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Tennessee football: Five hilarious positive spins from Vols loss to Georgia St.

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE - AUGUST 31: Jarrett Guarantano #2, J.T. Shrout #12 and Brian Maurer #18 of the Tennessee Volunteers warm up before facing the Georgia State Panthers during the season opener at Neyland Stadium on August 31, 2019 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE - AUGUST 31: Jarrett Guarantano #2, J.T. Shrout #12 and Brian Maurer #18 of the Tennessee Volunteers warm up before facing the Georgia State Panthers during the season opener at Neyland Stadium on August 31, 2019 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images) /
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5. The Vols may have their answer on Jeremy Pruitt sooner rather than later.

Come on, guys, don’t you want to know if your coach is a bad coach early on? If Jeremy Pruitt is not the right guy for Tennessee football, a loss to the Georgia State Panthers helped make that clear. It’s better than having to wait years to find out.

The Vols were highly unlucky to enjoy three straight winning seasons with Butch Jones and back to back nine win seasons and top 25 finishes. After all, doing that allowed him to delay a hot seat that should have emerged his second year.

Before that, they were lucky to lose to the Kentucky Wildcats in 2011. It allowed them to prepare earlier than normal to get rid of Derek Dooley, and they fired him the next year. The longer it takes for you to know you don’t have your guy, the more they can damage the program.

That’s why it’s good to suffer early. Think about quarterbacks in the NFL. You never want your team to be too successful if you think they have a mediocre quarterback. If they are, then that mediocre quarterback will command a huge, long-term contract that he’s not worth and hamper your franchise for the future.

Well, it’s the same with coaches too. If the Vols, for instance, had suffered another losing season in 2006 after 2005, they could have fired Phillip Fulmer then. And they may have been the ones to end up with Nick Saban. But because they were successful in 2006 and 2007, they didn’t fire him until 2008. Timing is everything, and it’s good to know sooner.

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