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I can sympathize with a lot of the criticism of Coach Fulmer, but I don't see how any Tennessee fan can't love the guy. 

In the past month we've seen the program lapse into a familiar cycle, where the entitled, delusional sore losers create an environment so toxic that a coaching change may now be inevitable. 

I'd like to see him stay and succeed (and I define success differently from those fools who think the 90's are just a good coach away), but I'm afraid Pruitt is going to start suffering recruiting defeats that will derail his efforts to revive the program (as if it wasn't hard enough to recruit there already). 

Top 15 annually isn't near good enough for the types of fans that are calling for Pruitt's head right now, unfortunately. 

There's not much difference between being ranked #12 and ranked #20 in recruiting - their classes are dominated by 3* recruits and you're going to get hammered by the elite programs whose classes are dominated by 4*'s with plenty of 5*'s.  The only aberrations to that will be when we have an NFL quarterback (that must be recruited). 

Georgia's roster has over double the number of future NFL draftees than Tennessee's this year, and the same will be true in 10 years.  The sooner the Vol Nation comes to grips with that, the better.  And if that's NOT recruiting, then what is it? 

No one would be calling for Pruitt's head if his results aligned with this recruiting.  Not sure why that is difficult to understand?  In he Top 15-20 in the nation …. no calls for a firing.  The shit being played out on the field.....ummm WTF is that?

Fair points - I understand your position.  Where we differ is that I'm inclined to grant a coach a (seasonal) mulligan if I'm under the impression that things are moving in the right direction and he has the respect of the players.  There's so much parity out there among the non-elites and  and Tennessee has had such bad luck at quarterback (has there ever been a quarterback take so many snaps and improve so little in the history of college football?).  

Top 10-15 classes, and staring down the barrel of 3-7 or 2-8.  A non functional QB, and non functional offense, and a team that throws in the towel at the first sign of adversity.  Curb stomped at home by Kentucky, a far less talented team.  Shutout in the 2nd half against ARKY, a team that before this year, with a 1st year / 1st time head coach, had lost 20 straight SEC games.

If no Felipe Franks, we win that game by 17 points.  Pittman has been gracious enough to admit that Franks "gave them an opportunity to have a program this year."  

The problem is coaching, or communication, or both.  And Pruitt seems to have a less than room temperature IQ for either.

People don't want to face it, but as with life, most of it is luck.  

A program destined to recruit between #7 and #18 in the country is going to have its ups and downs, and there are going to have to be some mulligans granted along the way, depending in large part on who gets lucky at quarterback.  

Recruiting starts with coaching just look at Texas they've fallen on hard times with more top recruits in state than anywhere else in the country.

Having a strong proximate recruiting base doesn't guarantee success, but not having one all-but guarantee's mediocrity.  

Even when Fulmer was here he recruited well but didn't have good assistant coaches to develop it and wouldn't fire them.

Most say that about Majors.  In fact, many of Fulmer's detractors attribute his success to having and keeping good assistants.  

He lives in the world of where mediocrity is rewarded and ran off the best assistant he had in Randy Sanders.

Somebody forgot to tell that to a man named Cutcliffe.  

Bryant can take his'n and beat your'n, and then he can turn around and take your'n and beat his'n.

Bryant couldn't carry Robert Neyland's jock strap.  

There are no mulligans in year 3, especially in these new times.

These new times are all about parity except for the handful of elite programs.  Those are the kind of unrealistic expectations that are going to doom the program to persistent underachievement.  At Tennessee, if you want coaches to be around for 4 years or more, you're going to have to get used to mulligans every 3-4 years.

And, coming off an 8 game win streak to boot ….. signifies, something is amiss.

The quarterback position.

If no one is better, and hasn't been developed to be better than JG, who's fault is that?  Pruitt's, period.

If Guarantano hadn't been playing like he was shaving points against Kentucky then we win that game.  And I can't even remember what happened in the collapse against Arkansas, but we won the first half.  We were completely outclasses by Bama and Georgia obviously.  

Felipe Franks,the Gator reject, who was only a 1 second on the clock hail mary better than JG, who also went 4-8 in 2017?  Uh-huh.  Pittman is the difference in that team, not Franks.

Franks improved like Guarantano should have.  Franks gives the team confidence they can compete with anybody.  
 
They play inspired football with a confidence that they shouldn't have, both sides of the ball, with almost zero talent on the field.  That is inspired coaching.

Pittman agrees with me.  Watch what happens to Arkansas when Franks leaves if they don't have an NFL quarterback in the wings.  

They are playing significantly up, and the Vols are playing significantly down.

Guarantano was the first problem, but he's been replaced by fan base toxicity.  

Mulligans are given in year 1 and 2 of every new failed coach we hire....that's all you get.

You're in for a lifetime of frustration as a fan of Tennessee football.  

Lucky at QB, huh?

Yes.

Some would say UT is lucky having a 5th year senior starting QB with 30 games under his belt.

Yes, until they saw him perform. 

And funny enough, the same teams get lucky at QB every year.  (hint: the ones with good coaches)  

It's the top programs, not the mid-tier programs like us.  Occasionally you'll get a Drew Lock at a Missouri, but usually the elite guys want to play at elite programs with other elite players.  There's no reason to expect us to ever get there.  No elite coach would ever come to Tennessee.  Urban Meyer would laugh in our face.  Dabo Sweeney wasn't "elite" until he lucked into a couple elite quarterbacks and he was given a few years to pull that off.