For me, the most remarkable moment from the opening of preseason practice was the media asking Jeremy Pruitt how much he is The Guy. Pruitt, to his credit, deflected the underlying premise nicely.
After one season as Georgia’s defensive coordinator, Jeremy Pruitt’s presence has been felt.
The defense improved over the course of the 2014 season and has high expectations entering year two. A few hires with ties to Pruitt were made following his own addition — including inside linebackers coach Kevin Sherrer and strength and conditioning coordinator Mark Hocke — would signal some additional influence he’s allowed to have on this program.
When asked about it, however, Pruitt said he hasn’t been handed any more control than a defensive coordinator may typically have.
“We’ve got one boss around here and that’s coach (Mark) Richt,” Pruitt said. “As a head coach, your assistants kind of help make who you are. When you sit in a room and you start saying who are some names, who are some guys we can bring up.”
There’s a whiff in that exchange of that same uneasy smell I got from the Belk Bowl presser when Richt was asked if he was aware of the rumors that his job was in immediate jeopardy. (Not that it’s Pruitt’s fault.)
I don’t know that this is a case of perception is reality… I kind of doubt it. But in any event, perception is weird.
Get The Picture 
Instead of manufacturing wierd, I suggest Jason Butt concentrate on the words he uses.
“The defense improved over the course of the 2014 season and has high expectations entering year two.”
If I may suggest, Jason, that “the defense improved in some areas over the course of the year, but in, arguably, the two biggest rivalry games of the year, at the end of the year, could not stop either Florida or Tech.”
“Expectations” are high? I can only speak for myself, but its more hope than expect, Jason.
You gotta wonder if the Ledger-Enquirer moved this guy over from covering Columbus city government.
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If you’re gonna critique someone else’s use of language, the least you could do is spell “weird” correctly. 🙂
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It’s a poor man that can only spell a word one way.
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Thanks for the catch…even a resident genius throws a pick once in a while.
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Yes, I do, but didn’t think you had noticed …or cared.
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He’s a photo journalist… not a math major! 😉 JK Scorp
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I love Pruitt’s response. It not only showed his respect for his boss, Richt, but it was Raganisc with a hint of “there is no limit to what we can achieve, if we don’t care who gets the credit”.
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I’m not sure what you mean as “uneasy”. That he gave assistant coaches credit for making a head coach successful? I’d say that’s certainly true. If you don’t have good ones, you won’t be successful as Richt has learned. I just thought he was saying assistants are often asked for input when hiring new guys. HE even said Lord Saban himself does this. I’ll admit though, his suggestions for hire seem to be the ones that always get the job. At least in everything not strictly related to offense.
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I wasn’t uneasy about the answer.
I was uneasy about the question.
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Yeah, that was a weird question.
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Kinda reminds one of some of the WEIRD things you around governments.
In case its not clear, I think you should be uneasy about a stupid question.
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Gotcha. But it’s definitely what many of the followers are saying. And I can see why. He speaks out about an IPF and we’re getting an IPF. The S and C hires are obviously linked to him. Our practices are changed to what he used to do at Bammer. I actually respect Richt more for not being so hard headed and allowing someone who has experienced success the last few years to change some things.
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“allowing”Is that not the key word? It seems improbable to me that Pruitt did anything Richt would have objected to, and probably encouraged.
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The writer says “he’s allowed to have” which I would take means Richt is giving him more authority. I don’t think he was ever suggesting Pruitt just does whatever the heck he wants. Of course Pruitt denies that he has more authority than a normal coordinator. I guess I just don’t see it as that weird. Things have definitely changed since he came aboard and much of the stuff has been undeniably linked to him.
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I think it is as simple as CMR made a good hire in Pruitt. Pruitt is a man with good football knowledge and has many valuable contacts in the game from his years of experience. CMR is obviously a man that utilizes the knowledge of the people around him…just like any good CEO would do at any business. Pruitt has just been high-profile and unafraid to provide his input. If Pruitt continues to show his worth, it will payoff in an opportunity for a CEO position for himself. And I feel like CMR is a man of character who would allow that opportunity to grow under his watch.
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The only way to effectively be sure CMR doesn’t get credit if we win the SECCG this season is to not give him credit for anything now…other than any mistakes made by anyone else in the program. I’m inclined to say this is the “Georgia Realist Way”.
Finebaum will be beating this drum soon to be sure.
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And what do you think Finebaum would infer from the weird question?
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If he hasn’t already…and who knows, because we’re not listening to him….but a drumbeat of “this is Pruitt’s team, not Richt’s” is not a positive. Excusing Pruitt’s answer as just being polite but not true allows this perception to persist.
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Similar to “Kirby don’t really run the defense…Nick’s the defensive coordinator.”
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https://www.google.com/url?url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_before_E_except_after_C&rct=j&frm=1&q=&esrc=s&sa=U&ved=0CBQQFjAAahUKEwj_4cGFgZLHAhUFWz4KHdSVC8g&usg=AFQjCNFPNRtvMsXhdCTbWHxU31z3USxwtA
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See, that there thing is the problem. My fingers are programmed to follow that I before E thing. It takes an effort to override programming. 🙂
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Wceird.
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Is that an answer to a man-to-man defense?
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Sheesh, he’s only been here one year. I guess they can’t say ‘hot seat’ for a while so they try to stir the pot some other way.
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Stir it, or ….smoke it?
