ATLANTA—Tennessee's Jeremy Pruitt walked into a mini-firestorm on Wednesday morning at SEC Media Days, and it had nothing to do with the Volunteers' arduous, nationally panned journey of landing a new head coach over the winter.
In addition to spinning positives with UT's massive rebuilding project, Pruitt had to deal with criticism from an unlikely source: Former UGA quarterback Aaron Murray.
Murray, who currently serves as an analyst for CBS Sports Network, went off on Pruitt—who has been part of five national-champion coaching staffs since 2007 (with Alabama, Florida State and Georgia)—during a recent radio interview with 102.5 The Fan in Nashville.
"I don’t know if his personality is fit to be a head coach. I don’t," Murray told the Tennessee station. "As a head coach, there’s so many things that go into it. It's not just going out there and coaching. You have to deal with front office. You’ve got to go talk with the president of the university. You have to deal with boosters. You have to deal with the offense, the defense.
"It's not just going in there and dealing with the kids and scheming up. There's a lot that goes into it," said Murray, the SEC's all-time leading passer (13,166 yards from 2010-13).
Murray added: "When (Pruitt) was at Georgia, the way he acted, the way he treated Coach (Mark) Richt I thought was poor. He wasn't as respectful as I thought a defensive coordinator should be to a head coach.
"... I don't think (Pruitt's) the right guy to kind of be the CEO of a corporation. He's really good managing just a defense and being a defensive coordinator. He needs to prove to me that he can handle the whole ship. For right now, I don’t think he can. We'll see what happens this year. I don't think it helps that he doesn't have a lot of talent at Tennessee."
It's worth noting:
a) Tennessee experienced a harrowing search for a new head coach in November/December, after firing Butch Jones toward the end of last season (0-6 during SEC play at the time).
From there, then-athletic director John Currie—who remained on the job for only nine-plus months—failed to bring in a successor to Jones, after the school rescinded an agreed-upon-in-principle deal with Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano (formerly the head coach at Rutgers).
b) Pruitt (a Bulldogs assistant from 2014-15) and Murray didn't officially share the same timeline or locker room at UGA. At the same time, it's certainly plausible the two engaged one another in person (around Athens).
Regardless, the 44-year-old Pruitt opted for the proverbial high road, when asked about Murray's rant.
"Fifteen years ago, I was a kindergarten teacher, and now I'm the head coach at Tennessee," Pruitt said. "You probably don't make that ascension without knowing how to treat people."
Regarding his relationship with former Georgia head coach Mark Richt (now with Miami), Pruitt was similarly diplomatic with his response.
"One thing that Coach Richt taught me, there's more to life than football," says Pruitt, who's very appreciate of his time spent in Athens. He's also anticipating his first UGA-Tennessee clash (as a head coach) on Sept. 29.
Of course, by then, Pruitt's extremely young squad will be in the middle of a five-game, six-week gauntlet which includes Florida (home), UGA (road), bye, Auburn (road), Alabama (home) and South Carolina (road).
