The Tennessee program has been the butt of the joke in the college football world lately and, in short, the Volunteers brought that attention on themselves. The disastrous coaching search, headlined by the Greg Schiano fiasco, was the main culprit but Tennessee also had something of a coup within the athletic department and the end result of hiring Jeremy Pruitt was not quite enough to assuage all doubt.
To that end, the Vols aren't necessarily acting like a blue blood power right now and that prompted Matt Jones of Kentucky Sports Radio to make a bizarre and potentially apt comparison between Tennessee and Kentucky.
In speaking with Paul Finebaum on ESPN, Jones compared Tennessee to Kentucky in terms of its hiring practices and, presumably, this was a shot at hiring Pruitt. It has to be said that Pruitt is considered a top-flight coordinator and, considering the programs he has led on the defensive side of the ball, it isn't as if he is anonymous. Still, the Vols ending up with a coordinator at the start of the hiring process would have seemed to be unlikely and that brings the whispers.
The Pruitt hire may work in Knoxville but, until (and if) that happens, the Vols have to take their public medicine for the mess lately.
