Recruiting Forum Football Talk III

[HoleInTheRoof]

According to BH in his war room tonight. Mims, Green, Ingram-Dawkins all were silents at one point. That stings a lot.

It’s just one of an endless string of reminders for me why following recruiting is stupid. If I had any sense, I wouldn’t pay this ish any attention until NSD and then just read about who we got.

But nope. I’m addicted to this crap for some reason. Can’t quit it if I tried.

 

[mr.checkerboards]

It’s just one of an endless string of reminders for me why following recruiting is stupid. If I had any sense, I wouldn’t pay this ish any attention until NSD and then just read about who we got.

But nope. I’m addicted to this crap for some reason. Can’t quit it if I tried.

They would be Vols if UK, Ark, Auburn hadn't happened. Thats 3 guys that can help make the jump in a hurry.

 

[Paper_Towel]

MANDALORIANNNNNNNN

 

[I4Jay]

LUUUUUUUUUUUUKE

 

[reVOLution33]

According to BH in his war room tonight. Mims, Green, Ingram-Dawkins all were silents at one point. That stings a lot.

Have to disagree with those who think this season really made an impact on this young man's decision. If we were leading for him a month ago, then somehow losses to Alabama, Auburn, and Florida (all expected losses) would change his mind? Look, recruiting begins in early high school, sometimes middle school, and is a relationship built over time. Through all of NG's high school years, UT has been struggling to rebuild. This year is nothing new for him. He's used to this program being in rebuilding / constant pain mode. It could very well be the culmination of several seasons of lackluster performance - that would be a fair assessment. It would be great if we could show progress and the indication that the SECE is really a 3 horse race between us, UF, and UGA like the old days. But I don't think that was the message in this young man's recruitment. I'm sorry, I just don't buy that someone would make a 4/5 year commitment based off a single season of play rather than years of relationship building and conversations. He's always been recruited to "bring UT back to dominance" but I guess that's just not something he wanted to do.

He was a silent commit to us until the season started going down hill. You must not pay much attention to recruiting.

If he was a silent commit then how did you hear about it? You must not pay much attention to the meaning of silent.

@GoodmanVol you must not be paying attention!

 

[m1al]

Slow night....

 

[matts42012]

Slow night....

Not really. VQ coming out at saying ground is pretty shaky for Fulmer. (Don’t read into him saying Pruitt is safe, ploy for recruiting). Bob in 247 says a bad game and he is gone (where I fall).

AM will come out trying to run it up fast.

 

[m1al]

Not really. VQ coming out at saying ground is pretty shaky for Fulmer. (Don’t read into him saying Pruitt is safe, ploy for recruiting). Bob in 247 says a bad game and he is gone (where I fall).

AM will come out trying to run it up fast.

I agree. The ground should be earth quake shaky regardless of what happens Saturday.

A&M wants to kill us to make their case for playoffs stronger on top of just wanting to kill us on a normal day..

 

[Weezer]

According to BH in his war room tonight. Mims, Green, Ingram-Dawkins all were silents at one point. That stings a lot.

If not for horrible play on the field, I think we could have had Mims, Green, McGhee, Lewis, and Wolfe in this class. Not sure about TID because it seems like UGA convinced him early on to wait on committing, like maybe before the string of losses. Can't honestly remember, but seems like that. But let's say he, as well as the others mentioned had signed with us. That would have been enough to put us at 7th in the 247 recruiting rankings with 25 commits. More importantly, it would have given us 2 elite corners and an elite OT in this class that we don't have. Makes me wonder if we had just beaten KY, Ark, and Aub, and played competitive in our losses, would they have been Vols? We have some great recruiters on staff, but even great recruiters can't overcome losing, especially losing poorly. Not sure how Fulmer legitimately overlooks what happened this season and brings Pruitt back, but I really think he does. This wasn't about COVID. This was about poor coaching across the board. Pruitt was so focused on recruiting, he forgot to coach. His staff forgot to coach. Or worse, they don't know how to coach. And that's a huge issue. I don't think a simple staff reshuffle solves that. Our coaches screwed the pooch this season by not doing the most basic part of their jobs, coaching these young men up. Pruitt is so focused on future talent, he hasn't learned to work with what he has. It's coaching malpractice.

