5. Hiring Jim Chaney pushes Georgia into further turmoil
Hey, the SEC is competitive. And it’s easier for Tennessee football to have success when the Georgia Bulldogs are struggling. Well, Jeremy Pruitt helped to cause a bit more turmoil for the Dawgs by bringing in Jim Chaney.
Now, Kirby Smart has lost his offensive and defensive coordinators with Mel Tucker taking the head coaching job for the Colorado Buffaloes. And unlike Nick Saban, he doesn’t have the recruiting cache just yet to be able to replace them and call it a day.
The Vols needed this. Right now, Georgia is the top dawg, no pun intended, in the East with the players it brought in. However, the Florida Gators are right behind them with Dan Mullen’s scheme beginning to take full shape.
So to be able to compete again in that division, they needed somebody to go down a peg. Smart losing both of his top assistants does just that, and in this brutal horse race, it may be just the thing Pruitt and co. need to get a leg up. Combine that with the easy schedule the Vols have this year, and this could be the big break they needed.
We’re not just talking about the toughness of a program transitioning through assistant coaches either. Georgia could fall behind the Vols, if even for a brief moment, on the recruiting trail as well, for this year and next year. And that brings us to our next reason for excitement, a huge one.