Tennessee Vols: Dennis Dodd’s Coaching Search Grade Doesn’t Add Up

CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd gives the Tennessee Vols a low grade for hiring Jeremy Pruitt.

Tell me if this makes any sense.

CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd gave the Tennessee Vols a C+ for hiring Jeremy Pruitt, but it’s not because he thinks UT made a bad hire.

Dodd says the only reason he gave Tennessee a low grade is because of the way the search unfolded.

From CBS Sports:

"If Alabama’s defensive coordinator had been hired four weeks ago when the job first came open, this hire would be rated higher. Does that make sense? Pruitt is something like a seventh choice after the program almost burned to the ground. That makes it easier to focus on Pruitt never having been a coach and the more than fickle Tennessee fans and administration."

By the way, Dodd gave Mississippi State a B for hiring first time head coach Joe Moorhead, who was previously the offensive coordinator at Penn State.

But for whatever reason, the Vols hired a defensive coordinator that won a national championship at Florida State, and coached in the national championship game last season, and it’s a C+ hire.

By comparison, Joe Moorhead’s crowning achievement, so far, is a loss in the Rose Bowl to USC.

Dodd’s logic makes no sense.

Tennessee had an athletic director who ran a disastrous coaching search. So they fired the athletic director, named a new athletic director, rebooted the coaching search and made a hire less than a week later.

That seems like a hell of a save to me. And it should definitely get a better grade than a C+.

After it was all said and done, the Vols avoided making a terrible hire in Greg Schiano and ended up with a coach who is a perfect fit.

I think that’s worth at least a B.

But at this point, should we expect any less from the national media? These are the same folks that have made Schiano out to be the second coming of Vince Lombardi (even though he can’t get a head coaching job anywhere).

Next: Tennessee Leads For Elite Linebacker

The good news is that Dodd’s opinion matters about as much as mine, or anyone else who writes about college football.