The Tennessee Vols coaching search disaster finally ended with the hiring of Alabama Defensive Coordinator, Jeremy Pruitt. Considering all the drama that happened during the search, I consider this a huge win for the Vols. His introductory speech was great and had us all excited. His defense goes out and beats Clemson and Georgia. I’m holding off until I see something on the field though. So far, I am extremely impressed with this man. So let’s dig into the first month under Jeremy Pruitt.
If you have been paying attention to recruiting rankings at all, you should be extremely impressed with what this man has done in a few short weeks. When Jeremy Pruitt was hired, the Vols were ranked 56th nationally in the 247Sports Composite Football rankings. Despite losing Cade Mays, an early signing day period on Dec 22nd, coaching Alabama’s dominant defense, and putting together a decent staff, he has us ranked 16th nationally as of now. He got native Tennessean Altonte Taylor to recommit after decommitting from the Vols earlier this year, landed Juco Tight End Dominck Wood-Anderson over Alabama and others. Then, this past week he landed the highest rated recruit yet, Linebacker J.J. Peterson. It’s not over yet either, about 30% of all recruits are left unsigned and all signs seem to indicate that he will land a few more studs. I think UT will land a top 15, or even a top 10 class despite all the adversity with the coaching search and the early signing day. Everyone around the league knows that Jeremy Pruitt can recruit well and he’s even won recruiter of the year before. Butch Jones could recruit as well, but he wasn’t very good at developing that talent. Hopefully Pruitt will turn some 3-stars into 5-stars and have some 5-stars actually play as first round picks. Only time will tell if he can develop the talent he recruits.
The staff Pruitt has assembled isn’t half bad either. I would say it’s already much more impressive than the initial staff Butch Jones had put together. He retained Robert Gillispie, a rising assistant who has done an amazing job as Running Backs Coach and was one of Butch Jones’ best recruiters. I love coach Gillispie and he seems to be a favorite among the fanbase as well. Obviously, we were a little disappointed that we didn’t hire Tee Martin as offensive coordinator, but instead got Tyson Helton from USC. I’m still somewhat skeptical on this hire, but USC’s offense hasn’t been bad. It’s hard to tell if it’s because of Tee or because of Tyson. Either way I think he will help with recruitment on the west coast and it already has with the commit of Califorina Quarterback, JT Shrout.
We hired VFL Terry Fair as defensive backs coach which is exciting. Kevin Sherrer is our defensive coordinator, a guy that has been pursued for the same position all over the SEC. Will Friend is the offensive line coach and the list goes on and on. Main point about this staff: most have played and coached in the SEC for years and almost all of them are top notch recruiters and most are bald. Most guys under Butch Jones had hair, maybe there’s some odd relationship between amount of hair on a coaching staff and wins. Who knows?
Coach Pruitt seems to be putting a high priority on the recruitment of players from the look of his coaching staff. I feel great about the coaches on the defensive side of the ball, but remain a little more skeptical of what this offense will look like. If the offensive staff can’t improve this team at least a little bit from last year, we might have a 3 win season. Our offense needs some major work.
He’s made a few good moves on the current roster as well. All signs seem to indicate that All-Star receiver Jauan Jennings will be reinstated after being kicked off the team by interim coach, Brady Hoke. News broke today that underwhelming receiver, Tyler Byrd, will be moving over to the defensive side of the ball, presumably at the corner spot. Coming out of highschool, Byrd was ranked the number 10 receiver in the country. I wouldn’t be surprised if he moved Jauan to safety, at least for a few snaps. Many wanted Jennings to play safety coming out of high school. I think both of these are good moves and offers improvement at both spots on our roster.
So overall, I’m optimistic about this hire so far. However, I’ll be curious to see what year one under Pruitt looks like. Is Tennessee a four or five win disaster again? Or, will he help us rise from the ashes and get seven or eight wins? I’m not sure what it could look like since Pruitt has never been a head coach. However, I don’t necessarily buy the idea that first time head coaches can’t have great success. Look at Phil Fulmer and what he did for us. One thing I do appreciate about this guy is that he does seem honest and isn’t trying to sell us on himself. He’s a straight shooter and there’s not beating around this bush with this guy. Pruitt doesn’t seem like a guy that’s going to have a lot of flash and gimmicks such as a trash can and champions of life trophy. It’s refreshing and I look forward to the 2018 season under him.
Smokey covers the Tennessee Volunteers for the SoBros Network. He loves a good backpacking trip, but hates taking a shit in the woods. Follow on Twitter: @SoBroSmokey
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