Along the same lines as VV. Butch was an upgrade over Dooley, and hopefully a step in the right direction. Had success at previous stops, recruited well, seemed to have good organization skills. The problem is he had a ceiling and it was too low for Tennessee. Let's not forget he wasn't a total failure. Recruited well. Beat UF and Uga in the same year for the first time since 2004, won three straight bowl games, denied the OBC a return to the SECC and may have helped send him packing. Whereas Dooley...lbeat NC State?
We have to hope Pruitt is another step up. Way too early to say.
That's basically what I've been saying- it's too early to say. Nobody really knows- even the media only gets to see the first 10-15 minutes of practice, and that's usually just warmups. But many are acting like they know for sure that Pruitt is an upgrade, and...just no, they don't.
But getting back to Fred White's quote (I've met him at TRO's tailgates, BTW, and he's a really good guy- so this isn't a personal shot at him)- If it was so obvious on film that Butch didn't know what he was doing, that should have been evident from day one. Our former players should've noticed and said something back then- but they didn't. In fact, most of them were wildly optimistic about the future of our program under Butch, and said so publicly. And they were dead wrong. Or they were lying, or, like Vinnie said, they just
wanted to believe. I'm guessing it's the latter.
I didn't play organized football after my freshman year of HS. I'm certainly no expert on the X's and O's of today's game. And I'm sure 99% of our fanbase is in the same boat. So when a respected VFL speaks out on the state of our program, we listen. At least up until now. Because I'm personally done listening to the so-called "experts"- be it VFLs, media, message board posters, whatever. I want to see results, and I won't be a Pruitt believer until I do.