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Tennessee football: Five concerning signs from Jeremy Pruitt’s second year with Vols

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 12: Head coach Jeremy Pruitt of the Tennessee Volunteers looks on prior to the game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Neyland Stadium on October 12, 2019 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 12: Head coach Jeremy Pruitt of the Tennessee Volunteers looks on prior to the game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Neyland Stadium on October 12, 2019 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images
Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images /

After finishing his second year with Tennessee football, there are many positives with Jeremy Pruitt. But the Volunteers do have some concerning signs.

Sure, they finished on a strong note, winning six straight games. That suggests an upward trajectory of Tennessee football after two years under Jeremy Pruitt, as he took over a team that was 4-8 in 2017 and has since gone 5-7 and now 8-5.

Then came a pretty impressive offseason with key talent returning, elite transfers added and a top 10 recruiting class. Taking all of that into account, everybody is excited about what is happening on Rocky Top. Vols fans are convinced Pruitt has UT heading in the right direction.

However, Big Orange Country has to be careful. There are some red flags from Pruitt’s first two years with Tennessee football, and Vol Nation has to be prepared for the possibility of those things showing up in worse ways going forward.

In this post, we’re going to look at the red flags that have come about from his second year at the helm. Pruitt, while generating lots of excitement, has provided a few reasons to be concerned, as we still don’t know for sure which direction the program is headed.

Nobody should forget that the Vols were in a similar situation after two years under Butch Jones. They went 5-7 in 2013 and had a strong finish to go 7-6 in 2014. Jones then secured his second straight top five recruiting class after his second year. As a result, everything was on the up and up, and he didn’t start crashing and burning until midway through his fourth year after a 5-0 start.

If the Jones years taught us anything, it’s that you don’t always see the major warning signs until a few years in. Just so people are aware, this isn’t the same thing as the concerning signs in the offseason.

Here, we’re looking at specific things that happened in 2019 that could put a damper on the momentum involved with its finish and what it means in the context of Pruitt’s resume. These are the five concerning signs for the Vols that were on display during Jeremy Pruitt’s second season as head coach of the Tennessee football program.

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