Recruiting Forum Football Talk II

[Weezer]

Another thing, I'm not gonna hope for losses to get a coaching change. If it happens, it happens, but I don't hope for losses. If CJP continues to fail, then he'll be fired. If he somehow turns it around, he won't. I can accept any result that returns us to winning. I don't care who our coach is as long as we're winning on the field. I don't care if we have the number one recruiting class or number 100, if we're winning, not much else matters.

 

[05_never_again]

McElwain has been coaching for 35 years and worked for Saban 4 seasons, so I don’t place him in that disciple category. The rest of your examples are mostly incomplete. Smart may mishandle some quarterback situations but he doesn’t dwell on a player who can’t get it done. Muschamp has failed as a HC due to not building a whole team. His quarterbacks don’t seem to have been the weak point tho. This is a particular Pruitt jam.

McElwain, Smart, Muschamp, and Pruitt have all had bugaboos in one form or another with QBs, which affected their offenses. You are right in that McElwain and Muschamp have not dwelled on a particular QB like Pruitt has, although many Georgia fans will tell you that Kirby was too fixated on Jake Fromm, even though Fromm was good. Regardless of the specifics of their situations, they all have had issues in one form or another with coaching and developing that position.

McElwain's Florida offenses never ramped up because he never developed a QB, particularly Franks. Smart has had Jacob Eason, Justin Fields, and Jamie Newman on his rosters at one point or another, yet Jake Fromm and Stetson Bennett have been the ones who remained and ended up playing. Muschamp has absolutely had QB problems; he otherwise has had productive offensive players like Deebo Samuel or Rico Dowdle. He had Jake Bentley and Ryan Hilinski; Bentley underachieved and transferred and Hilinski was benched this season in favor of the Colorado St transfer Bobo brought over, who also has struggled. No need to even go into Pruitt.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

1 name. Hugh Freeze. That's the list. This could not be easier.

I think he's on the list for sure, but I think UT isn't hiring -this- season unless Pruitt loses 3 or the last 4 (or worse).

 

[Memphisvol87]

Lots of Pruitt's kids consider him an incredible coach. My point is, everyone is hyping Freeze as a guarantee. He's not. He's a roll of the dice, just like everyone else. If we hired him, I would hope beyond hope he succeeded, but I've done that for every coach we've hired. There are no guarantees, especially with UT football.

There is a guarantee we will not be good the rest of the year or next. So why wouldn’t we change and pursue the hottest name in college football that has a record of SEC success.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

Another thing, I'm not gonna hope for losses to get a coaching change. If it happens, it happens, but I don't hope for losses. If CJP continues to fail, then he'll be fired. If he somehow turns it around, he won't. I can accept any result that returns us to winning. I don't care who our coach is as long as we're winning on the field. I don't care if we have the number one recruiting class or number 100, if we're winning, not much else matters.

100% agreed

 

[MrVolton]

So, is he saying we should wait it out and give Pruitt more time, or is the biggest part of his point that this job won't command the level of coach we think it will, but a coaching search might be pretty likely?

Because the distinction here is important regarding who I think he's getting his info from.

Wasn’t he one of the first ones to publicly put it out there that Freeze would love the UT job?

 

[jakez4ut]

This season has been a clinic of “set in his ways.” It is mildly shocking, considering his influences. His dad, Rush Propst, Jimbo Fisher and especially Saban don’t appear to be examples of backing a losing hand too long. Maybe the worst thing that happened to his coaching mindset was that 8 game winning streak. He refused to pull up stakes on JG last season...doubling down could only be better?

sounds a lot like what people used to say about cjp's current boss....i remember a lot of posts along the lines of "worst thing that happened to us was fulmer winning the east in 07...says everything's fine, when clearly it's not, and hasn't been since 01"

lol.

 

[snowvols]

Lots of Pruitt's kids consider him an incredible coach. My point is, everyone is hyping Freeze as a guarantee. He's not. He's a roll of the dice, just like everyone else. If we hired him, I would hope beyond hope he succeeded, but I've done that for every coach we've hired. There are no guarantees, especially with UT football.

