Happy Moving Monday? 
Could this be the day that we find out something on the fate of Jeremy Pruitt so we can all get on with it? I'm not sure how grammatically correct that last sentence is and at this point I pretty much don't care. It's one thing for Tennessee to torture a fan base for the better part of a decade but this is getting ridiculous.
Our UT insiders insider Orange Throat files from deep inside the bowels of UTK on this pregnant pause Monday.
Get the app! Droid | iPhone
Orange Throat
'Planet Basilio:
Random musings as we enter Day 31 of limbo for the UT football program:
PRUITT NOT WALKING LIKE A LAME DUCK. Our besieged head football coach reportedly endured a grueling interrogation on possible violations in his program on Thursday and hopped a jet and flew across the country the next day to try to convince star LB Henry T to return for his third season. Pruitt had a good Saturday too, welcoming mid-term enrollee freshmen to campus and securing a transfer commitment from Auburn DE Big Cat Bryant. The good news kept flowing Sunday when veteran TE Austin Pope took his name out of the portal and pledged to return to UT.
INVESTIGATION. WHAT INVESTIGATION? Plus, defensive guru Kevin Steele is now on campus, presumably ready to fill whatever coaching role Pruitt desires on his defense for 2021, and the rumors have gotten even hotter over the weekend that super-recruiter and DL coach Rodney Garner will follow Steele up I-85/I-75 soon. It's enough to make Vol fans think this UT investigation is merely a piece of lint for Pruitt to flick off his shoulder.
NOT SO FAST. Several insiders still believe the investigation, which may now be completed and is being given to the UT administration, has found widespread wrongdoing in Pruitt's program. If the investigation is indeed complete and the ball is going into UT's court to act, then expect some sort of action and/or announcement this week ... but that's a lot of ifs. We're told a team meeting is being held tonight as winter conditioning is set to begin and classes start on Wednesday. It is certainly a good sign for the Pro-Pruitt cause if no change has been made by Wednesday, or is it? Stay tuned ... as news breaks out Tony will break in.
MEANWHILE, BARNES' BALLERS... keep on ballin.' The Vols should have gotten two wins over Vandy this week but had to settle for one Saturday night. Tuesday night's game at Florida represents an opportunity to get a road win over a borderline NCAA team. The 10-1 Volunteers are in excellent shape at this point in the season, having lost only to an Alabama team that is the only team without a loss in league play.
CAN WE WAIT UNTIL SPRING ON SPRINGER? The first day of Spring 2021 is March 20. That should be the first weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament. Rick Barnes and his excellent staff certainly have a plan to bring this excellent roster to a peak at that time, and that plan almost has to have freshmen Jaden Springer and Keon Johnson playing more minutes and carrying more of the offensive load at crunch time.
IT'S A WONDERFUL LUXURY to be able to nitpick a top 5 or 10 in the nation Tennessee basketball team, but it is hard to see UT's best five not being the two freshmen, Fulky, Pons and Triple J. That means less minutes for Vesco and Victor Bailey Jr. down the road. It is also hard to see this team fulfilling its vast potential if the light doesn't come on for Anosike.
Orange Throat'
Great on Jeremy Pruitt for finishing strong if this is what's happening here. And I have no reason to believe yet that this isn't what's happening at UT. As I was told over the weekend by a source with some knowledge of this deal it's easy to get fooled by the optics of Pruitt being on the road or him welcoming his new players. My belief in talking to those in the know on this is that Pruitt is very much on his last legs and needs a miracle reprieve from the school if he hopes to be back here for the 2021 season.
So my message today is don't get fooled by what you see. I was told that this situation is in the hands of the attorneys on both sides. On one end of things Tennessee is going to be very careful with the way they proceed with Kevin Steele until they turn this thing over to him in the interim. Meanwhile Jeremy Pruitt has been obviously advised to keep working to the whistle. This could come down to two sides posturing here with millions of dollars on the line. Until Pruitt hears something definitive he has to make this thing look good for TV as they say. Meanwhile Tennessee conversely has to bide its time until the report is 100 percent complete (who knows when this will be?).
INVESTIGATION. WHAT INVESTIGATION? This has been Pruitt's mantra behind the scenes to anyone that will listen. He's constantly downplayed the severity of what's occurred within his program or his culpability in it. I keep going back to the concept of a university in the SEC turning state's evidence on a sitting head coach and wounding him beyond repair only to bring him back once they've neutered him in just about every way possible. Consider the news over the weekend of Joe Osovet interviewing for a mid-major job. This place would be comical it wasn't such a football toxic waste dump.
NOT SO FAST: My word picture for Jeremy Pruitt's situation is that he needs a Houdini like escape to emerge from this as Tennessee's Head Coach. In my mind's eye, I picture him in a 300 gallon aquarium with a crowd of media members and assorted Vol fans looking on. He's strapped to the bottom of the tank with a channel lock and the clock is ticking. A few media members (unnamed here but use your imagination) are tapping on the glass and offering a proof of life check periodically on our coach. As you read this Pruitt's tenure is still alive but there's the matter of the escape. Can he do it?
Stand With The Tony Basilio Show
Join the T Club
Make a One-Time Donation
Send Us A T-Mail. Click Here.
Click to subscribe on Apple Podcasts
End This Soon Please: Surely this sordid chapter in Tennessee Football history is coming a close shortly. We can't continue to live in limbo around this football team. It's one thing for a coach and an administration to fail to move the bar on the football field here. We've seen this before and we'll unfortunately probably see this again. What's inexcusable is for Tennessee to suffer self-inflicted uncertainty borne of a failure of an AD to manage his young head coach. For the one millionth time I get to opine here that the living fan deserves better. Perhaps at some point Tennessee Football will come a point a point of pride instead of one of pre-medication.
The Hazard Is Leaning On Timelines: Orange Throat was talking above about this situation not dragging on past Wednesday but why couldn't it? This is Tennessee after all. One of the reasons I thought we could get a resolution over the weekend is that this all butts up against the beginning of a new semester and tonight's meeting. I guess in a perfect world we would've heard something over the weekend. But what about Tennessee is perfect? And besides attorneys and the law don't care about a perfect world. This situation is obviously unfolding on a timeline that's not adhering to our whims. So be it ... Go Vols ...
Tony
