Vols Get Blasted At Florida By 31 Points, Prove They've Botched Their Fourth Straight Coaching Hire

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 16^th game against what is going to end up being a four loss team.