The only coaches to have beaten Saban more than once while at Bama are Dabo, Meyer, Malzahn, Miles, and Freeze.

 

[Weezer]

Roll of loaded dice. If anything, this stint at Liberty proves he coaches above his talent level. That’s a rare commodity.

Not to take away from him, but he's not exactly playing SEC talented teams at Liberty. From what I an tell, his biggest win this season was against a struggling VA Tech team. I'm actually kind of looking forward to their game against Coastal Carolina as it will be a battle of two hot name coaches. And again, if he was the hire, I'd hope for his success, just as I have for every previous coach, but hyping him up as a guarantee is a recipe for disappointment.

 

[05_never_again]

Lots of Pruitt's kids consider him an incredible coach. My point is, everyone is hyping Freeze as a guarantee. He's not. He's a roll of the dice, just like everyone else. If we hired him, I would hope beyond hope he succeeded, but I've done that for every coach we've hired. There are no guarantees, especially with UT football.

IMO, if Freeze was hired he'd be a somewhat more consistent Mike Leach. At Ole Miss Freeze won many big games and beat a ton of ranked teams, more often than Leach has in his career. He also got upset a fair amount or got destroyed in games that you figured would be close, although perhaps not as often as Leach. I also don't think Freeze is quite as scheme-dependent as Leach is; Freeze seems more adaptable whereas if you figure Leach's Air Raid out, he has a hard time scoring points.

 

[vol494]

Not to take away from him, but he's not exactly playing SEC talented teams at Liberty. From what I an tell, his biggest win this season was against a struggling VA Tech team. I'm actually kind of looking forward to their game against Coastal Carolina as it will be a battle of two hot name coaches. And again, if he was the hire, I'd hope for his success, just as I have for every previous coach, but hyping him up as a guarantee is a recipe for disappointment.

Winner gets TN job. Bring Jamey home!!

 

[Weezer]

There is a guarantee we will not be good the rest of the year or next. So why wouldn’t we change and pursue the hottest name in college football that has a record of SEC success.

lmao Are you Miss Cleo? We can talk probabilities, but you can't guarantee anything. The probability of a turnaround is not good given what we've seen, it's not beyond reality.

 

[Weezer]

The only coaches to have beaten Saban more than once while at Bama are Dabo, Meyer, Malzahn, Miles, and Freeze.

And? Does that mean we want Malzahn if Auburn fires him? Do we want to hire Miles away from Kansas?

 

[jakez4ut]

Another thing, I'm not gonna hope for losses to get a coaching change. If it happens, it happens, but I don't hope for losses. If CJP continues to fail, then he'll be fired. If he somehow turns it around, he won't. I can accept any result that returns us to winning. I don't care who our coach is as long as we're winning on the field. I don't care if we have the number one recruiting class or number 100, if we're winning, not much else matters.

this. all of it.

 

[05_never_again]

Not to take away from him, but he's not exactly playing SEC talented teams at Liberty. From what I an tell, his biggest win this season was against a struggling VA Tech team. I'm actually kind of looking forward to their game against Coastal Carolina as it will be a battle of two hot name coaches. And again, if he was the hire, I'd hope for his success, just as I have for every previous coach, but hyping him up as a guarantee is a recipe for disappointment.

What he's doing at Liberty this year is way overrated, IMO. Most of those teams he's beating are absolutely horrendous; an 0-4 FIU team, and 0-3 North Alabama team, an 0-8 ULM team, a 1-7 Syracuse team (although they are ACC), a 2-6 Southern Miss team that's on their third coach this season, and an FCS Western Carolina team that played Liberty as their first game last weekend. The only notable win is against Virginia Tech, and even they aren't good by their standards.

There's no doubt that he's made them better, and I've read that he also basically totally overhauled their roster. What he's doing is really impressive for Liberty, who was a FCS school just a few years ago. But we really should still be gauging him based on how he performed at Ole Miss.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

Ya know, Jim McElwain is actually a great HC. I'm still unsure what went on at Florida other than something internal happening so they could snag Mullen.

