It’s to be expected with Tennessee coming to town that there’d be a retrospective or two about Jeremy Pruitt’s time in Athens. We get a couple of good examples of that from Seth Emerson ($$) and Marc Weiszer.
I won’t say there are any surprises about the picture that emerges from those two pieces. The kids who played for Pruitt respect him deeply. He’s favorably portrayed as someone who brought the Process to Athens and cleared the path for Kirby Smart to elevate the program.
There’s the baggage, too. Pruitt was a polarizing figure because he lacked the skills or the patience, or maybe both, to deal with the higher-ups in a productive way. This quote from Greg McGarity speaks volumes about that.
Asked about Pruitt, athletic director Greg McGarity said: “I’ll just say what Mark Richt said. Jeremy is at Tennessee now. We’re here at Georgia and we’ll just leave it at that.”
How that mix plays out in Knoxville remains to be seen. One advantage Pruitt has there over Athens is that he’s got an athletic director who’s invested in him. It remains to be seen how far that goes.
Get The Picture 
After all the bad choices TN made, this would could be the worst of the bunch, favorably inclined AD or not. It is adults that Jeremy Pruitt seems to have difficulty dealing with, and TN has some that want to do things their way. I don’t see Foolmer taking a bullet for him, will move aside and let JP die alone. Said before, it could work out, but it is a long shot, imo. (And hope it explodes again and again._
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Given how poorly Mullen is recruiting and the advantages UT has over UK, Vandy, USC and Mizzou, I tend to think UT has a good shot at being the second best team in the east in a couple of years.
If they can get to 5-3, 6-2 in conference play, UT should be estactic. Whether they will be? Who knows?
I think UT is a more reasonable fan base than UF but that’s more of a commentary on UF than anything else.
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UF and UT are basically tied for their 2019 class in avg star ranking.
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So too is South Carolina.
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I really don’t think Tennessee has much of an advantage over South Carolina or Mizzou anymore. So much of their “tradition” is from the Neyland days. Tennessee is better recruiting grounds than SC and slightly better than Missouri, but half of the talent is in Memphis. But… the time they were doing well in the Majors / Fulmer era, they were recruiting nationally. I don’t see that happening anymore. If Tennessee had the advantages they had in the past, I don’t think they would have to resort to hiring the #6+ choice for the 4th time in a row.
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Memphis might as well be Alabama or Mississippi. Those boys have zero loyalty to Knoxville. Outside Memphis, Tennessee’s recruiting base is no different than Kentucky. South Carolina has better HS players.
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Tennessee’s football recruiting budget is about the same as Missouri’s and South Carolina’s combined.
It’s a huge advantage.
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Hoo boy. A Pruitt thread with the potential to become a Pruitt vs Richt thread. You sure this isn’t the Playpen? 🙂
Every time I read about the difficulties Pruitt had in establishing Process basics in Athens, I wonder “what were we doing back then???” Yes, Pruitts abrasiveness contributed to the resistance, but the bigger picture seems to be that we had fallen a decade behind championship team standards – and we were hesitant to start catching up! The Richt staff was hesitant, potentially out of loyalty (?), while McGarity was hesitant because it cost money and showed how lackadaisical his stewardship of the program (when understood more broadly than the reserve fund) had become. In all, a very Georgia Way situation – everyone providing reasons, often couched in moral language, as to why there was no choice but for the program to remain mediocre. Senator, that book of yours about the 2015 season can’t get here soon enough.
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Replace hesitant with clueless and you’re closer to reality
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Good summary. I don’t have any ill will against CJP. He was handed a really crummy situation after CTG. I felt Pruitt worked hard, paid attention to details, and got results. Not sure any of these folks really “earn” the excessive salaries they’re paid, but Pruitt came closest to that target than all the other people involved in the program at the time.
The one thing Greg Mediocrity excels at is keeping his mouth shut. Of course he doesn’t mention that he paid Pruitt $1.5 million to be DC at bama in 2016.
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I mostly agree with Pruitt’s take about UGA but if he didn’t like it he should have just left after the first season instead of trying to create a mutiny. He could have then expressed himself to the media as an outsider which would have shed more light about the inside of B-M.
