To be fair, yours is a bit of a lazy take as well. Big difference between “show me” and “they suck until they don’t.” The thing with a lot of folks is that they think we have the coach that is best for the program until the moment that we have the worst coach in program history. There is a lot of room for nuance in there.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’ve got an open mind. I just see some data points that are similar to this point in Butch’s regime, and full disclosure, I was fully on board with Butch at this point in his tenure. It’s still early enough in both the Pruitt era and the Recruiting season where the trajectory hasn’t reached, oh, I don’t know, terminal velocity(?) either way, so no, I don’t think Pruitt sucks, I don’t think he should be fired, I don’t think he is on the hot seat. I just can’t manufacture my own absolute buy in yet just because he’s the newest occupant of the chair. And yes, it probably does have a lot to do with how Butch’s tenure went.
that's probably the fairest take i've seen from you, and i don't necessarily disagree with any of it.
two things i'd say...yeah, it's very early. like super early...so i don't see how anyone (not saying you) could come close to drawing conclusions at this point.
i tried to be fair with Butch, but always had doubts....like there was always someting "good" to point out, but it was immeidately countered, correctly in most cases, with something not so good. ultimately, we know what happened.
data points aside, there's two things about pruitt i point to that i think make a bit of a difference:
1. the staff. it's top notch. really it is. i think we should be excited about that. from the S&C, the analysts, to the on field.....it's as good a staff as we've had in a while. biggest hope is that htey can stay together for just a few years to see what they can turn this in to. we do need some consistency on the staff.....
2. the type of player being brought in. even the guys that aren't rated as high as we may want, they pretty much all "look the part" from a physical standpoint. with few excepitons, even as highly rated as Butch's classes were, i didn't see the same type of players we saw at our rivals, especiall on the line of scrimmage.....that got exasperated with the lack of S&C and injury attrition.
that we're not getting top 5 classes, just makes the timeline on the rebuild a little longer cause you're having to count on development...and that's just going to take some time....how much, just don't know....it'll be different for each player. now throw in a top 5 class this year or next, and that could speed things up.....no way to know that right now either.
as for things that could become problems for Pruitt if things don't go well.....well, he's made some choices that haven't made fans real happy as far as fan days, caravans etc....and he's not the warmest personality, so if there's people out there that 'don't like him' as a result, i can see why. and he does have a great staff. a great recruiting staff. a great teaching staff. he has all the resources he needs. he has hte support he needs. he has everything he would need to succeed.......so at some point, there won't be any excuses....(we're not there yet though lol...)....but 3, 4, 5 years in....we should be pushing GA for a trip to ATL. beating the bottom of the schedule regularly. competing and beating FL, GA or Bama at some point....sooner than later.
but i'm of the mind that get me to year 4 and 5....get full cycles in here....get a 2nd, 3rd, 4th year of development.....and let's see what we have.
i don't see that we really have much of a choice in that right now. but that's just me.