People forget he was the OC for 3 of Saban's 5 championships at Alabama. I'm curious where his next big job will be, wonder if he would go to the PAC-12 (he's from Montana & graduated from Eastern Washington) or if he's interested in another SEC gig? LSU would be a ridiculous perfect situation for him if he returned to the SEC, easy recruiting spot with amazing in-state talent. They loved the high powered offense with Brady there too.

 

[Nuctech777]

Could be wrong, but I actually think Napier is the stronger candidate for UT.

If we make a move to hire it'll likely be because USCjr & Auburn have already made hires this year. I feel like how Pruitt is handled depends more on WHO other schools hire. I think unlike previous ADs Fulmer likely has a few names on a list already that he's reached out to or will (when season/ESD passes).

Napier is the stronger candidate for TN? Please explain. I think we need to hire someone who has proven they can win in the SEC if we make a change. We have tried the up and comer approach too many times at this point.

 

[Bassmaster_Vol]

Napier is the stronger candidate for TN? Please explain. I think we need to hire someone who has proven they can win in the SEC if we make a change. We have tried the up and comer approach too many times at this point.

This should be the easiest coaching search in history. If Pruitt doesn't resign after consecutive blowout losses to Fl and A&M, you fire him one day, you hire Hugh the next. End of coaching search.

 

[Smyrna ATL Vol]

Man this place is crazy. We’re literally talking ourselves into a coach that has more blow out losses than the past two failures combined and is looking at our worst season in the history of our program. Plus, the East only has two good teams. Rest are garbage. We should be walking to eight wins with an average coach. This is still a top fifteen program and we all need to stop letting media down play it. The only reason they are is to temper our expectations so when our administration screws up a hire, we don’t go crazy. It’s time to demand better for our program.

Even if we missed on Freeze, which we wouldn’t if we offered, we can still hire a few coaches that would win consistently here. Napier would come here if offered and win.

 

[Kingston Vol]

This should be the easiest coaching search in history. If Pruitt doesn't resign after consecutive blowout losses to Fl and A&M, you fire him one day, you hire Hugh the next. End of coaching search.

In your mind, is it Freeze or Pruitt?

 

[Vols4us]

This season has been a clinic of “set in his ways.” It is mildly shocking, considering his influences. His dad, Rush Propst, Jimbo Fisher and especially Saban don’t appear to be examples of backing a losing hand too long. Maybe the worst thing that happened to his coaching mindset was that 8 game winning streak. He refused to pull up stakes on JG last season...doubling down could only be better?

Spot on. Agree completely, I did not see it coming. I expected the opposite, that his learning curve would be quick and he would adjust. He had the benefit of great influences who have been always willing to change and adjust. That 8 game streak was a mirage of fortuitous (lucky) plays, calls, bounces and end results. IMO Jeremy saw it as affirmation of what he was doing instead of for what it was. So the double down...

I'm still not sure how he has not understood (unless he does) that playing #2 is tanking his HC career at UT.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

Napier is the stronger candidate for TN? Please explain. I think we need to hire someone who has proven they can win in the SEC if we make a change. We have tried the up and comer approach too many times at this point.

Not the stronger candidate, but the stronger candidate for TN. Keep those things in mind.

1. I don't think we'll be in a position to hire anyone this year, I think unless something drastic happens (finishing with just 2 wins for example) happens that Pruitt will be returning to start next season.
2. I think Hugh gets hired this season somewhere, we all seem to assume the man is waiting on us when he's not. He's waiting on a good P5 job to call and with how a few Big 10 schools are struggling and how other SEC teams are there is a good chance he'll have quite a few calling.

So I think UT isn't hiring until 2021, and even then I'd be surprised if Pruitt is fired during the season.

 

[Bassmaster_Vol]

In your mind, is it Freeze or Pruitt?

Yes

 

[yourstruly23]

Make Tennessee Football Fun Again

 

[Kingston Vol]

Yes

Interesting.

Let me throw out a hypothetical: Freeze takes the SC job this weekend. Pruitt loses 3 of 4.

Still make a change? Or wait another year?