Saban, Smart had it easier than Pruitt
Fulmer says new Vols coach has far less to work with.
Phillip Fulmer isn’t ruling out a 10-win Tennessee football season.
But the Vols first-year athletic director knows how important it is to maintain realistic expectations.
That’s why Fulmer is making it clear that Jeremy Pruitt has inherited a more challenging situation in many senses than Nick Saban did at Alabama, or Kirby Smart at Georgia.
“Anything is possible, Tennessee is a great place,” Fulmer said, asked to compare Pruitt’s chances of winning a division title to what Saban and Smart accomplished early at their respective schools.
“I’m not sure Alabama and Georgia were where we are,” Fulmer said. “Georgia had a lot of good players and was winning 10 games a year when (Smart) took over, so different scenarios everywhere you go.”
Fulmer went 10-5-1 against Alabama and 11-6 against Georgia. Fulmer has said Pruitt ultimately will be judged by how Tennessee fares against those rivals along with Florida.
But the Vols haven’t been on top in those series in a while. The program only recently started to have enough success to turn the heads of recruits who might not recall the glory years.
Tennessee has won only three bowl games and cracked the Top 25 twice since Fulmer led the Vols to the 2007 SEC Championship Game. Those seasons were all under previous coach Butch Jones.
But the 2017 team hit rock bottom, leading the nation in starts missed because of injuries for a second straight year en route to the school’s first-ever eight-loss season, and the firing of Jones.
Alabama went 6-7 the year before Saban took over, and his first team in 2007 was 7-6 with a loss to Louisiana-Monroe. This, even though Saban had 18 returning starters.
Smart inherited a championship-level program from Mark Richt that had won 10 games or more in three of the five seasons before he was named coach in 2016. He was 8-5 his first year before his College Football Playoff runner-up finish last season.
The Vols have just 12 starters returning, and they remain at a disadvantage under the current SEC scheduling model.
Tennessee has had to play the Crimson Tide annually during the Alabama program’s most dominant run in modern era history.
Tennessee also draws Auburn from the SEC West Division this season, another bit of hard luck as the Tigers appear poised for another competitive season.
That’s why Fulmer knew better than to try to answer when asked if Pruitt was on some sort of timetable.
“It would be silly to stand here and say there’s [a timetable],” Fulmer said. “We’re gonna go as hard and as fast as we can to get this football thing fixed. I’m gonna tell you this, he has challenged everybody in every way, and I love it.”
Fulmer said the message the fans need to take from the Big Orange Caravan is that the athletic department is “stable.” Further, Fulmer said, he’s “preaching patience.”