Promises discarded ($$).
After just one year, Pruitt handed off defensive play-calling duties to Derrick Ansley, an up-and-comer who was the highest-paid defensive backs coach in the NFL with the Oakland Raiders last season. Ansley is a coach Pruitt says can “finish my sentences.”
“If I can’t call the plays, I’m going to quit coaching,” Pruitt said last year. “I like to be involved in the game-planning and I like to call the defense. I would like to call the offense too if I could.”
That’s the mindset when there’s nowhere to go but up. At least you hope that’s the case.
Improved development and recruiting offer reasons to believe Pruitt’s second team will be better than his first, but there’s plenty to prove after consecutive last-place finishes in the SEC East, capped by embarrassing losses to Vanderbilt. [Emphasis added.]
That shit never gets old.
Get The Picture 
“ Ansley is a coach Pruitt says can “finish my sentences.”
“AIGHT”….can’t wait to hear him finish that one.
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Had breakfast with a few friends last week, and when football came up I turned and asked the Vol what he felt about their chances to get over the Vandy hump this year. I saw every emotion flash across his face in less than a second, and then just got a shoulder shrug. Beautiful.
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Thanks, Dawgflan! Nice read!
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“embarrassing losses to Vanderbilt.”
Redundant.
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it’s the flip side of “critical win over Vanderbilt.” It feels weird seeing those words in that close proximity, but for the Hillbillies, it’s a goal in 2019.
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Truth is, even the historically bottom-dwelling teams like Vandy, Kentuck, scu, etc., aren’t that easy to beat unless you have significantly superior talent. And I’m not sure Pruitt (or Ansley, or Chaney) can expect to regularly out-coach the likes of Mason, Stoops, Boom, etc. All those schools suffer from the same malady – a sparse recruiting environment in their respective back yards. Poaching recruits from someone else’s back yard is a very tough job.
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“…who lost six games by 25 or more points in 2018.”
God, how I love reading that!
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“But Phil won’t let me call the defense anymore.”
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