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

1. Five losses by 25 or more points

This is what’s so weird about Jeremy Pruitt. He does something rare for a first-year head coach rebuilding a program by beating two Top 25 teams, something no other current SEC coach did in their first year.

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However, Pruitt also looks horrible in his losses, to the point that you wonder if he’s developing his players at all. Tennessee football lost five games this season by 25 points or more, and their first three losses en route to a 2-3 start all came by exactly 26 points.

In fact, of all their losses, the South Carolina Gamecocks are the only team they could have beaten. This was a team that did not really have many close games at all this year, but losing games in that fashion was embarrassing.

Perhaps where it really stood out was the end of the season, which is why this plays off of our regression story. How could the Vols lose at home by over 30 to the Missouri Tigers, the same margin from the year before that got Butch Jones fired the next day?

And how could they then suffer a third straight loss to the Vanderbilt Commodores, losing that one in blowout fashion too? These guys didn’t even compete in those games. Add in what happened to them against the West Virginia Mountaineers, Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs and Alabama Crimson Tide, and this was all just embarrassing.

Pruitt can say his team played a tough schedule. He can talk about all the random mistakes that oddly put the Florida game out of reach. But great coaches don’t lose so many games by blowouts, even in a rebuilding season. You can read our story here after his third loss by 26 points or more about how this is not normal for coaches at any program who go on to have successful careers. Well, Pruitt suffered three more blowout losses after that.

As a result, you have to question, to a degree, what he’s building in Knoxville. Now, like we said, there are rare positives for Pruitt that aren’t normal either. But Tennessee football is not a sure bet to be in good hands just yet with these blowout losses. A much easier schedule in 2019 will make for an easier barometer. Until then, this is a huge concern.