Tennessee coach fires assistant, puts pressure on Vols’ QB
Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt isn’t happy with how his Volunteers have lost two straight games after snapping an eight-game winning streak.
Pruitt fired defensive line coach Jimmy Brumbaugh, hired earlier this year, on Sunday and plans to coach the linemen himself the rest of this season.
Pruitt also said Jarrett Guarantano and the offense as a whole needs to play better after seven turnovers in the span of four quarters over two games. He added that the senior quarterback is going to have demonstrate in practice this week he deserves to keep the starting job before Tennessee hosts No. 2 Alabama (4-0) on Saturday.
“Am I wanting to put Jarret Guarantano on the shelf?” Pruitt said Monday. “No, absolutely not. I think the guy has a lot of really good qualities about him. He’s helped us win a lot of football games. Did he make a few mistakes Saturday? Sure, he did OK, but I think everybody on our football team and in our organization all could have done better starting with me.”
Pruitt made a quick change after Tennessee was routed 34-7 by Kentucky, snapping a 17-game home winning streak in that series. He fired Brumbaugh and said the fit just didn’t work from a philosophical standpoint.
MSU’s Fulton, Willekes suspended after assault charges
EAST LANSING, MICH. » Michigan State linebackers Luke Fulton and Charles Willekes are currently suspended after being charged with assault early last month.
A spokesman for the football team said Monday that Fulton and Willekes have been suspended from the program indefinitely.
According to online court records, Fulton’s alleged offense took place Sept. 8. He was originally charged with misdemeanor aggravated assault. Mike Nichols, his attorney, said Monday the charge was reduced to simple assault.
Nichols said Fulton is seeking Holmes Youthful Trainee Act designation, which can allow a young offender to keep his record clean.
According to the court records, Willekes’ alleged offense was also Sept. 8. The records list a misdemeanor assault and battery charge for Willekes, amended from misdemeanor assault. The records also list a misdemeanor drunk-and-disorderly person charge. A message was left with an attorney for Willekes.
Fulton and Willekes are both redshirt freshmen.
Same old Pitt? Panthers stuck in neutral after hot start
PITTSBURGH » Pat Narduzzi calls it “the 24-hour rule.” Win or lose, the Pittsburgh coach expects the Panthers to move on quickly regardless of the outcome during a given week.
The mental gymnastics are getting tougher. So is the path to the season Pitt looked like it might be on its way to as October began.
Pitt was unbeaten, ranked
24th and leading North Carolina State at home with less than 2 minutes to go on Oct.
3. Sixteen days later, the Panthers are 3-3 (2-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) and facing a schedule that includes visits by No. 3 Notre Dame and No. 19 Virginia Tech as well as a trip to top-ranked Clemson.
The energy that surrounded the program during a 3-0 start has waned. The running game remains stuck in neutral. Senior quarterback Kenny Pickett is dealing with an ankle injury that could force him to sit out when the Fighting Irish (4-0, 3-0) come to Heinz Field on Saturday. While the defense remains among the best in the country at getting to the quarterback, it has also allowed 11 touchdown passes over its last 12 quarters, including four against a bangedup Miami offense in a 31-19 loss last weekend.
“We made some mistakes in really all phases for that matter, things that hurt you as the game goes on,” Narduzzi said. “I really don’t feel any different from what I felt like on game day. A couple calls, obviously questionable, as far as penalties, those discipline things that drive you nuts as a coach. We’ve got to do a better job coaching them.”
Time is running out, a not uncommon occurrence for a program that has the fourthmost wins in the ACC during Narduzzi’s six-year tenure (26) but has typically struggled to emerge from the muddled middle of a league riddled with parity behind Clemson. Pitt has been somewhere between 4-2 and 2-4 at the six-game mark each of the last five seasons. The chance for a rare hot start ended when the Wolfpack went the length of the field twice in the fourth quarter to pull out a 30-29 win and Boston College stunned the Panthers in overtime seven days later.