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Tennessee football pause on hirings, contracts is worst possible move

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 11: Detailed view of the checkered endzone at Neyland Stadium during a game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Chattanooga Mocs on October 11, 2014 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee won the game 45-10. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 11: Detailed view of the checkered endzone at Neyland Stadium during a game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Chattanooga Mocs on October 11, 2014 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee won the game 45-10. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images) /
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The Tennessee football Volunteers took the worst step in dealing with this investigation.

If any program waits until it’s absolutely sure to move on from a regime, Tennessee football is that program. In the process, the Vols often self-sabotage. That’s exactly what they did with a decision they recently made relative to this NCAA investigation into Jeremy Pruitt.

According to Mark Schlabach of ESPN, UT has put a pause on coaching hires and has not extended the contracts of assistant coaches. They are currently under investigation by the NCAA and their own compliance department, a story that initially broke back in December.

This after the school released its first public statement on the matter earlier this week, noting that it is working with Bond, Schoeneck & King attorneys Kyle Skillman and Michael Glazier. It’s also one day after another ESPN analyst, Chris Low, said he thinks it will be very difficult for Pruitt to keep his job.

Taking all this into account, the writing appears to be a bit clearer on the wall. I’d say it’s a better bet that Pruitt won’t be Tennessee football’s head coach next year. However, the Vols stalling on a decision only makes things worse.

UT should either fire Pruitt now or let him continue to coach, hire and extend contracts. Hedging is the worst thing they can do. By putting a pause on contracts and hires, the Vols are guaranteed to set themselves back next year.

Let’s look at each hypothetical. This pause is in case they have to fire Pruitt. Well, if they do have to fire Pruitt, it will be late into the offseason at this point, and so many coaches will be off the market by that point.

However, if Tennessee football realizes it can keep Pruitt and does so, or if they realize they can’t fire him for cause, well they then can’t set him and his staff back going into 2021. Pruitt still has to find offensive and defensive line coaches. Anybody he’s eyeing could be off the market before this pause comes to an end.

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Then there’s recruiting. This pause casts an even darker cloud over the program just as they are trying to secure a few more top recruits for National Signing Day next month. Do you think they’ll be able to convince anybody to commit to them while Pruitt’s job is clearly in limbo with these pauses? It’ll be impossible.

Simply put, the Vols need to go all in one way or the other. Even if the hedge is to make sure they can fire Pruitt for cause so they don’t have to pay out his contract, they’d be better off to fire him now and deal with that later.

Sure, making an immediate decision now could backfire. However, any negative consequences that come with firing Pruitt or even sticking with him through this disaster don’t significantly outweigh the negative consequences that come with this pause.

By the way, there is history that proves this. After Tennessee football went 5-7 and lost to the Kentucky Wildcats back in 2011, Derek Dooley’s second year, Dave Hart publicly came out against renewing the contracts for assistants. Dooley’s staff suffered a mass exodus, most notably defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox.

Hart then refused to fully support Dooley financially as he was trying to hire other coaches, and many, seeing the situation, refused the offer anyway. That’s how Dooley got stuck with Sal Sunseri as defensive coordinator in 2012, and that hire alone is why UT went 5-7 again, instead of 9-3 or even 10-2, and Dooley got fired.

Nobody can doubt that Hart’s move clearly sabotaged Dooley. He should have either fired Dooley at the end of 2011 or fully supported him going forward. By doing what he did, he just delayed the inevitable and then landed Butch Jones.

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Right now, Tennessee football may be delaying the inevitable with this pause. Phillip Fulmer and the administration need to make a decision. Hedging just confirms a bad result regardless of the outcome of this investigation.

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