Last week, the University of Tennessee fired head football coach Jeremy Pruitt, under a cloud of potential NCAA rules violations. The Volunteers were 16-19 during Pruitt's three seasons at the helm of the football program.
Here is a look at the Tennessee Volunteers football program since 2008 (the first year that I collected all the variables needed for the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model). This time period spans the last season under head coach Phillip Fulmer (2008), head coach Lane Kiffin (2009), head coach Derek Dooley (2010-2012), head coach Butch Jones (2013-2017), and the three seasons under Jeremy Pruitt (2018-2020). After the figure below is a more detailed look at the Tennessee Volunteers football program during head coach Pruitt's tenure based on the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model using data provided by www.cfbstats.com. (The vertical school color bars represent seasons where head coaches changed).
Jeremy Pruitt (2018-2020) {original contract}
2018
Tennessee finished the regular season at 5-7, and were bowl
ineligible. The Volunteers
played against a “tougher” strength
of schedule (SOS), meaning that the Volunteers SOS was between one and two standard deviations below the "league" average SOS. Tennessee's
best
regular
season victory
was against #29 ranked Auburn (30-24) and their worst
loss was to #79 ranked South Carolina (24-27). Tennessee was the #78 ranked team overall, with the #102 ranked
offense and the #48 ranked defense using the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model from the data provided from www.cfbstats.com.
2020
Tennessee finished the regular season at 3-7. The Volunteers' best regular season win was over #78 ranked Missouri (35-12) and their worst loss of the season
was to #65 ranked Kentucky. The Volunteers finished as the
#64 ranked offense, the #92 ranked defense and
the #84 ranked team in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
2020 NCAA FBS Head Coaching Changes