Welcome To Tuesday ... As The World Turns Continues: with the Tennessee Football situation. Therefore it seems apropos to use this space today to empty my bucket on what I believe with regards to what's transpiring on The Hill around this investigation.


A) Tennessee Has A Strong Chancellor: Donde Plowman is in charge. This is her show. She has the backing of the HOH and those above her that want to see football get fixed at UT. Jeremy Pruitt put himself on her plate with a miscalculation ... You'll read about this below.



B) Randy Boyd Doesn't Play To Lose: Boyd is successful in everything he does and he's a sports minded head of the university. I maintained all fall that he wouldn't sit there and rubber stamp another year of Fulmer Pruitt and this proved to be correct.


C) John Compton Is A Winner In Big Business: Compton was brought to town by the Haslams and is now atop the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees. He's no shrinking violet and can't be amused by Jeremy Pruitt.


D) HOH Back In Business: Mr. Haslam & Jimmy Haslam are now lurking around though not in with both feet. Neither guy has offered to write the check just yet to make Pruitt go away.


E) Fulmer In Hot Water: Phillip Fulmer isn't highly thought of as a capable AD by the aforementioned 4. None of the above were involved with UT when Fulmer was installed 37 short months ago. I hear Fulmer hasn't been a buttoned up AD.


F) Jeremy Pruitt Miscalculated ... He's Not Nick Saban ... 1) He made an enemy of the academic head back in the spring and tried to get his job. Only he didn't realize this guy was the right hand man of Plowman who loves him. Bad move Jeremy.


2) He was a complete headache toward Dr. Clink during the Covid stuff. This didn't endear him with Dr. Plowman and others at the university.


3) He fired a D Line coach during a football game and this became public. This was high school Harry non-sense that was a real red flag to the power players above.


4) He's under investigation and the preferred endgame is to fire him for cause. Tennessee's probe has changed hands as you'll read below and it doesn't look like good news for Pruitt.


5) His 3-7 record this year only exacerbates the urgency by those at the top of UT to look for a cheaper way out of this. Those at the top of this thing have come to the conclusion that this guy must go ... Now it's a matter of whether or not they can get there.



G) An Ominous Sign For Pruitt's Long Term Viability At UT: The investigation is now out of the hands of compliance and now being conducted solely by the university general counsel and Kyle Skillman and Michael Glazier. This speaks to an investigation that's gaining steam.


H) Time Is On Tennessee's Side For Now: Tennessee is content to let this investigation play out. What's the urgency? Each passing day has to make Pruitt's head spin. Another week of this and maybe he's ready to deal?


I) Ignorance Is Bliss: Jeremy Pruitt & Phillip Fulmer both think they're both returning for the 2021 season but they're about it on UT's campus. I can't find anyone else that thinks they're returning. Even long standing Fulmer people on campus think that both guys are in deep water.


J) Anything Can Still Happen Here: There is a remote chance that Pruitt returns but this will be a short sighted financial decision. Tennessee will be looking at the buyout only and not counting the hidden costs. This guy is beyond wounded at this point in terms of putting the wheels on him and bringing him back for a successful 2021.



K) The Potentially Deep Pool Of Quality Replacements Could Make This An Easy Move To Make Texas moving on Herman over the weekend only augments the chance that Tennessee will make a move. There is now a glut of available, highly respected, proven head coaches including now Tom Herman and Gus Malzahn that will make parting with Pruitt cheaper and easier. Neither Herman nor Malzahn would require buyout money. Nor would some of the fired NFL head coaches floating around as you read this.



L) Don't Count Out The Old Battle Captain This deal remains fluid. Don't count out Fulmer who remains a master politician.





Links: The NCAA Tournament will be housed in Indiana ... Tennessee needs to get to their first final four in the state that loves the sport perhaps over all others. Link


The tournament participants are going to come from an interesting group of schools. Link


Could Knoxville's own Chad Pennington get in this Marshall coaching sweepstakes? Link


Is Dan Mullen on his way to the NFL? I think he'd be a fine NFL coach. Link


Name Image & Likeness forces want to see Democrats win today in Georgia. Link



Final Thought: The recruiting dead period ends Saturday ... Shouldn't Tennessee get this thing in gear and come to some sort of resolution soon? Asking for a friend ...

TB

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