I’m sitting here today with one eye on the stock market (or, “stonk market,” I should say), and one eye on Vols Twitter. Both equally on fire this week – it’s pure chaos. I can’t focus on anything. By now, you don’t need SoBros Network to tell you what’s happened – the Tennessee Volunteers uncovered recruiting violations under Jeremy Pruitt‘s staff, and have moved on to a new AD and a new head coach. But, there’s a lot to this situation that indicates a more concerning problem with the program.
Pruitt has landed with the New York Giants in a role that has yet to be named. So, he’s doing just fine this morning. After all of the hope and optimism instilled in the Vols program and fan base after 2019, Pruitt and company laid an absolute dud in 2020, going 3-7 on the season, and failing to beat any of the heavy hitters in the SEC. These recruiting violations gave the Vols the rare opportunity to can a coach with cause and avoid the entirety of that buyout.
Now, the decision to fire Pruitt at this stage in the game was an interesting one to say the least. If they really thought Pruitt was a good coach, they would’ve fired some assistants, said “we’re sorry,” and hoped for mercy from the NCAA. Instead, they had to have seen this as the opportunity it was. It sure doesn’t seem like they tried too hard to keep him around. I understand that they had to wait until they had the evidence to prove he was terminated “with cause,” but man – doing it so late in the offseason, when the bulk of the coaching dominos have already fallen…that hurt their chances of landing a higher profile coach. Well, that and the potential sanctions and all.
Phillip Fulmer stepped down as AD in the midst of all of this, and the Vols landed on UCF’s Danny White to fill the role. I don’t know that anyone was going to do for Vols fans, but I was somewhat surprised at how split the reaction was. And, White did something we haven’t seen in quite awhile – he kept the coaching search pretty tight and quiet.
Ultimately, he brought UCF’s head coach, Josh Heupel, with him. Heupel was 28-8 with UCF, but 6-4 in 2020. White insisted that he conducted “a nationwide search.” I tend to believe him here – I know what it looks like…he got the job in Knoxville, hired his buddy, and they’re laughing all the way to the bank. But, honestly – who would’ve wanted this job right now? Isn’t it actually possible that the Vols just couldn’t land a top tier candidate (for what it’s worth, I would’ve backed the Brinks truck up to Matt Campbell‘s door)?
For any good will White built with Vols Twitter, he undid it by calling out that sect of the fan base:
“Some of you are awesome,” White said. “Some of you are failing right now. Why would we be negative? The future of this place is unbelievably exciting and positive, and I couldn’t be more excited to be here. I see nothing but great days ahead.
“Some of you are failing right now” – OOF. That one cuts. Maybe Vols Twitter deserves to have thrown at ’em right now. I don’t know. Regardless, it’s indicative of just what a mess this whole situation has turned into. Albert Haynesworth is calling the program racist and withdrawing his support. Peerless Price is on Twitter publicly hurting for his boy, Tee Martin. Vols football has become an outright shit show.
How did this happen? How did the damn Tennessee Volunteers….once a blue blood of college football…fall into this decade of mediocrity? How did the wheels fall off when one man walked away back in 2008? Someone somewhere is going to write a riveting book about this program one day.
I spoke with a couple of my Vol fan friends – one on each side of the optimism-pessimism spectrum.
“This whole UT situation is just a big dumpster fire. UT football is done. I expect Vandy, Kentucky and everyone else in the SEC will be whipping our ass the next few years. I think the job is just very unattractive, you have some NCAA sanctions pending, a fanbase that will want you to go 8 wins or more pretty quickly, a depleted roster, and you play Alabama every single year. I can see why so many people likely turned it down.”
“I think they actually made a decent hire for once – this guy is all offense. He’s had the top three offenses in the country. The unknown is recruiting, but having those top offenses will make that easy.”
My recommendation? Check in on your Vols fan friends – tell ’em it’s gonna be okay.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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