analyst should ease Osovet's learning curve. Pruitt's mindset is he can do all the defensive coaching if he needs to, which isn't working. The biggest problem on defense appears to be a total lack of communication, which is 100% on coaching. The defensive backs aren't in the screen and the linebackers race out of the middle of the field. It's a cluster[uck fay]. 3. His staff set up: He's got 4 defensive coaches, counting himself and 6 offensive coaches. The defense can't get guys on and off the field and the offense can't score points. That's a big investment for a shit tier offense. In my opinion, those are his 3 biggest [uck fay] ups. The offense could be fairly decent with a quarterback that can complete more than the go route consistently. I don't get the defensive scheme of guarding the sidelines and leaving the hashes open. I don't understand why the edge blitzes and stunts and twists that we saw a lot of last year have stopped. He's going to have to make some serious changes not only in his staff, but in his philosophy if he wants to be here past 2021.
His biggest [uck fay] up is investing so much in Jarrett Guarantano. The poor guy just isn't very good on gameday. 2018, hey, you get a pass. 2019, true freshman replaces him, a game too late but still, then he pogo sticks off his head a few times and Guarantano becomes the best relief quarterback in history. That complete screwball way of handling makes no sense, but the scoreboard says it works. 2020, you know what Guarantano is and you aren't rushing your 5 star freshman recruit's development, that's on you. Jarrett was flat miserable against Vandy and Indiana to close out 2019
Was he ever a coordinator on a team without great talent? Even when he coached high school his team was stacked. The worst teams he coached for were probably his years at Georgia and without looking it up I’m sure they were still winning 10-11 games. So he takes a job where he has to learn how to be a head coach on the fly in the SEC while also coaching and recruiting at a talent disadvantage several games a year for the first time. He’s just in over his head.
The whole team has been affected by lack of enthusiasm and leadership from QB, as well as belief by players. Pruitt lost the fans and trust in his team due to it imo. Perfect storm of qb bs, but Pruitt is responsible for it and its ashame. If we have virtually any other qb in most of d1, we dont have so many team issues and Pruitt isnt on the way out. Again, jmo. Its like an infection that just never went away and the common denominator is still there.
Interesting how he and Kirby have so mismanaged their QB situations given that their mentor dos not hesitate pulling QBs in the biggest of games.
I do not understand how the Defense can be so bad. No pressure on the opponents QB. A total inability to cover receivers. 3rd down is almost automatic for our opponents because of our inability to cover a simple slant pattern.
The team lacks heart. I don't think that it's just the JG blues brining them down either. There is a serious lack of fire when you are up 13-0 at halftime and then get pushed around all second half.
Like if your team hasn't won in over a month and then you are on the cusp of winning, how do you have zero pride and just quit. Who cares who the QB is at that point. Show some gumption and get the team across the finish line.
Been this way for 15 years. And every damn coach comes in going "gotta change the culture". I swear. There is something in the water over there, turns players into [ussies pay] and coaches into complete idiots.
Outside looking in it’s obvious he understands the Xs and Os but doesn’t know how to manage a staff. You can micromanage 5 coaches when you are a DC...but you don’t have the bandwidth as a head coach. He’s been lazy with the qb position probably out of arrogance for what he thinks of his defense.
outside of Dobbs, who are the qbs we've had the last 15 years who had the ability to lead a team to victory on their backs? Thats what SEC requires for success. And not taking any blame off Pruitt. It's much of his doing, and he got Covid'd too. It can be both. But players know. And teams who know their leader is more than likely leading them into defeat each week, will be mentally off, which leads to physically as well. Imo, that's what we are running into, among other things. There is no enthusiasm. JG has not been able to figure out how to act and lead with actions and his demeanor. That stuff infects.
It's the slow hook on coaches. I was shocked when I was there how openly disrespectful some were to the coaches. Kiffin had Orgeron as the enforcer, that solved it in 09. Dooley fired anyone that disciplined players and Butch selectively enforced rules.
He proved he wasn't cut out for the job as soon as he ran off to Tuscaloosa to try to help them win rather than staying in Knoxville and focusing on his program. Everything after that has been varying degrees of shit.
That's the only time Tennessee football has been entertaining for the last two decades, outside of a few games in 2009. I'm just here for the chaos at this point.
