A couple of notes of interest from this AP piece on how this year’s crop of newbie head coaches might do:
Remember that story about Alabama’s AD giving John Currie a spreadsheet that power ranked head coaching candidates? Welp,
The numbers also showed that coaches most likely to succeed at those schools had previous Power Five head coaching experience. Also, coaches who were previously a Power Five assistant had higher efficiency ratings than coaches who were previously a head coach at a Group of Five school.
I expected the first sentence to be the case, but the second one surprised me a little bit. Maybe there’s something to be said for already knowing how to operate in an environment of larger support staffs these days.
Speaking of previous P5 assistants, this may be the most perfect encapsulation of Jeremy Pruitt’s future you’ll read:
By virtue of not being Greg Schiano, Pruitt has Vols fans fired up about possibly having their own Kirby Smart — a Saban assistant who can implement the process. Or maybe Pruitt will be Will Muschamp? Unlike Nebraska, it does not seem as if expectations have been adjusted in Knoxville. And Alabama is still on Tennessee’s schedule every year.
I mean, really, doesn’t that hit all the high notes? (Okay, a gratuitous Fulmer reference tossed in there wouldn’t have hurt, but, still…)
Get The Picture 
On Volnation most expect an 8-4 rebuilding year at present. To be honest I am having more fun reading their blogs right now than ours. It is hilarious when every once in a while some Vol fan comes in and gives all the other commenters the red pill and says things like “you guys do realize were 0-8 in the conference last year”, and “guys Vandy has a winning streak against us, Missouri is not a sure win, also Mizzou beat us by 5 touchdowns last year”.
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Pruitt’s got a process, but it ain’t Saban’s. It’ll be interesting to see if his vibe makes an effective head coach.
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It’s all sunshine and roses to many of the denizens of urnge nation right now, just like it was with Butch, every player that leaves is dead weight that was best culled from the herd anyway, lol.
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I’m skeptical whether saban could implement the saban process at utk.
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I have no idea if Pruitt can really be “Kirby in Knoxville” but I’d be willing to say this about him:
He’s more of the Alabama process type coach than 95% of the coaches on the Saban tree. So in that regard, if being Bama lite is what you want, he’s a good hire.
all that being said, it’s going to take longer in Knoxville than it did at UGA.
he will piss some people off. If that happens sooner rather than later, then he better be winning when he does it. The culture clash and ego game is going to be interesting.
I still like him and think he was an underrated hire given how long it took him to get there. If you’re hiring someone without head coaching experience, they could’ve done a lot worse.
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Interesting to read the line about Nebraska tempering expectations while Vols fans haven’t. I suspect the tempering in Lincoln will last all of one year before ramping back up, but at least it shows some perspective. If Tenn fans are expecting big things this year I think they could be in for another rough fall.
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Pruitt.. Saban without the charm.
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A nice succinct way of summing up what could be Jeremy’s biggest problem at the big Orange Julius.
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If only we could have hired a guy with previous Power 5 head coaching experience. Just think how far we could have gone! I am very optimistic about where we are now, but one year doesn’t make a trend. Elite recruiting doesn’t guarantee a great year. Just look at FSU, USC and Texas in the recent past. I’m not putting the Dawgs down, I think 15-0 is more probable than 9-3. Just trying not to get too irrationally exuberant.
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Heck, it’s college football. I’ll always be irrationally exuberant.
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My money is on Scott Frost. Happy he did not choose an SEC school.
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Same here, I was just hoping he didn’t go to Florida. He could have been dynamite there.
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Agree, with the Nebraska job open fortunately though, he was never going anywhere else.
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The hype over Willie Taggart confounds me. Almost as much as the rationale behind Arizona State’s decision to hire Herm Edwards.
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I think Taggart will do really well at FSU. I think that it is a much easier job than Oregon and he did great at WKU and South Florida. I hope he kills it down there and makes it really tough on Mullen to get the top Florida kids. Jimbo had $75 million reasons to leave but he will have near the same success at TAMU.
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Senator,
Jeremy is gone and Mark is gone so now you can tell us about the fight that you said you had to keep a secret. No need for secrets they are all gone..
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