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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 Joe Murphy/Getty Images
Photo by Joe Murphy/Getty Images /

4. Not recruiting a worthy quarterback in every class

Tennessee football suffered under both Phillip Fulmer and Derek Dooley with this philosophy. Fulmer had seen so much success replacing quarterbacks during his tenure that he got complacent. Peyton Manning replaced Heath Shuler within a year. Tee Martin easily replaced Manning and won a national title.

Following that, he had a succession of finding great recruits to play as true freshmen. Casey Clausen took the reigns early in 2000, and Erik Ainge got the nod in 2004. By 2008, he was so used to this success that he just assumed Jonathan Crompton would take the reigns. It didn’t work.

Crompton was not a fit for the new offensive system he installed. And unfortunately for him, he didn’t have a backup ready to go. BJ Coleman had talent but was inexperienced. Nick Stephens was even a worse fit for the system. The result was a 5-7 season that did him in.

Dooley, meanwhile, walked into Tyler Bray as quarterback. But he didn’t look for a backup in 2010 and was content with Matt Simms and Justin Worley as backups in 2011. Neither worked out when Bray got hurt. There was such little competition behind Bray that he never took his job seriously, and that hurt Tennessee football a lot.

Again, this seems to be something Pruitt is determined to avoid. Jarrett Guarantano is on the roster and the best of the returning two quarterbacks. But Pruitt is still giving Will McBride a look. And he didn’t stop with the recruitment of another quarterback in JT Shrout. He also went out and got a graduate transfer in Keller Chryst.

Creating such open competition is healthy and important. The Vols will benefit significantly from this. And Pruitt just needs to make sure he continues to recruit a quality quarterback every year so there’s always competition.

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