HOOVER, Alabama — Jeremy Pruitt needs to win at least six regular-season games and reach a bowl game in 2019 at Tennessee, and if he does exactly that he’ll have satisfied the minimum requirements for second-season progress in Knoxville.
Anything less than that prompts a left eyebrow raise, one of concern. Eight wins or more prompts a right eyebrow raise, one of encouragement. As always, we can talk about numbers and pick games on a schedule in July, but the way it looks and develops week after week on the field can make those final numbers seem better or worse than they are. The actual sight of progress is critical.
We saw some in Pruitt’s debut season. That win at Auburn was special. Kentucky took an unexpected thrashing. Some of the de-Butching of the program showed up on Saturdays, especially in stretches on defense.
And the Butch Jones fog lingered at times, not counting the smoke from his cigar after contributing to Alabama’s win at Tennessee as Nick Saban’s intern/gopher/little buddy. A 47-21 home loss to Florida was like watching a car crash – a single-car wreck of a Yugo packed with clowns. The momentum from that Kentucky win led directly to season-ending losses to Missouri and Vanderbilt by a combined score of 88-30.
If someone tried to paint an accurate picture of the season, it would look like the artist was crammed into the same Yugo while painting. Pruitt’s debut was all over the place. Now it’s time to learn more about him and the direction he’s taking this thing. And that’s often what a second season does for a college football coach.
Tennessee fans hope Pruitt is a great one. I’ve heard it wildly speculated that he might someday be a candidate to replace the man who kicked off SEC Media Days on Wednesday – Saban, who reportedly healed a misguided Auburn fan and turned Dr Pepper into wine before preaching from the Book of Aight at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham-Wynfrey Hotel.
Tennessee fans should hope Pruitt is actually under consideration whenever Saban retires because I don’t see how that’s possible unless he does big things with the Vols. If that’s coming, this second season should provide a strong hint. It did with Saban and many of the best coaches in the game.
The struggling Alabama team Saban inherited went 7-6 in 2007 and 12-2 in 2008. The talented Florida team Urban Meyer inherited went 9-3 in 2005 and 13-1 with a national title in 2006. The talented Georgia team Kirby Smart inherited went 8-5 in 2016 and 13-2 with a national championship game loss to Alabama in 2017. It brought to mind the way predecessor Mark Richt went 8-4 in his Georgia debut season of 2001 and 13-1 the next.
All of these are better situations than the one Pruitt entered at Tennessee. But his situation is much better than Mississippi State in 2009, which went 5-7 under new coach Dan Mullen. The Bulldogs went 9-4 in his second season, and anyone paying attention could see he was a rising star in the profession.
Photo gallery: Tennessee football: 2018 Game-by-Game Results
There is no exact comparison. But there are coaches who took over rock-bottom programs and foreshadowed big things by achieving respectability in their second seasons. Kirk Ferentz at Iowa and Bill Snyder at Kansas State both did so after 1-10 debuts.
There are previously unknown coaches who took over ho-hum programs and set the stage for newfound success with second-season jumps – Gary Patterson from 6-6 to 10-2 at TCU, Mark Dantonio from 7-6 to 9-4 at Michigan State.
There are coaches who took over dormant giants and engineered rapid awakenings. Pete Carroll started 6-6 at USC and followed up at 11-2. Bob Stoops started 7-5 at Oklahoma, then won the whole thing at 13-0 in his second season. Lou Holtz started 5-6 at Notre Dame, jumped to 8-4 in his second season and won it all in this third.
And there’s Tennessee history to consider. Johnny Majors needed time, going 5-5-1 in his second season and 21-23-1 in his first four before an 8-4 breakthrough started a run of seven straight winning records. Phillip Fulmer took over that high-performing program and kept it winning.
Lane Kiffin didn’t stick around for a second season. By the end of Derek Dooley’s second – a 5-7 clunker – it was pretty obvious he wasn’t up to the job. Jones provided hope with a 7-6 second season, following up on his 5-7 start, and with recruiting rankings and bluster, and then two nine-win seasons, and that hope didn’t die until everything fell apart in 2017.
Pruitt’s second season could scream one thing, and the reality of him and his program could end up being something totally different. But that isn’t likely. And if you listened to him and the players he brought with him to SEC Media Days, you heard reasons the Vols will take a step forward this fall.
They are the usual second-season reasons. The first year of a rebuilding program is all about installing and learning. That doesn’t leave a ton of time for refining and executing.
“Now we know the defense,” senior outside linebacker Darrell Taylor said.
And senior inside linebacker Daniel Bituli said player-run 7-on-7 drills this summer are actually productive.
“None of us really had that confidence during (last) summer because we had just learned the whole defense and everything,” Bituli said. “So just to be able to go out here and know what’s expected and everything, we’re really ahead of schedule. So I’m excited … because going out there with confidence, confidence is everything, man.”
Pruitt mentioned strength and weight gains, and 60 players sticking around all summer to work compared with 20 a year ago.
“After being there for a year, we know the players that we have,” he said. “We know what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are, and I think that's been extremely important in the development of our football team. Obviously, the longer you do something, the better you get at it.”
We’re about to find out how good he is at this.
Reach Joe Rexrode at jrexrode@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @joerexrode.
Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt yells instruction during the first half at Vanderbilt Stadium Saturday, Nov. 24, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn.
