There is one factor that can help determine whether a Tennessee football coach will succeed: whether Paul Finebaum opposes or supports the hiring. If the story is an indication, his opposite opinion is the exact one.
A lot of news was made when the UCF Knights hired Gus Malzahn to replace Josh Heupel, who is now the Vols’ head coach. Many analysts across the country claim that UCF has gotten the best of that deal.
One of those analysts is Boca do Sul himself. According to Garrett Stephen of 247Sports, Finebaum, who ironically is a UT graduate, is claiming that UCF upgraded after losing Heupel. Here is some of what the SEC expert said.
“Gus Malzahn is a better coach than Josh Heupel. Now, remember, Heupel took over from Scott Frost, who went to Nebraska – that’s a whole other documentary there. “
Well, given Finebaum’s track record of being a big supporter of Jeremy Pruitt when Tennessee football hired him, Vol fans should be relieved that he isn’t up for Heupel’s rent. Let’s go back and see those shots.
On the day that Pruitt was released in 2017, Finebaum praised Phillip Fulmer on Twitter for bringing the university together after the search for Greg Schiano and praising the first impression Pruitt made. The following April, he praised the hiring of Pruitt in a radio interview with WJOX 94.5 in Birmingham, Alabama. Here’s a little bit of what he said then.
“He is not a carnival barker. He doesn’t go door-to-door to sell people something they don’t want or need, like Butch Jones did and does five years ago. He looks you in the eye with a direct response and it resonated very well. “
Considering the fact that Pruitt was fired due to an NCAA investigation related to undue benefits, the idea of him giving a straight answer to things has not aged very well. However, it gets even worse.
The day after former Georgia Bulldogs quarterback Aaron Murray, now an analyst at CBS Sports Network, questioned ESPN Radio The Game in Nashville, Tennessee. During SEC Media Days whether or not Pruitt had the personality to be a head coach, Finebaum had a strong response. He accused Murray of not knowing what he was talking about and called Pruitt a “phenomenal leader”.
“I don’t give a damn what Aaron Murray thinks.”
Reply from @finebaum on Aaron Murray’s criticism of Jeremy Pruitt: pic.twitter.com/lhY4AuxsC7
– Caleb Noe (@CalebNoeTV) July 18, 2018
To be fair, Finebaum admitted to Kipp Adams of 247Sports last month that he was wrong about Pruitt. In that interview, he said he thought Pruitt was a good hire at the beginning, but he was more “disappointed” every time the two met. Here is some of what he said in that interview.
“I’ll tell you, at first, I thought he would be good. Then, the few times I was with him up there, I left each time more disappointed. He has a block somewhere in his system that he just can’t differentiate. He cannot take advice, number one. I know that people tried to help you. Number two, he had a penchant for just being a hot head. We saw evidence of this all the time. I’m glad you touched on that. Aaron was completely correct in his assessment of the situation. “
While all of this is probably true, Finebaum’s years of experience in Alabama suggest that he was not completely unknown to Pruitt before Tennessee football hired him. As a result, it is safe to say that he just had a bad opinion.
This is all good news for Rocky Top now. As an Alabama guy, Finebaum is also familiar with Malzahn, which means that choosing the new UCF coach over the previous one can have the same effect as your opinion of Pruitt.
Of course, it’s not much of a correlation, since we only have what he said about Pruitt. However, Finebaum risked his neck to defend the guy, and it didn’t work well. As a result, this time, what he says against Heupel could be a sign of positivity for Tennessee football. Hey, you have to find encouragement somewhere.