Sometimes people just continue to hate, even when they shouldn’t. That appears to be the case for Sports Illustrated’s Pate Forde, who continues to express his animus towards the fanbase of the University of Tennessee whenever he can.
Even when he has to force a narrative to do it.
This week Forde took advantage of the departure of Chip Kelly from UCLA as an opportunity to reevaluate the 2018 college football coaching cycle . Who was included in that cycle? You guessed it: former Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt.
Forde went on to once again to take shots at the Tennessee fan base in evaluating the Pruitt hire, which isn’t something new for the veteran writer.
Immediate reaction: Volunteers fans, drunk with power after a populist uprising resulted in blocking the hire of Greg Schiano and then the firing of athletic director John Currie, proclaimed victory. They were wrong. How it worked out: Selected by figurehead AD Phil Fulmer, the former Nick Saban assistant coach proved very quickly to be in over his head. Tennessee lost six times by 25 points or more in his first season, going 5–7. The Vols went 8–5 the next season, but rampant cheating was kicking in behind the scenes. The combination of losing and 18 Level I violations ended Pruitt’s tenure after just three seasons. With most of his victories vacated, Pruitt’s official career record at Tennessee is 5–19, 2–16 in the SEC. High point, as it were: Coming off an 8–5 second season under Pruitt, the Volunteers started the pandemic year of 2020 2–0, with wins over South Carolina and Missouri. A blowout loss to Georgia then started a six-game losing streak. Aftermath: Tennessee made a good hire by grabbing Josh Heupel from Central Florida; he’s gone 27–12. Pruitt, meanwhile, was hit with a six-year show-cause penalty by the NCAA.