Mike Leach was the savior UT football needed. Excited to watch this hire blow up in Fulmer’s face and then hire Pruitt on the cheap as an analyst in a few years.
Pruitt was mostly coaching high school football for the first decade of Willie Taggart's coaching career. Also Taggart learned how to recruit Western Kentucky...while Pruitt has only ever recruited to FSU, Georgia, and Bama. Tennessee fans are the stupidest people on the planet.
Dude can recruit, but he is at Tennessee now. Those letters don't carry quite the same weight as fsu, bama, and uga.
I'm not hear to debate Pruitt vs Taggart or how well Pruiit will do at UT. What I will argue is that Pruitt can recruit. As previously said, he's only done it with Bama, FSU, and UGA on his shirt. While true, each of those staffs were loaded with top shelf recruiters and Pruitt held his own with them.
Yeah I didn't mean to turn it into Pruitt vs taggart just wanted to post the exert about him being born into it lol, just happened to reference taggart could have been Kirby, Jimbo etc.
I think counter argument isn't that those staffs are loaded with top recruiters, it's that those schools are fairly easy to recruit to. I agree with you, I think he's a very good recruiter. He is also tremendous at identifying DB talent, even lower ranked guys.
Dude basically found Jordan Young, offered and recruited him, got him to commit and still couldn't hold on to him. I think hes going to realize that T on his chest isn't what it once was and its going to take a little more convincing than it did at Bama, FSU, and UGA. I still expect him to recruit fine just because hes so damn good at it. Might have to borrow a few more dollars from Phil's doughnut fund to put in the bags though.
Just have seen the excuse, well he was at Bama, FSU, UGA etc and that was what made him a great recruiter.
Great recruiter of course but can he mantain the level of recruiting at Tennessee? He is also a great evaluator so that will help as well.
They botched the Jordan young recruitment, but it was similar to fsu and the Eddie jackson. Alabama just took him away late after fsu offered first late in the game
Will they be what they were in 90s? Prob not. State isn't great for recruits. Honestly, outside of stadium size, their ceiling isnt that much higher than South Carolina's for the forseeable forseeable future. He will improve them though.
I knew Pruitt might have some recruiting struggles as a HC when he paid off the wrong people in a recruitment vs dan Mullen of all people
Im not seeing how its an excuse. Its a fact. He's probably going to recruit better at Tennessee than anyone else they couldn't have hired just because of how good a recruiter he is. That doesn't mean its going to be as easy as it was to do at FSU, Bama, and UGA. Its the same thing as Muschamp. He's a hell of a recruiter too. But its not as easy to pull them to SoCar as it was to UF.
Agree with you on that. Those schools are easier to recruit to. In my mind, if he gets a top 10 class there its more impressive than getting a 1 at Bama, UGA, FSU, etc. But most people dont view it that way.
Think it also depends on his staff at tenn Besides Pruitt, who at tenn is an alpha dog in recruiting?
Dude cant coach a secondary or call a defense but kids seem to love Charles Kelly. He held his own recruiting. Other than that I don't know about the others. I do remember thinking he hired a pretty good staff though. Coaching wise.
I’m interesting to see if Sherrer can recruit without having the Georgia brand behind him. Will Friend and Tracey Rocker simply refuse to recruit.
I get what you’re saying, but the difference between a #1 class and the #10 class is huge. Look at the point totals on the composite. The #10 class will be closer in point total to the #30 class, than it will to the #1 class. With the recruiting budget Tennessee has, combined with the growing metro populations in Nashville, Chattanooga, Memphis, and even Knoxville, Pruitt will be in a much better position than Butch was in his early years to land recruits...and until his past couple classes, Butch recruited VERY well.
I think muschamp as a defensive coach and a recruiter is a pretty good comp. will Pruitt being on staff at bama as Nick Saban of all people evolved into a more college friendly offense help Pruitt Field a better offense? I think so. To me that is the difference. There is plenty of talent in the south. Being in Florida and being surrounded by gators/SEC fans I am excited that the SEC east should be more interesting. Watching butch v Mcelwain is something that no football fan deserves.
I don't think it's a foregone conclusion Pruitt vs Mullen will be better. Granted it could be, but I could also see us sitting here in four years going god get this Pruitt Mullen dogshit off my screen
I don’t think Mullen or Pruitt is a sure fire success by any means but I am extremely confident that they will both be better than their predecessors. Just how poor my opinion is of butch and Mcelwain as coaches
Mullen has already proven to be a superior coach to McElwain, I don't think there's any doubt about that