SEC Football: Former Saban assistants are taking over the SEC

Jeremy Pruitt

This week, Jeremy Pruitt became the latest former Saban assistant to receive a head coaching job in the SEC. The Tennessee Volunteers announced that Pruitt would become the next head coach on Thursday.

Like Smart, Pruitt is starting his first job as a head coach. He was an assistant on Alabama’s staff from 2007 until 2012 before leaving the Crimson Tide to become Florida State’s defensive coordinator. After coaching as a defensive coordinator for Florida State and Georgia, Pruitt returned to Alabama. He has been Saban’s defensive coordinator for the last two seasons.

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Pruitt does have experience with coaching championship teams as a coordinator, and he is also a good recruiter. But he has not been a coordinator for very long. This season was just his fifth season as a defensive coordinator. Smart, on the other hand, had been a defensive coordinator with the same program for nine seasons before accepting a head coaching job.

Tennessee is a program that desperately needs to rebuild, and fans want results fast. After the way the last few coaches have played out, Volunteers fans are growing impatient and want a quick turnaround. Pruitt will face a lot of pressure to make Tennessee competitive like it was when current athletic director Phillip Fulmer was coaching.