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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 Silas Walker/Getty Images
Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images /

1. Inability to reach nine-win mark

Clay Travis has consistently brought up a stat that everybody should take seriously. In the SEC Title Game era, no coach has won an SEC Championship without winning nine wins by their second season.

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Under Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee football did indeed fail to reach nine wins. Now, that doesn’t mean that it can’t happen. The Vols didn’t reach nine wins under Johnny Majors until his seventh season. And they did go 8-4 Phillip Fulmer’s second full season despite winning nine (or 10 if you count the tie with the Alabama Crimson Tide that was later forfeited) in 1993.

What’s clear is that they have to have at least one nine-win season by Year Two. Pruitt failing to do so is worthy of concern. Of course, if he had beaten just the Georgia State Panthers or BYU Cougars at home, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. He should’ve beaten both.

However, the Vols are where they are under him, and a strong finish isn’t going to change the fact that they only got to eight wins with that. As a result, Vol fans now have to hope Pruitt does something that has never been done in the SEC title era if he is going to work out.

Next. Vols 2020 recruiting class by the numbers. dark

Very few coaches took over programs in as bad of shape as Tennessee football, to be fair to Pruitt. Everything about what he had to deal with is unique. But this should be the top concern, as the second year has always been the barometer to judge head coaches. Pruitt had a strong finish that second year. It’s not one consistent with other coaches of major SEC programs who succeeded.

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