If you didn’t hear, yesterday Smart got a commitment from Tennessee defensive tackle Tymon Mitchell. If that sounds like a somewhat familiar theme, that’s only because it is.
Georgia now has three of the top 15 players in the state of Tennessee for the 2019 cycle. Tennessee, led now by widely-respected recruiter Jeremy Pruitt, has just one of the state’s top 15 players.
Amazingly enough, this story gets even worse from a Vol perspective. Mitchell’s great uncle was the first African-American football player at Tennessee.
Good thing Pruitt’s widely respected as a recruiter.
Get The Picture 
Does anyone think Pruitt may have already pi$$ed off enough Tennessee high school coaches to get them telling their kids to look elsewhere before selecting the Vols? I have a feeling there’s an undercurrent of “Do you really want to wade into that mess with choice #8?”.
Say what we want about the Georgia coaching selection process (which the process was still flawed but the result is working out), but the fact it was settled quickly sent the clear message Kirby was going to get support from B-M and Kirby could tell recruits (and the players) they would get support.
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The selection process was not flawed. The best candidate was identified and hired quickly. Only issue I have is some of McGarity’s comments during the process may not have been accurate. An extensive nationwide search and “process” is not necessary when the answer is obvious. I knew in November 2015 the right move was to move on from Richt and hire Kirby. I doubt anyone can truly argue that was not the right decision.
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We can agree to disagree on your first statement.
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Agree to disagree.
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The issue here is that people make the assumption that the “extensive nation-wide search” was conducted after Richt was publicly fired. My understanding is that the Liquor Barons were furious with Richt when he accepted the call from Miami’s AD during the bye week before the Florida game. The the whole Faton Bauta debacle happened. It is quite possible that the decision to fire Richt was made then and the search firm was hired. That theory does make sense considering that was also the week of the “has Jeremy Pruitt been fired” rigmarole. I have always heard that Pruitt made a power play at trying to take over the team from Richt. The timing makes sense if he had heard through back channels that RIcht was out.
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Cool story, bruh.
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The snark is unnecessary. Everything I wrote was listed as rumor or speculation. Personally, I think the decision to fire Richt was made the week after the Florida game, but the search firm was a last minute CYA ploy.
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Does it really make sense to you that a guy who famously said he would stay in Athens as long as the school wanted him and never played the leverage game with UGA would after fifteen years suddenly do so? Or that he would fly out to see Eason on his own dime after the season if that were the case?
If you post stupid rumors, you’re gonna get a little snark in return.
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Come on Senator. You have posted stuff here on this very topic that could not be substantiated. Why be a dick to the guy for doing the same thing? Commenters on a blog must have proof to back up what they post?
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No, but at least they can post something that makes sense.
That’s what I was snarky about, not that it was a rumor.
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I’ve noticed a lot of tension between you and some readers recently. They’re thinking categorically while you’re thinking contextually. I know handling our data processing on a case by case basis is harder than just applying some categorical absolutes, but, dang, isn’t that the core competency of a college education?
Total tangent there. Sorry to butt in.
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Senator, I usually agree with you right down the line, but I’m not sure this time. There were some difficult years in between the famous comment and 2015. I went into my last job intending for it to be my last career stop, but the job environment turned out to be so toxic that I resigned and went elsewhere. I don’t think it’s completely illogical to think that Richt may have seen the handwriting on the wall and put together a backup plan.
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Oddly, the one part of my post that wasn’t actually rumor or speculation is the thing you find to be stupid. We know that Richt took the call from the Miami AD because the Miami AD, James Blake, has stated on the record that he called RIcht shortly after firing Al Golden. Richt took the call, but told him that he was happy at Georgia.
http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/14287857/miami-hurricanes-introduce-mark-richt-new-coach
I didn’t say, or even insinuate, that Richt took the call with the intent of playing it for leverage. Richt has admitted that he took the call out of deference to his Alma Mater. That doesn’t mean the liquor barons were not pissed.
I would like to see a source on that one. The Tech game was on 28 November, he was fired on 29 November. He agreed to be the Head Coach at Miami on 03 December and his hiring was announced on 04 December. That is a short 3 day window for him to go see Eason on his own dime to recruit him to Georgia after being fired.
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From your linked piece:
Were the liquor barons pissed before, or just this particular time?
To be fair, you did catch a mistype on my part. Meant to say after the offer, not after the season. Mea culpa.
The decision to fire Richt came before the Tech game, FWIW.
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What we do know is that sometime between the Season opener and 03 December, the liquor barons got pissed off enough at Richt for him to get fired. I was speculating that the confluence of events indicated that time period may have been the week of the Kentucky game. You are indicating that it was 3 weeks later. Care to share?
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There was dissatisfaction with Richt in certain quarters going back to the end of the 2014 season. McGarity misread the situation (i.e., there wasn’t complete agreement among the powers that be to fire Richt) and wasn’t able to move Richt out then, but the well was certainly poisoned at that point.
I would say things got to critical mass after the Alabama blow out. (I’ll let you connect the dots on a certain amount of convenient timing there.) Florida simply ratcheted the anger up to the boiling point.
I can’t say when the specific moment occurred. What I can say is that I was told by two different folks within an hour of the Tech game’s finish that Richt was out and Smart was the new head coach. Both sources told me they heard it from Regents they knew. That indicates to me the decision was made before the game.
The search firm crap that McGarity threw out was a total red herring. And if Miami had anything to do with the firing, this is the first I’ve heard of it.
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I thought it happened on 316 East on a quiet ride back to Athens after the Fech game. That’s what Greg said and he is Mr. Truthful all the time.
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Rocker must be exuding his usual charm on the recruiting trail as well.
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They must not have cannons in Tennessee.
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Post of the day.
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Well played
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Sides wants to know what that remark means.
