Tennessee football: 5 concerning signs for Vols Jeremy Pruitt’s first year

5. Stubborn commitment to a conservative offense

It makes sense that Jeremy Pruitt would want to return to an old-school style of play. He’s a southern football guy developed by Nick Saban. And quite honestly, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to go back to the pro-style offense.

That’s what Tennessee football is supposed to be all about anyway. However, Jeremy Pruitt’s staff had a stubborn commitment to safe, conservative play calling this year that was often a hindrance to the team.

Whether it was Pruitt’s insistence or Tyson Helton’s poor play calling, it all reflects back on Pruitt as a head coach. And too often, Jarrett Guarantano was asked to make short, intermediate throws, many times behind the first down marker despite it being third down.

Let’s be clear that this does not mean Pruitt is conservative overall or not aggressive. He is still aggressive with his willingness to go for it on fourth down, call play actions, and try onside kicks. This means that he was committed specifically to the safe offense this year, which was why Guarantano had so few interceptions, three to be exact.

In fact, Pruitt touted Guarantano’s low interception ratio, ignoring the fact that it simply meant he wasn’t making big plays for the Vols when they were necessary. With such a bad offensive line and an offense in transition, UT’s best chance on the season was to air it out and let its big receivers make plays.

They didn’t do that as much as they should have, and that’s an indictment against Pruitt. It’s also a concern that he may stick to his guns no matter what instead of adapt to his personnel, and Butch Jones was a disaster for doing the same thing.