Tennessee Vols roster better for Jeremy Pruitt than when Butch Jones arrived, but SEC East tougher

Jeremy Pruitt surely hasn’t wasted time wondering how Georgia has made the climb to the top of the SEC more difficult.

UT’s newly hired coach has other priorities. He’s doing double duty, managing Alabama’s defense in the College Football Playoff and making recruiting inroads for Tennessee.

But eventually, he will turn his attention to the plusses and minuses of his first head-coaching job. That’s not just a matter of evaluating his first Tennessee roster. There’s the competition factor, too.

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Although head coaching might be a new venture for Pruitt, he knows about the competition. Before he was Alabama’s defensive coordinator, he had the same title at Georgia. He knows what a championship roster looks like.

Pruitt inherited a better roster from former coach Butch Jones than Jones did from his predecessor, Derek Dooley. That’s certainly a plus.

However, Pruitt also will face a greater challenge in the SEC East than Jones did in most of his five seasons. And that’s not just because the Vols went 4-8 in 2017 after back-to-back nine-win seasons.

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In one spectacular season, Georgia has dramatically changed the balance of power in the SEC East. The West still is superior from top to bottom. But you no longer can aim disparaging comments at the top of the East. Not after the Bulldogs beat Auburn for the conference championship and qualified for the College Football Playoff.

The Bulldogs added an exclamation point to their newfound prominence during last week’s early signing period for recruits. They might wind up with the No. 1-ranked class in the country.

The way second-year Georgia coach Kirby Smart and his staff are assembling talent, the Bulldogs could become as much a force in the East as Tennessee and Florida were in the 1990s.

They won’t be UT’s only problem in the division, though.

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Never mind that Florida won back-to-back SEC East titles in coach Jim McElwain’s first two years on the job before taking such a tumble that he lost his job in 2017. My guess is that the Gators will improve significantly under new coach Dan Mullen.

And it’s hardly a guess that he will revive the Gators’ quarterback, as well as its overall offense.

At Mississippi State, Mullen developed modestly recruited quarterbacks Dak Prescott and Nick Fitzgerald into stars. That bodes well for a program that has struggled consistently at the position since the departure of Tim Tebow in 2009.

It didn’t take Mullen long to enhance Florida’s quarterback situation. He lured dual-threat quarterback Emory Jones away from Ohio State during last week’s early signing period. Given Florida’s quarterback shortcomings, Jones could compete for the starting job right away.

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Tennessee might be playing catchup to Georgia, but it’s on comparable footing to the Gators. While Florida has won three of the past four games in the series, just slightly better coaching on UT’s part could have turned every game in its favor.

The Vols were further behind the conference’s best programs when Jones replaced Dooley after the 2012 season.

In Jones’ first season, UT had three future NFL players — James Stone, Ja’Wuan James and Zach Fulton — in its starting offensive line. But Tennessee’s next team should be better fortified in most other areas.

And that includes coaching.

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