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My suspicion: these HS coaches gossip like a church sewing circle at their conferences. The word about Pruitt is out, big time.
Now, winning cures all and Pruitt can start pulling down talent if he claims some scalps. But without Saban or the Bama infrastructure to keep him in his lane, I suspect there are a lot of coaches that are hesitant to send their players there.
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I just wonder if Pruitt gives as few shits about this news as Paul Johnson certainly does.
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Pruitt probably does, Phat Phil definitely does. The toothless, inbred, dysfunctional urnge fan base is apoplectic over the loss of home state talent to UGA.
At the LEAST, the inbred bastards know their instate talent is safe from paul THE johnson.
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Tennessee has been a tire fire for a decade now. Selling that program, with Fulmer leering over it to boot, is Mission Impossible with so many great options around it.
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The march of Tennessee DL to UGA is hard to process. Why all of them to us and none to UT? It’s bizarre. Glad to have them but the steal I really want is Clay Webb from Alabama. That would be huge!
Also what about the bad news? The “cannon shot?” Very disappointing to see DJ Daniel commit to USC. I thought he would take over for Baker in 2019. Between him and Campbell I thought we’d have 2 years of lockdown corners on both sides.
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Think as a JUCO player he was probably worried about playing time.
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The impression I had was that he was “plug and play.” Like Campbell. I wouldn’t have thought depth chart would be a big consideration. If he’s not “all that” I could see him hedging his bet and making sure he’s getting first team snaps. Especially since he’s on a short time frame to impress.
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I’m thinking DJ Daniel still winds up in Athens. The cannon shot is premature.
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I hope you’re right if he’s a day one starter. If he’s not sure he’s that good, then I’m not sure I care. I guess we’ll know one way or the other next fall.
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Is it good to get a commitment? Yes. Am I thrilled at staffing the DL with 3 stars? No. I am much more disappointed that we lost Daniel than happy we gained Mitchell.
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I agree generally. However, as for the 2 so not highly rated guys out of Tennessee, I’ll take Kirby’s evals over recruiting services for the time being. Also, I think a smart kid makes up for a lot of natural talent. I’ll take a Tom Brady over Cam Newton every day and those guys are night and day in terms of athleticism. After all 90% of the game is 50% mental, right?
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In Kirby and staff I trust. The kid looks pretty good on film but I don’t know about the level of competition he was facing.
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Yeah but the 2019 #2 player in GA, a 5-star OT Wanya Morris, is committed to Tennessee. He said he wants to be part of a dynasty. So he chose Tennessee.
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Knowing Kirby does his homework when it comes to evaluating talent, I’m assuming Kirby has his reasons for not pursuing Morris, and Mitchell is likely better than the 3-star rating.
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Yep on Mitchell. He has a HS season to play and be re-evaluated.
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Kirby did pursue Morris.
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Seems to me Kirby lands the big fish like Wilson, Mays, Salyer, Hill, etc. Therefore, Morris not being on the list, means he’s not a big fish. That’s my theory and I’m stickin to it!
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Die-nasty. He misunderstood what Tennessee was offering him.
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That’s Tennessee post-SOD.
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Then Wants Morris is out to lunch.
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Apparently, Fulmer is still offering 2002 prices. Ha! Might take Jeremy awhile to help him realize that the help costs more these days.
(TOTAL SNARK, y’all)
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My understanding is that Pruitt and his staff are investing most of their recruiting time in Atlanta while basically ignoring the talent in Tennessee. It is a bold strategy. When Pruitt hired his staff, Tennessee fans kept talking about how good the staff he assembled was at recruiting. I don’t see it. SEC games are won at the line of scrimmage. Will Friend and Tracy Rocker are quality position coaches, but both are known for being lazy recruiters.
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If they spend most of their time in Atlanta, Pruitt is generally only going to get Kirby’s leftovers (I’m ok with that). I think you have to win your state first regardless of how deep the local pool is if you’re recruiting for Old State U.
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I agree. According to the recruiting services, there are 10-15 blue-chip recruits in a given year in Tennessee plus a bunch of quality 3* croots. As the state school, they have a natural advantage with those kids. You then poach specific kids in GA, FL, and NC. Clemson has shown the blueprint for how to build a program in a state like that.
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The main problem Pruitt has in state is the fact that his HS football hotbed is practically 2+ states away in Memphis. It’s a 6-hour drive from Beale Street in Memphis to Kneeland Stadium which is only about an hour closer than it is from Miami to Doak Campbell in Tallahassee.
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Great get. Also just a hunch, but that orange Trump campaign themed UT hat also aint gonna help on the recruiting trail for Pruitt. Keep it up Kirby & squad!!
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The vibe coming out of the UT faithful is that the only one of the three that Pruitt had targeted was Norton. I have no idea if that is true, but if it is that kind of recruiting strategy by Pruitt sure could rub some TN high school coaches the wrong way.
Regardless, Pruitt is in a tough spot. He’s got a smaller recruiting footprint than his two main East rivals by a large margin. Sure, there a tons of players to poach from GA and some from NC, but it won’t be easy to wrest the best players from Smart. He’s behind from the gun.
I’m pretty damn happy about that.
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Everyone says Pruitt might be a bad head coach because he’s a volatile asshole or Fulmer, etc. I don’t think those will be issues that winning won’t fix and I do think Pruitt is a great coach (in the teaching sense) and recruiter.
What I don’t think gets enough attention is the fact that Pruitt was the advocate for hiring hocke and sale who were completely over their heads in their one infamous season at Georgia. If a head coach is only as good as the assistants he hires that may be the thing that derails Pruitt in Knoxville.
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Is it required there only be one thing?
I’m thinking multiple causes, sort of like that train wreck finale in The Legend of Zorro – a spectacular ending to a really bad movie.
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