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Some thoughts… I think we can all agree on a few things. When CMR got to Georgia, the program was not in good shape. Plenty of talent, but no real plan and THREE STRAIGHT LOSSES TO GEORGIA TECH. Richt righted the ship and at least got Georgia on solid footing. After the 2012 Season, it just seem like Richt went into cruise control. He did not change with the times, only changed staff when he had to, and in many cases his loyalty was his downfall. He was quietly pushing for better facilities and getting NO WHERE. He had gotten comfortable and this reflected throughout the program and on the field. It was time for a change.
Pruitt, like Smart, like Saban are all intense individuals. Constantly looking for an edge. Constantly looking to improve. Constantly looking for ways to improve and win. Richt had no interest in new ideas.
I think we can all agree that Pruitt was ‘right’ about the things he was pushing for while in Athens. That has certainly proven out. I’m also confident that if he had to do things a little differently, he would have done so. You can be a bull in a China shop, as long as it’s your China shop.
Personally, I think Pruitt is a winner, but I’m not sure they’ll let him win at UT. I think they will fire him after year three. (Fulmer will blow it all up). He’ll be a DC for 2 or 3 years before getting another shot. And when he gets that sot, he’ll be one of the best coaches in College Football.
As for Tennessee football. The best they can hope for is to be competitive with Georgia. Same for UF. It’s quite funny to watch both programs ‘pine’ for the 90’S when they played each other to decide the East. Those days are done. The Title for the East goes through Athens, not Gainesville or Knoxville.
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Agree. Well said
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Concur wholeheartedly, and that was a remarkably astute analysis.
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Decent comments, but I think he was on cruise control starting around about the time Stafford committed.
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This again. Pruitt will be “one of the best coaches in College Football” based on what, exactly? That he worked with Saban? Good Lord, man. Cleanup yourself and quit staring at that Saban poster long enough to realize that not 1 of Saban’s assistants has done well as an SEC HC outside of Smart. And none have beat him head to head. Pruitt will crash and burn and slide into oblivion. He lacks the knowledge and self control to be successful in the SEC.
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Just an opinion that I think he’s going to do well, just not at UT. I see the same in Pruitt that I see with Saban and Kirby. No other assistants were mentioned.
I think maybe you are the one who is obsessed with Saban sir. It’s just one opinion of what happened at Georgia while Pruitt was there and of the quality of coach I believe he will be. We can agree to disagree.
“Clean yourself up”? I seriously doubt you would look me in the eye and say something like this. Awfully tough behind that keyboard.
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I think “how far it goes” largely depend on how high the cliff is.
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My biggest takeaway from the Banner Herald article is that I really miss and respect Mike Ekeler. I loved the way he talked about Nebraska when he came to Georgia and I have loved everything he’s said about UGA and Athens since he left. If he truly does decide to retire in Athens as he speculates may happen, he’s welcome in my book. It can’t be easy to be fired from a place, and to still root for that team and your kids is special.
Also, I can’t wait to beat Jeremy Pruitt like a drum on Saturday.
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Pruitt will get everything he asks at Tennessee, which was not the case at Georgia.
No doubt The Georgia Way needed to be exposed for the financial ruse it was (and is) and Pruitt did a good job of it. Without this, I don’t want to think about how deep a hole Kirby would have inherited from Shottenheimer and Grantham, or where else he would have gone to avoid it.
That said, a drubbing this weekend would severely test the relationship between the administrative head coach (Fulmer) and the football head coach (Pruitt) before the train leaves the station.
Show no mercy.
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Fuller is invested in Pruitt the same way a husband is invested in giving his mother-in-law directions to drive over a cliff.
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Pruitt will never coach a game where he isnt a double digit dog to Georgia or Bama.
Hope he stays at UT forever.
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Barring another 6 TO day by UT, there is no way we cover the 32. We are sure to play the whole bench once we get ahead by 20+ and UT is still an SEC team. I know we blew them out last year but the team had quit on Butch by then.
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Uhh, we cal him booch
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Some of you really want Pruitt to excel simply because you have some weird obsession with Saban and you believe that everyone that spent time with him has to be good. Pruitt is bound to fail. Between his lack of self control and Fat Phil’s micro-managing, Pruitt will just be another in a series of failures at UT.
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I really don’t care if Pruitt does or doesn’t excel to the extent it doesn’t impact the dawgs… but it does. So I hope for Mullen and Pruitt to be disasters so our success can come with greater probability. That being said I did love the way our defenses played under Pruitt, especially after years of d coordinator impotency.
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