UT Vols: Can another 'Alabama guy' save Tennessee's program?

The worst coaching search in the history of the world led Tennessee to an Alabama guy. Perfect, huh?

Remember the reaction to UT's hiring of Alabama alum Dave Hart as its athletic director a few years ago?

Some fans couldn’t stomach the thought of an Alabama guy running UT’s athletic department. Some of the more creative thinkers even wondered if he could be working undercover, determined to undermine the Vols on behalf of the Tide.

You won't get that kind of reaction when Tennessee names Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt as its new football coach. Its coaching search has gone on so long and taken so many strange and troubling turns that the hiring of almost anyone other than Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano would be welcomed.

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If the last group of candidates had turned down new athletic director Phillip Fulmer, he might have offered the job to the next guy he saw wearing a baseball cap who at least looked physically capable of playing high school football in his younger days.

How good will Pruitt be as a head coach? Who knows? But I would take him over Schiano, the last defensive coordinator the Vols hired - albeit for only a couple of hours.

Pruitt passed the Saban Test. That tells you something.

Saban hasn’t won all those national championships at Alabama by hiring incompetent defensive coordinators. He’s not interested in mediocre recruiters, either.

Pruitt arrives with good reviews as a defensive coordinator and recruiter. He also has managed defenses at Florida State and Georgia. He knows the Southeast and the SEC. Don’t underestimate that.

Based on what I’ve read and heard, neither the magnitude of the job nor the challenge will faze him. He probably thought he was ready for this five years ago.

Never mind if former Saban assistants are 0-11 against their old boss. Pruitt is confident enough to believe he can beat him.

Coming off a 4-8 season, Tennessee could use some moxie in its head coach. It could use some defense, too.

I’m not downplaying UT’s offensive deficiencies. The stats speak for themselves. The Vols ranked 124th in total offense this past season.

But they also were 81st in total defense and 125th in run defense. You know where that leaves you in the SEC.

It leaves you in last place.

Surely, Pruitt will help the defense. Then, he needs to hire someone who can point the offense in the right direction.

As a longtime assistant, Pruitt obviously lacks experience in non-football matters. You can only speculate on how he will handle them. But I can't imagine being as sensitive to media criticism as recently fired UT coach Butch Jones was. 

He shouldn't have a problem rallying UT fans as Jones did for a while. So did one-year Tennessee wonder Lane Kiffin. My guess is Pruitt has more in common with Kiffin than Jones. He shouldn't be a liability on game day.

While Pruitt has no head-coaching experience, he’s know his audience better than either Jones or Kiffin. And he knows what it wants to hear.

It doesn’t want to hear about building a program brick by brick. It wants to hear about winning, sooner rather than later.

If Pruitt can do that, no one will care that he’s from Alabama.

John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him at: Twitter.com/johnadamskns.