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That’s weederred.
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Agreed. What ever it takes to get a story.
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I have no problem with our staff being asked tough questions. We already know the media in this state are not lapdogs to the University of Georgia program.
That said, it appears university administration and the athletic department are no longer going out of their way to expose coaching and player issues in the name of “full transparency”.
We now have leadership comfortable enough with its own reputation to no longer have the need to use our players and coaches as their political scapegoats. The CYA culture appears to be dying out. Good riddance.
Pruitt handled the question well. It is refreshing.
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I do have a problem with our staff being asked any questions, tough or otherwise, by the media. This is particularly true since we have (as the Ol’ Ball Sack would put it) “enemies” of the program in the media who have their own axes to grind. All inquiries about the program should be directed to the HC. All interviews about the program should be given by the HC. No players, assistant coaches or staff members should be speaking to the media–period. Not wanting to hold Nick Saban up as the icon of college football, but this is something he does right IMHO. It keeps twerps like this asshole from purposely asking smelly questions and eliciting innocent responses that can be interpreted as something they are not, and thereby creating divisiveness within the program.
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“I do have a problem with our staff being asked any questions, tough or otherwise, by the media.”
Mayor, I get your point about the head coach having the ability to fully control what he want his staff wants to share with the media and nothing more. Hoever, it’s not a realistic approach in the Atlanta market.
This approach works in smaller media markets like Birmingham and Columbia SC because reporters don’t want to jeopardize their access to the only big game in town.
Reporters here can cover a number of professional teams, so there is a little risk in asking the tough questions, or writing uncomplimentary articles about coordinators or athletic directors being ‘evasive’.
There is a noticeable change in how Georgia is handling things. It appears everyone is better briefed now on how to address these types of questions, but we will never see a threatening, single mouthpiece approach work here.
We all saw what happened to Coach Donnan.
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A census taker once tried to test the Mayor who looks forward to 2020
https://screen.yahoo.com/census-taker-000000855.html
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Wrong picture. Another guy. This is me: https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=photos+of+robert+redford&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001
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I gotta say this again. The open involvement of the president of Georgia in athletic department issues is a sea-change from the way things have been for decades. Georgia’s president has always been involved to some extent, but the willingness of Jere Moorehead to talk to the media about involvement is definitely new. I notice Tom Jackson has moved on.
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Yeah, agree Scorpio – Jere’s house is clean and in order so he can speak out and manage in the sunlight.
Richt and Pruitt are both voluntarily subordinating their (e before I) large super sized egos to accomplished a shared goal- Kudos to them both.
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Yeah, yeah, I see what you did their. The old conventional wisdom was if the president involved himself if things football he was jeopardizing HIS job if we got beat by Tech, for instance.
It is refreshing that Jere Moorehead does not seem to fear that. Fear is the mind killer. (HT Frank Herbert)
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How you Dune sir.
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+1 Large 🙂
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Perhaps he should fear that.
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You shouda feared Jan Kemp, Fred.
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Jan didn’t get Fred fired, did she?
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I thought the question was weird when I saw it too, but in retrospect the answer is a little odd as well. it suggests that Pruitt has been aware of the perception that he’s part chief and part indian, and it’s made him uneasy enough to want to clarify something that should need no clarification that Richt is running the program.
It’s going to be frustrating if that begins to cause tension in their relationship. CMR does some odd things on gameday, but I think he’s a great coach – it’s just crazy what he has to deal with in his J-O-B.
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It is crazy that he has to deal with it in his J-O-B. And that craziness is well accounted for in his salary.
Pruitt’s done a great job asserting his subordination to CMR- from his hire date, to accepting blame for losing to SC, to today.
Anybody miss Grantham?
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Who?
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That guy behind the towel that we pummeled in the bowl game. You know, whatshisface..
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Forgotten and gone?
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There is a slight chasm between a coordinator being able to choose his position coaches and being “The Guy.” Folks are giving Pruitt way more credit than he deserves for changes occurring to the program.
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Yup
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Pruitt came to UGA from Bama and FSU that had just won NCs. When he told Richt were the program was deficient relative to championship winning programs, I think it carried weight and opened Richt’s eyes. If we want to call that influence on the program, fine. I think it’s more a case of Richt finally accepting he’s not going to be able to pull this off without a full deck.
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Maybe Richt has finally found his “Erk”. Lord knows Erk saved Dooley’s butt many times. The Junkyard Dawg thing was about the quality of players that Dooley allowed Erk to have on defense. Erk was capable of making chicken salad out of well you know. I think CJP is obviously loyal to CMR, why else would he leave FSU after just one season. I hope he stays long enough to get our defense all the way bad to being the meanest defense in the SEC.
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Kudos to Coach Richt for not being stubborn when comes to accepting new ideas from those with less experience. Im not a huge fan of his ( as a coach) , but it takes a humble person to do that. Its hard to see Saban or the Pontiff doing that.
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I hope Pruitt turns out to be the coach we all want him to be. The guy has more expectations put on him than any coach at Georgia that I can remember.
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dmk..I have to plead guilty to thinking Grantham was the coach we had all been waiting for. I even suggested that, because of his confrontation with Franklin of Vandy…that he had and ERKish fire in his belly that would spread to the whole team. Live and learn….
But JP and CMR seem to be a good fit and I, like you are hoping CJP can live up to it all and more.
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