Jeremy Pruitt on Hendon Hooker: ‘I had no idea how good he could possibly be’

Maybe I’m just weird, but something hit me watching Tennessee go up 28-10 on Alabama a few weeks back. It was surreal to see the Volunteers thrashing the Crimson Tide at that particular moment, armed with the best offense in the country. This, coming just two years after Tennessee had a bottom ten offense in all of the FBS.

I wondered aloud, ‘I wonder what Jeremy Pruitt is thinking watching all of this?’ Pruitt, who flashed some promised before things completely fell apart in the COVID 2020 season, has been out of college football since being fired by Tennessee following several recruiting violations. Still, it doesn’t get much more SEC than Jeremy Pruitt, and given his time with Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama, he’s got a unique opinion on the league’s happenings.

Another layer? Pruitt was the one that got Hendon Hooker to Tennessee. Hooker was set to battle it out with Brian Maurer and Harrison Bailey under Pruitt, and then everything changed. Pruitt was fired, and in steps Josh Heupel. Although it took a few months and a few games to figure out, the Heupel-Hooker marriage has turned out to be a complete program changer.

So what does Jeremy Pruitt think? DawgNation’s Mike Griffith asked him earlier this week.

“It starts at the quarterback position, right,” Pruitt said. “I’ll be the first to tell you that when Hendon Hooker signed with Tennessee, I had no idea how good he could possibly be, and Josh has done a fantastic job to develop him. He fits the system that they run. I did know that there was good young wide receivers and a good core skill position and O-line coming back offensively. They’ve obviously taken it and run with it, right? They’re scoring points probably more so than the 2019 LSU team.”

Pruitt went on to say that the SEC had three top teams, all with quarterbacks playing at a high level.

“It’s a quarterback-driven league,” Pruitt said. “If you’ve got one, you’ve got a chance to beat anybody.”

Ironically, Pruitt never found a quarterback during his time in Knoxville, but he set up the next staff to win with Hendon Hooker right before he was fired. It’s got to be tough for Pruitt to watch his former players morph into the best team in the country, simply due to a coaching and scheme change.

On Saturday, he’ll watch two of his coaching stops go head to head once again as No. 1 Tennessee faces No. 3 Georgia. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS.