Promises made.

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.

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“… the lack of competitiveness was alarming.”

Athlon dude’s not buying the Jeremy Pruitt’s got it goin’ on narrative:

After ranking Jeremy Pruitt as the 13th coach in the SEC, @AthlonMitch explains:

"Six losses by 25 points or more, gets blown out at home by Missouri, gets blown out at Vanderbilt and they missed getting to a bowl game … the lack of competitiveness was alarming."

LISTEN: pic.twitter.com/nAHqDfNHow

— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) July 1, 2019

I’m pretty sure I’m never going to stop enjoying “gets blown out at Vanderbilt”.

$405,401

Let’s hear it for Phil Fulmer:  because UT didn’t fire any coaches this fiscal year, the athletic department, flush with an operating revenue of $135.3 million, didn’t finish in the hole.

The man’s a fiscal genius.

(h/t)

“You know, Gary, people around Tennessee talk about you like the one that got away.”

Here’s a story ($$) that, back in the day, would have had the boys at Sports and Grits shaking their heads in disbelief.

Ten years ago, Tennessee decided Lane Kiffin was the right man to replace Phillip Fulmer and said thanks but no thanks to Patterson, who had won 41 games in the previous four seasons and led TCU to a pair of top-10 finishes…

“They thought I was too much of a football coach,” Patterson told The Athletic.

I thought about Jeremy Pruitt, the man who currently occupies Tennessee’s head football coach position. Later that day, I submitted Patterson’s quote to Dictionary.com to replace the current definition of irony.

“They didn’t think I could handle the spotlight,” Patterson said.

Junior sure could.

Every time I hear a Mike Hamilton story, I come away thinking he’s the Reggie Ball of SEC athletic directors.  He certainly did a number on Tennessee football, for which we should all be grateful.

*************************************************************************

UPDATE:

Few coaches do it any better than @TCUCoachP, who told me a similar story in 2017. “Tennessee didn’t think I could handle the big stage. … A lot of these ADs now are more interested in hiring guys who are going to win the podium than they are in hiring football coaches.” https://t.co/RG8OqqNQ2q

— Chris Low (@ClowESPN) June 18, 2019

Five-star hearts, always

You know, I was all prepared to post something about karma and that crappy Neyland Stadium turf in the wake of learning that Jeremy Pruitt just permanently lost his fifth (!) offensive lineman due to injuries, but after seeing this quote…

“Melvin is a great young man, and my heart breaks for him and his family,” said the second-year coach. “However, I’m glad that we have an outstanding medical staff that did a great job identifying the problem when Melvin first arrived here. We are always going to do what’s best for our student-athletes here at Tennessee. He is certainly a Vol for Life and will continue to be a big part of our program.”

… I think I’m gonna have to go with observing that Booch’s spirit lives on in Knoxville instead.  I mean, “Vol for Life” is special.  I bet they give you a personalized trash can with that inscribed on it.

That’s okay. He’ll watch the replay later.

Well, this is something.

#Vols DL coach Tracy Rocker shows major commitment to the program by missing son Kumar Rocker’s historic night so he could recruit: https://t.co/e89Llz8r8B pic.twitter.com/Xs2oBA3zcE

— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) June 12, 2019

I don’t know if I should be more impressed by Pruitt being a big enough dick to make Rocker miss his son pitching, or Rocker becoming that motivated on the recruiting trail.

Anchor down, Knoxville.

Vanderbilt’s current winning streak over Tennessee is a thing of beauty and a joy forever.

In Derek Mason’s fifth season with the program, The Commodores finished 6-7 with their second bowl appearance in three years. Still, Vanderbilt failed to secure a winning record under Mason. In his half a decade in Nashville, the best Vanderbilt has been able to do is 6-7. That’s not bad when you look at the team’s history, especially when you consider the recent dominance over in-state rival Tennessee.

The Commodores have won three straight over the Volunteers, the program’s best stretch in that rivalry since the 1920s.

A three-game winning streak while failing to finish above .500 in any of those three seasons is my kind of “recent dominance”.  Keep it going, ‘Dores.