I mean I guess the last half of the season could be a fluke but he looks like he has them headed in the right direction.
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Butch Jones took them to two 9 win seasons.
Was he the right guy?
I agree that Pruitt has them going in the right direction, but I see very little chance that he gets the offense figured out at a high enough level to become an SEC East contender.
He's at best the 4th best coach in the East as it's undeniable that Smart, Mullen, & Stoops are better.
I think Tennessee has stabilized some under him, but I haven't watched them yet & thought "the light bulb came on" & that's usually the case when the right coach is in place.
I agree. I think we have the right guy now & I think he has a chip on his shoulder.
Bo Bounds was talking this morning about how his "source"(who I am sure is Bartoo) said that Leach was irate when Oregon passed on him in favor of Cristobal. Couldn't believe they didn't hire him
I think Leach has a mighty big chip on his shoulder due to the lack of respect that people have given his career & he's out to prove something.
I don't think this team will be great, but I still think they could win 7-8 games. I think this year's team may remind us of the "We Believe" year team. They started off 7 or 8-0 but weren't very good.
The schedule lines up for us this year. If we eek one out at NC State, we're going to win some games.
I don't think it's that because TN not supposed to be comparing itself to Arky or MSU. I think it's because they didn't look good his 1st 15-16 games then he won 7 out of his last 8. 6 of those 7 teams were bowl eligible. He did a good job of turning the ship around.
The biggest thing that kills defense from what I see is (1) Missed assignments/ confusion and (2) Base lack of talent. The really bad defenses we've had at state just were slow or blew a lot of assignments on the backend.
We need enough recruiters to get enough talent to compete and then coaches who can implement it properly.
Just offer Jay Bateman and call it a day.
Is Mike Stoops a darkhorse candidate here, IYOK?
I'm not too familiar with how his defenses have actually done in the past. I just know everyone now remembers him for OU's awful defense in 2018. How has he done other than that year though?
This. Pruitt had them playing hard and that comeback bowl win showed how far they had come from a team that earlier in the season would've packed it in after being down like that. He appears to have changed the culture of that program. They gave bama a tough game too.
I personally don't know much about his history of defenses. Just that OU fans HATED him as the DC for the last several years seemed like.
What's your opinion on Ruffin McNeill? Is he a candidate? Coached with Leach for a while at TT and at OU right now.
I say just offer Bateman the job and let's roll but that's just my own opinion which don't amount to too much in a coaching search lol.
You can sugar coat it all you want, and no I'm not panicking, but I'm not thrilled with the way this is going. WSU's defensive guys have done nothing that have warranted coaching in the SEC. They may be good coaches, but anyone on a staff that finished 11th in the Pac12 in total defense, 286 passing yards, 170 rushing yards, and 31 points a game should not be promoted to the SEC. I don't care if there was a talent gap or if they fired the DC mid-way through the year. SEC ready coaches don't finish in the bottom of weak defensive conference. I wish Leach would've hired a DC and let him assemble the staff. If I'm a DC and I see that half of my defensive staff is already assembled for me with guys from the shittiest defense in the Pac12, I'm saying thanks but no thanks.