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?).
There are no mulligans in year 3, especially in these new times. And, coming off an 8 game win streak to boot ….. signifies, something is amiss. Furthermore, what kind of idiot continues to trot the (has there ever been a quarterback take so many snaps and improve so little in the history of college football?) on the field? If no one is better, and hasn't been developed to be better than JG, who's fault is that? Pruitt's, period.
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."
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. 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. They are playing significantly up, and the Vols are playing significantly down.
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.
No, it's not. Liberal fantasies again. Hard work makes good 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.
Where are the ups? 2015 and 2016 were small blips. Plenty of downs to go around the last 15 years. Mulligans are given in year 1 and 2 of every new failed coach we hire....that's all you get. Lucky at QB, huh? Some would say UT is lucky having a 5th year senior starting QB with 30 games under his belt. Doh! And funny enough, the same teams get lucky at QB every year. (hint: the ones with good coaches) Amazing.