There is one factor that can help determine whether a football coach in Tennessee will be successful: whether Paul Finebaum opposes the hire or not. If history is an indication, the opposite of him is the most accurate.
A lot of news was made known when the UCF Knights hired Gus Malzahn to replace Josh Heupel, who is now head coach of the Vols. Many analysts across the country claim that UCF has gotten the better end of the deal.
One of the analysts is the Mouth of the South itself. According to Garrett Stephen of 247Sports, Finebaum, who is ironically a UT degree, claims that UCF upgraded after losing Heupel. Here’s a little bit of what the SEC expert said.
Gus Malzahn is a better coach than Josh Heupel. Remember now, Heupel took over for Scott Frost, who went to Nebraska – it’s a whole other documentary there. ”
Given Finebaum’s record that he was a big supporter of Jeremy Pruitt when Tennessee football hired him, Full fans should be relieved because he does not hold the Hupel lease high. Let’s just go back and look at the tasks.
On the day Pruitt was launched in 2017, Finebaum praised Phillip Fulmer on Twitter because he brought the university together after the Greg Schiano search and reckoned the first impression Pruitt made. In April, he praised Pruitt’s rent in a radio interview with Birmingham, Ala station WJOX 94.5. Here’s a little of what he said then.
“He’s not a carnival barker. He’s not going to sell from house to house something they do not want or need like Butch Jones has been doing for five years. He looked you in the eye with a straight answer and it sounded very good. ‘
Since Pruitt was fired for an NCAA investigation related to improper benefits, the idea that he would give a straight answer to things did not age very well. However, it is getting worse.
A day after former Georgia Bulldogs quarterback Aaron Murray, now a CBS Sports Network analyst, was interviewed during SEC Media Days on ESPN Radio The Game in Nashville, Tennessee or Pruitt has the personality to head coach be or not, Finebaum had strong reaction. . He accuses Murray of not knowing what he is talking about and calls Pruitt a ‘phenomenal leader’.
“I do not give two tears what Aaron Murray thinks.”
Answer from @finebaum regarding Aaron Murray’s criticism of Jeremy Pruitt: pic.twitter.com/lhY4AuxsC7
– Caleb Noe (@CalebNoeTV) 18 July 2018
To be honest, Finebaum admitted last month to Kipp Adams of 247Sports that he was wrong about Pruitt. In that interview, he said that at first he thought Pruitt was a good hire, but that he became more “disappointed” when the two would meet. Here’s a little of what he said in that interview.
‘I’ll tell you, at first I thought he would be fine. The few times I was there with him, I came away from there more and more disappointed. He has a block in his system that he just cannot distinguish. He can not take advice, number one. I know people tried to help him. He tended to be just a hothead, number two. We have seen evidence of that all along. I’m glad you discussed it. Aaron was completely correct in his evaluation of the situation. ”
While everything is likely to be true, Finebaum’s years of experience in Alabama suggest that he was not completely unfamiliar with Pruitt before Tennessee football hired the man. Because of this, it is safe to say that he only had a bad chance.
This is good news for Rocky Top. As a man in Alabama, Finebaum is also familiar with Malzahn, which means that the election of the new UCF coach over his previous one could have the same effect as he did on Pruitt.
This, of course, is not much of a correlation, because we have just what he said about Pruitt. However, Finebaum sticks out his neck to defend the man, and it does not work well. As a result, this time he says against Heupel could be a sign of positivity for Tennessee football. Hey, you need to find encouragement somewhere.