Vol fans, take it from one who’s seen it before, shit’s about to get real in Knoxville.
Spring practices are over and final exams do not begin until next week, but this week could still turn out to be significant for some Tennessee football players who were the subject of Jeremy Pruitt’s wrath on Saturday.
The coaching staff is expected to conduct exit interviews with each player this week, and if Pruitt’s harsh words after this past weekend’s spring game are any indication, those interviews could lead some to consider transferring, unless they want to sit on the bench in 2018.
Shades of 2014… except Georgia had a much deeper cupboard then than UT appears to have now. Even so, Pruitt lit the match that created the fire that helped lead to the debacle of UGA’s 2013 recruiting class. If history repeats itself in that regard, you’d best be prepared for a few lean years.
Get The Picture 
Lulu and Junior say: “let’s run off dem pansy azz players!”.
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Pruitt understands the situation Tennessee football is in. He understands the solution…I’m not certain he has the temperament to walk the line between adjustment and wrecking.
I hope that, in a couple of years we can, with a smirk on our faces, look towards Knoxville and say, “That’s a hell of a way to run a football program”.
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He understands the solution…
Does he?
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Long term, I think he does. Recruit 4 and 5 star kids, coach them up, and demand high performance. His problem is that his current team lacks those blue chip players and he’ll be around 10 players short of the 85 limit in the fall. We’ll see if he can adapt the way Kirby struggled to in year 1, but finally did in year 2. Fortunately, Kirby didn’t have Fulmer looking over his shoulder offering to “help.”
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Easier said than done. Pruitt has never had to recruit to a program as far away from being a contender as UT, and he wasn’t able to get any juice into their class last season after coming on board (they had the 20th ranked class), nor has he been making any splashes in this cycle yet, either. Wait and see, sure, but if you’re a Tennessee fan you would hope to see some recruiting buzz around a new coach. That hasn’t happened for Pruitt, so far. So if he’s running guys off without any quality coming in to replace them…. well….
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He understands the solution in the same way that I understand how to fly an airplane. I’ve taken a couple off the ground, but landing one is a whole different thing. (especially if it’s windy).
Maybe CJP has a bumper sticker that says, “Phil is my co-pilot”.
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That’s a brilliant analogy, haha.
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How did pruitt’s hiring in the winter of 2014 influence the class signed in the winter of 2013?
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He ran some players off the team (Shaq Wiggins, for example) and the 2013 class proved woefully short in being able to fill the gaps.
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The 2014 and 2015 defenses played just fine.
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Which part of “Shades of 2014… except Georgia had a much deeper cupboard then than UT appears to have now.” didn’t you get?
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We all want the guy to fall flat on his face. However, we also have to keep in mind that his “style” was there when we had improved defenses and recruiting while he was at UGA. CPJ’s biggest issues are being in Knoxville and playing Saban and Smart every fall. His problem is not being a dick. That’s probably a net plus and we have to agree that such a quality hasn’t harmed Dick Saban at all.
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How Pruitt does wasn’t the point of my post, Derek. I was warning UT fans that perhaps they should temper their short-term expectations because that team won’t exactly be loaded in the foreseeable future.
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2007 at Tuscaloosa and 2016 at Athens should do that. I know there was considerable resistance to the prediction of parallels there but they’ve been pretty damn accurate so far. (Of course those predictions mean we close the deal this year btw.)
Fans are morons and that’s doubly true at UT. Winning in year one is not the process and they have a brutal schedule. They should be content with bowl eligibility. I hope they aren’t and they hire mike leach.
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Was thinking the same thing. Pretty sure 2013 was all Todd Damn Grantham.
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If you’re going to cull the riffraff, better now than down the road. He gets a pass this year, so no time like the present, for him.
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Burn down the barn to kill the rats.
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This is gonna be fun for UGA fans to watch: Pruitt will not stand for half assery
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I just get the sense that he’s going to personally sabotage his own honeymoon/grace period by having some unhinged press conference after they lose 4 games in a row.
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University of Tennessee has some talented returning players (i.e., 25 4* and 5* prospects), they just need to be coached well:
5* DL Kyle Phillips (Senior)
5* OT Trey Smith (Sophomore)
4* DB Micah Abernathy (Senior)
4* LB Dillon Bates (RS Senior)
4* LB Daniel Bituli (Sophomore)
4* WR Tyler Byrd (Junior)
4* WR Marquez Callaway (Junior)
4* RB Ty Chandler (Sophomore)
4* DL Eric Crosby (Sophomore)
4* RB Carlin Fils-Aime (Junior)
4* DB Maleik Gray (Sophomore)
4* QB Jarrett Guarantano (RS Sophomore)
4* LB Will Ignont (Sophomore)
4* WR Jauan Jennings (RS Junior)
4* DL Alexis Johnson (RS Senior)
4* OL Ryan Johnson (RS Sophomore)
4* DB Todd Kelly, Jr. (Graduate Student)
4* LB Darrin Kirkland, Jr. (Senior)
4* DL Jonathan Kongbo (RS Senior)
4* DB Marquill Osborne (Sophomore)
4* OL Drew Richmond (RS Senior)
4* LB Quart’e Sapp (RS Junior)
4* DL Darrell Taylor (RS Junior)
4* DL Shy Tuttle (Senior)
4* DB Nigel Warrior (Junior)
In addition to the aforementioned players, the Vols are bringing in 8 4*s from their 2018 recruiting class:
4* WDE Jordan Allen (freshman EE)
4* OT Jerome Carvin (freshman EE)
4* DT Greg Emerson (freshman EE)
4* DT Emmitt Gooden
4* DT Brant Lawless
4* OLB JJ Peterson
4* WR/CB Alontae Taylor (freshman EE)
4* TE Dominick Wood-Anderson
Moreover, 2014 4* QB Keller Chryst is graduate transferring from Stanford (where he started 13 games and had a 19 TD to 6 INT ratio) to Tennessee this summer, so the Vols will have at least 34 elite-level players on their roster (pending attrition) heading into August preseason camp.
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