Tennessee football: Sam Pittman puts pressure on Jeremy Pruitt
The Arkansas Razorbacks head coach pressurizes the Tennessee football Volunteers leader.
When Tennessee football takes the field against the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday, it goes without saying that Jeremy Pruitt will be under lots of pressure. His Vols are 2-3 and on a three-game losing streak, and with this being his third year, that’s unacceptable.
A big reason for that pressure, though, will be first-year Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman. If the Hogs beat the Vols, Pruitt will have no excuses. He can’t sell the improvement week by week given the fact that he’s in his third year, and the coach who beat him will have done it despite inheriting a much bigger mess and nowhere near as far along as Pruitt.
Let’s go back a bit. Both Arkansas and Tennessee football fired their head coaches in 2017, as they each went 4-8 on the year. From there, the Hogs hired Chad Morris, and the Vols hired Pruitt after that crazy coaching search.
Well, Arkansas went 2-10 in back to back years and lost 20 straight SEC games overall, 16 of which happened during the two years under Morris and then his successor in 2019, Barry Lunney Jr., who coached the final two games after Morris was fired. So in 2017, Arkansas was in as bad of shape as UT. However, whatever shape they were in, it got way worse after those two years.
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Enter Pittman, who took over this offseason. He inherited by far the biggest mess in the SEC, and how has he responded? Well, the Hogs have the same record as the Vols, who are in their third year under Pruitt, despite playing the toughest schedule in the SEC. They are a bad call away from being 2-3 and were competitive with both the Texas A&M Aggies and Georgia Bulldogs.
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Rocky Top, meanwhile, is still losing games by large margins similar to what they did Pruitt’s first year on the job. Remember, in 2018, he went 5-7, and six of those losses were by 25 or more points. This year, all three of his losses were by 23 or more points. Arkansas did lose to Georgia by 27 but lost to the Auburn Tigers by two and A&M by 11.
By any metric you look at, the Hogs are playing better than Tennessee football this year. That is happening despite the fact that Pittman is in his first year dealing with a much bigger mess than Pruitt, who is in his third year, inherited.
Now, to be fair to Pruitt, he also had some impressive performances his first year. Remember when the Vols upset the Auburn Tigers on the road and then beat the Kentucky Wildcats? He deserves credit for that and that strong finish last year.
Still, the success Pittman is having at Arkansas should put a lot of coaches on notice, and none more so than Pruitt. When the two face off on Saturday, Pittman will be coaching with house money, as anything he does this season is icing on the cake.
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If Pittman beats Pruitt on Saturday, there will be no excuses for the state of Tennessee football. There weren’t any expectations of a national title this year, but Arkansas should have been written off as a win given the state of the programs. This is why Pittman’s success puts a ton of pressure on Pruitt to win.