Hog Fans Now Realize They Could Have Done Worse
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas fans just thought it couldn't have been worse hiring Chad Morris.
Tennessee just kinda said, "hold my beer a second," and proceeded to get Jeremy Pruitt.
No need at this point to keep running the bus over Morris, but a lot of Vols fans would take a 4-20 record over two seasons without a win in the SEC instead of what's coming.
Former Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt on the sidelines during a game in the 2020 season, his last for the Vols. (UT Athletics)
Pruitt won at nearly a .500 clip, but shattered the Tennessee football program into a thousand pieces.
Pat Forde at SI.com pretty much summed it up with a question for Vols fans:
"How does it feel, nearly five years later, to know that you greased the skids for what now definitively can be called the worst football hire of the 21st century in the Southeastern Conference? At least Chad Morris just lost; he didn’t leave Arkansas facing major sanctions, too."
You can play the what-if game of hypothetical music chairs all you want, but Morris left some pretty good young players the Razorbacks are still depending on for this season that has pretty high expectations.
He just couldn't manage them.
Former Arkansas coach Chad Morris yelling at somebody during another Razorbacks' loss in 2019 just before he was fired. (Ted McClenning / allHOGS Images)
And he didn't blow up the program in getting them here. Sam Pittman didn't inherit an empty building when he was hired in 2019 but everybody needed an attitude adjustment.
It appears he accomplished that in just two seasons and his first season was a free pass, in my opinion.
Considering everything going on during that season, any first-year coach gets a pass from this corner.
Pittman doesn't have to deal with the NCAA waiting on him at the office every day. Pruitt doesn't, either, because he got kicked to the curb without supper.
It's harder to put things back together, though, when you're probably looking at some sort of NCAA sanctions from the charges last week since Sports Illustrated reported the Vols won't even challenge.
Pittman has the Hogs headed in a positive direction.
The Vols don't really even know the obstacles they'll face yet.
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WITHOUT SABAN AND FISHER FEUDING AND NO NEW TEAMS, MEDIA DAYS WAS RATHER ROUTINE
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HOGS GET HIGH PROFILE ALLY IN QUEST TO CHANGE OUTDATED RULE
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ALL-AMERICAN SAFETY JALEN CATALON ON INJURY LAST YEAR, LOOKING AHEAD TO SEASON
HOGS' BUMPER POOL ON COMING BACK FOR BONUS SEASON TO LEAVE PROGRAM BETTER
SECMD22: RAZORBACKS QUARTERBACK KJ JEFFERSON ON GETTING BETTER
SEC NATION COMING BACK TO FAYETTEVILLE FOR OPENER
RAZORBACKS' SAM PITTMAN SHOWS HE'S RELATABLE TO FANS ONCE AGAIN
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