 

[m1al]

If not for horrible play on the field, I think we could have had Mims, Green, McGhee, Lewis, and Wolfe in this class. Not sure about TID because it seems like UGA convinced him early on to wait on committing, like maybe before the string of losses. Can't honestly remember, but seems like that. But let's say he, as well as the others mentioned had signed with us. That would have been enough to put us at 7th in the 247 recruiting rankings with 25 commits. More importantly, it would have given us 2 elite corners and an elite OT in this class that we don't have. Makes me wonder if we had just beaten KY, Ark, and Aub, and played competitive in our losses, would they have been Vols? We have some great recruiters on staff, but even great recruiters can't overcome losing, especially losing poorly. Not sure how Fulmer legitimately overlooks what happened this season and brings Pruitt back, but I really think he does. This wasn't about COVID. This was about poor coaching across the board. Pruitt was so focused on recruiting, he forgot to coach. His staff forgot to coach. Or worse, they don't know how to coach. And that's a huge issue. I don't think a simple staff reshuffle solves that. Our coaches screwed the pooch this season by not doing the most basic part of their jobs, coaching these young men up. Pruitt is so focused on future talent, he hasn't learned to work with what he has. It's coaching malpractice.

I agree on TID. He always seemed iffy no matter what kind of season we had..

 

[matts42012]

I agree. The ground should be earth quake shaky regardless of what happens Saturday.

A&M wants to kill us to make their case for playoffs stronger on top of just wanting to kill us on a normal day..

I honestly wonder how much PF wants to tie his wagon to JP.

 

[Weezer]

Not really. VQ coming out at saying ground is pretty shaky for Fulmer. (Don’t read into him saying Pruitt is safe, ploy for recruiting). Bob in 247 says a bad game and he is gone (where I fall).

AM will come out trying to run it up fast.

IF a change comes, and I still have serious doubts it does, we need to be smarter about it than Auburn and have our guy targeted and ready to take over. Another drawn out coaching search will screw us over even more.

 

[matts42012]

If not for horrible play on the field, I think we could have had Mims, Green, McGhee, Lewis, and Wolfe in this class. Not sure about TID because it seems like UGA convinced him early on to wait on committing, like maybe before the string of losses. Can't honestly remember, but seems like that. But let's say he, as well as the others mentioned had signed with us. That would have been enough to put us at 7th in the 247 recruiting rankings with 25 commits. More importantly, it would have given us 2 elite corners and an elite OT in this class that we don't have. Makes me wonder if we had just beaten KY, Ark, and Aub, and played competitive in our losses, would they have been Vols? We have some great recruiters on staff, but even great recruiters can't overcome losing, especially losing poorly. Not sure how Fulmer legitimately overlooks what happened this season and brings Pruitt back, but I really think he does. This wasn't about COVID. This was about poor coaching across the board. Pruitt was so focused on recruiting, he forgot to coach. His staff forgot to coach. Or worse, they don't know how to coach. And that's a huge issue. I don't think a simple staff reshuffle solves that. Our coaches screwed the pooch this season by not doing the most basic part of their jobs, coaching these young men up. Pruitt is so focused on future talent, he hasn't learned to work with what he has. It's coaching malpractice.

It’s things like this that cause the program to not be competitive. Large things that can go easily unnoticed.

 

[m1al]

I honestly wonder how much PF wants to tie his wagon to JP.

Lately it seems like he might be rethinking that strategy.. He's been quiet as a church mouse.

 

[matts42012]

Lately it seems like he might be rethinking that strategy.. He's been quiet as a church mouse.

Didn’t back him for sure. F he was for sure back, he would have leaked it.

 

[m1al]

Didn’t back him for sure. F he was for sure back, he would have leaked it.

Yea, he could've easily shut all this rumor mongering down early.

 

[csprig9]

Didn’t back him for sure. F he was for sure back, he would have leaked it.

Yes
I don’t think fulmer wants to hire freeze and he doesn’t know what to do bc he won’t be able to sell marrone or steele to the fanbase and IMO his ego is have a hard time hiring a big name

 

[Weezer]

It’s things like this that cause the program to not be competitive. Large things that can go easily unnoticed.

Which baffles me, because if we the fans can see it, why can't the football guys at UT, like Fulmer, see it? Pruitt has failed on the most fundamental level of coaching. I get there are multiple levels to the job, but the most basic concept is coach the players you have, and Pruitt has failed at that. He's been too focused on future rather than the now, and you can't build if you ignore the now. Kids don't want to come to a program where they see players aren't being coached up. Hell, we might have even been able to survive upset losses if we had just looked competitive, but we didn't. We've looked like a poorly coached team all season, and if fans can see that, so can recruits. How Fulmer doesn't blows my mind.

