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Tennessee football: 5 mistakes by previous Vols coaches Jeremy Pruitt must avoid

By Caleb Calhoun

COLUMBIA, SC - OCTOBER 29: Head coach Butch Jones of the Tennessee Volunteers reacts during their game against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Williams-Brice Stadium on October 29, 2016 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Tyler Lecka/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA, SC - OCTOBER 29: Head coach Butch Jones of the Tennessee Volunteers reacts during their game against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Williams-Brice Stadium on October 29, 2016 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Tyler Lecka/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images /

Jeremy Pruitt is the fifth Tennessee football coach in 11 years. Here are mistakes previous Volunteers coaches made that he must avoid.

It’s no secret that Tennessee football has had a hard time finding the right head coach the past decade. After firing Phillip Fulmer, they failed with the young splash hire. Then they failed with the administrator. And most recently they failed with the schematic guy.

To be fair, all of those were offensive minds. The Vols now have a defensive-minded coach in Jeremy Pruitt who is clearly going to be a different approach. So he is a different hire altogether. However, nobody knows for sure whether or not he will work out.

It’s well documented that Tennessee football fans quickly embraced Lane Kiffin and Butch Jones. Derek Dooley had a short stick from the start, but he didn’t work out either. Vols fans are embracing Pruitt early, but will it last?

If it does, there are certain things Pruitt must do. The Vols had fallen apart as a program towards the end of the Fulmer days. But they haven’t restored themselves since firing him. The decline and the perpetual irrelevance are due to a series of mistakes made by the previous coaches that Pruitt must avoid.

In this post, we’re going to take a look at those mistakes. When we break down these errors, they may not have been made by every coach. Heck, some may have been made by only one coach. But they were all significant enough to wreck the program under the leadership of at least one of these head coaches.

Actually, they all made at least a couple of these mistakes. And whether or not they were fired or they left the program early, it had a detrimental effect on Rocky Top. The Vols are still paying to this day for these issues.

So what are the problems that stand out the most? And which coach is most responsible for specific issues? Let’s break it down here. These are the five mistakes made by previous Tennessee football coaches that Pruitt must avoid.

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