Tennessee rolled into Gainesville
today and embarrassed themselves by losing by 31 to a pretty average Florida team playing a quarterback who hadn’t made a start in
7 years.
There are an infinite
amount of ways to say this was a bad loss. I could talk about the fact that
this Florida team is going to travel to Baton Rouge later in the season and
lose by three touchdowns, or that they’re going to play Georgia in Jacksonville
in late October and lose by four touchdowns. So if the Gators are four touchdowns
worse than the Bulldogs, and Tennessee is almost five touchdowns worse than Florida,
then does that mean that the Vols are nine touchdowns worse than Georgia? Hell,
why not?
I could also talk about
how Tennessee has the same problems as a football team today as they did at
this point last season, only they’re arguably worse now. Jim Chaney’s offense
has been really pitiful so far, and the offensive line continues to be a wet
paper bag. I actually thought the defense was competitive today, and they even
forced three turnovers, but that probably says more about how mediocre the
Gators are than how good the Vol defense is. Does anyone with a functional
brain think that Florida is the ninth best team in the country? Of course not.
The Gators are a four loss team that Tennessee wasn’t close to being
competitive with in Jeremy Pruitt’s sixteenth game as head coach.
How in the hell is it
possible that Tennessee has whiffed on four coaching hires in a row now? I think its pretty apparent that Jeremy Pruitt isn't the guy at this point. He’s been an F.
Lane Kiffin
lasted one year before he bolted, and they compounded that problem by hiring Derek
Freaking Dooley. And when that didn’t work out after three seasons, they
rightly moved on. The 2012 coaching search was the time to make it rain on some
coach and hire the right guy. Instead, they went cheap and hired Butch Freaking
Jones. The 2017 coaching search was even worse, but despite all the botchery,
they still almost hired Mike Leach! Does anyone think the Vols would be 6-10 with
Leach through 16 games? Does anyone think they would’ve scored 3 points against
anyone in Leach’s sixteenth game?
One thing I’m glad we can
finally put to bed is the notion from a majority of the fanbase that Tennessee
was just a quarterback change away from being competitive. Yeah, because Brian
Maurer looked PHENOMENAL today…. Wrong. They don’t have a competent quarterback
on this roster, and somehow Jarrett Guarantano is the best of the bunch, which
is why he was the starter.
That being said, Guarantano
was abominable today. He missed Dominic Wood-Anderson for what would’ve been a
TD, or at least a huge gain into Florida territory. He threw a terrible pick
directly into the hands of a Gator DB because he badly misread the coverage while
Marquez Callaway read it perfectly. His QBR was 9.9. He was on the field for seven drives of six plays or less.
The only Vol who had a
worse day than JG was Jauan Jennings, who declared himself the “leader” of this
team after the embarrassing Georgia State loss. He dropped a perfect throw in
the endzone on third and goal that deflected up in the air and turned into an interception.
He committed a personal foul on a punt when he ran into the returner after he
called for a fair catch. I guess Jauan didn’t get enough leadership reps this
week.
Let’s look at the rest of
the Vol schedule. I’m trying my hardest to find two wins.
September 28: Bye Week. Tennessee
is 1-3 now, but I swear, if anyone could figure out a way to register a loss on
the bye week, it would be the Vols.
October 5: Georgia. It’s
going to be 63-0.
October 12: Mississippi
State. The Bulldogs aren’t good. Neither are the Vols.
October 19: @Alabama. Gulp.
October 26: South Carolina.
Will Muschamp is 7-0 against Tennessee and the Gamecocks, even with freshman
quarterback Ryan Hilinski, have shown the ability to move the football.
November 2: UAB. If they don’t
have a second win by this point, this will probably be it.
November 9: @Kentucky.
The Wildcats are on a backup quarterback but were still able to score 21 points
against the same Gator team that Tennessee just scored 3 against.
November 16: Bye Week. Again,
if anyone could find a way to lose on the bye week, it would be the Vols.
November 23: @Missouri.
The Tigers have the better quarterback and are at home.
November 30: Vanderbilt.
The Commodores have beaten the Vols three years in a row. Granted, they are
awful so far in 2019 but hell, so is Tennessee.
Realistically, we’re
looking at a 2-10 or 3-9 season at this point. Derek Dooley was a train wreck,
but even he managed to win 5 games in every season. Butch Jones botched so many
games that it’s hard to remember him winning anything, but even he made three bowl games.
And if they do go 2-10 or
3-9, what’s the argument for Jeremy Pruitt to get a third year? Seriously. The program
will have just had its worst season ever despite having back a majority of the
starters on both sides of the ball from a team that beat two ranked teams last
season. All of the issues with the team are worse than last season. Pruitt
was AT BEST the eighth choice when he was hired in 2017; no one was thrilled when he got the job, which made his
leash pretty short. It was even shorter when he lost to Georgia State. It might be completely gone now after today's performance. If/when he does get fired, I
think whatever roster turnover and recruiting losses there is after the season can
be mitigated by the fact that Jeremy Pruitt is no longer around the program. Why
keep someone employed as the football coach when the team is only getting worse the longer he is in charge?
So in November, when the
season is down the toilet, you fire Pruitt, and then you call either Matt Campbell at
Iowa State or Mike Leach at Washington State and pay what it takes. Campbell isn’t even 40 yet; plus, he's been able to make Iowa freaking State competitive in football. Leach would’ve taken the job
in 2017, and I can’t imagine that he wouldn’t want it now. I don’t know if either
are capable of restoring the Vols to national prominence, but I’m pretty confident they
wouldn’t be going without a touchdown in their 16th game against what is going to end up being a
four loss team.
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