 

[Weezer]

Yes
I don’t think fulmer wants to hire freeze and he doesn’t know what to do bc he won’t be able to sell marrone or steele to the fanbase and IMO his ego is have a hard time hiring a big name

A Marrone or Steele hire as HC would easily set us back another decade.

 

[Ron Swanson]

Of course everyone wants to know about the status of Jeremy Pruitt. Political people have been posting stuff on social media which has created more talk and speculation.

We don’t have any reason to believe that AD Phillip Fulmer wants to make a change. I think that’s why he said in a staff meeting a couple of weeks ago that everyone needed to remain positive and that the team was better than their record. But it doesn’t mean he’s happy and certainly others aren’t pleased with what they have seen this year.

Fulmer indicated to some recruits this week that Pruitt will be back. Where do the people above Fulmer stand on Pruitt? Great question. I’m sure there not happy but how displeased are people like Chancellor Plowman, President Randy Boyd, Board of Trustees chair John Compton. What happens under this scenario or that scenario? Who knows? We have learned over the last decade or so that anything is possible.

As we learned at Auburn last Sunday, it only takes one or two people to make a move. The Auburn administration didn’t know what was coming last week. Now, it’s worth noting that it’s never been Tennessee’s style to do something like that. It has been Auburn’s style. Remember ‘JetGate’ with Bobby Petrino when he was at Louisville and the Auburn power brokers tried to fire Tommy Tuberville and hire Petrino in the dark of night.

Following Tennessee’s game Saturday, there will be some key meetings over the next couple of weeks. Provided Pruitt is back what does his staff his look like as he will have critical decisions to make with three staff members’ contracts expiring.

- VQ

 

[Ron Swanson]

From Bob_Vols on 247...

Here’s what I know...
First off I have been very sick and still do not feel well. So I hope my thoughts are clear here. This is info from earlier in the week. I do not know if things have changed since I have been sick...

TAMU is an extremely important game for the future of this program along with Pruitt’s plan moving forward. There is a meeting set up for Sunday morning between Fulmer and Pruitt. There is nothing unusual about this meeting. It is typical to have this meeting following the season. However, the expectation of this meeting is for Pruitt to give a detailed plan on how to fix things moving forward. They will be discussing coaching changes on his staff, who he plans to go after, what his plan is to manage his roster, what’s the state of the roster, what is their identity moving forward, etc. Fulmer will give his evaluation of Pruitt. Fulmer will then have to make a decision following this meeting on whether he believes Pruitt’s plan is enough to move forward. Finances are not an issue with this decision. This is Fulmer’s decision to make. I lean towards Pruitt being back next year based on this. Keep in mind, my source on the info that I receive comes from someone close to Pruitt and Fulmer. This source has also talked to some important people and the belief amongst them is if things look bad on Saturday then the decision could be made for Fulmer and that meeting could simply be turned into giving Pruitt his walking papers. The belief amongst those are that Fulmer is safe as long as he is cooperative and will lead the next search with a search committee along with the approval of others. The hope amongst everyone is that things are competitive this Saturday and the decision is left to Fulmer.

My thoughts on all this is... I believe Pruitt will return in 2021 unless Tennessee gets embarrassed on Saturday. If Fulmer moves forward with Pruitt I believe both will be on the hot seat to start the season. Pruitt will likely have to win 8-9 games and be competitive in each to remain past 2021. The thing that gives me pause on Fulmer’s end is does he tie his legacy to Pruitt or does he take his mulligan and move on from Pruitt. This is solid information but whether Pruitt stay or goes, there are a lot of moving parts and players involved in these types of decisions. It only takes one big player to take control of the whole thing because he’s fed up. Bottom line is nothing is set in stone at this point and a lot can happen between now and Sunday. To those who think that Pruitt is completely safe are just simply wrong. I do think things will have to be ugly Saturday for a change to occur but I do believe it’s more realistic than what many want to believe.

 

[orange parmejohn]

- VQ

They are trying to decide if the fan base is still stupid enough to keep coughing up money if they don’t make a change.

 

[orange parmejohn]

From Bob_Vols on 247...

If they are really basing the future off of this game, this football program is dead.

 

[Weezer]

From Bob_Vols on 247...

We can't afford another "coaching search". We need someone lined up and ready to go. "Coaching searches" never work out for us. All we do is get good coaches raises at other schools before settling for a McGoogle.

 

[millst987]

Have we still not had enough evidence to fire this clown?