Everyone is well aware by now that there’s no comparing former Tennessee Vols head coach Butch Jones to current Tennessee Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt.
The two are different in nearly every way. Pruitt is all about football. Jones is all about appearing to be about football.
There are plenty of examples of how the two coaches are different.
But maybe the best example of their differences is the way Jones and Pruitt approach their pregame speeches.
Here’s Jones’ infamous “you got my back” pregame speech in 2017.
Here’s Butch Jones’ pregame speech where he asked his kids, “YOU GOT MY BACK?!” three times on national TV. pic.twitter.com/zmJPUNIFmY
— Janna Abraham (@SportsPundette) September 5, 2017
That speech just feels contrived. It feels like Jones probably practiced that speech in the bathroom a few times before he walked out in front of his team. It definitely wasn’t spontaneous.
Pruitt, on the other hand, is much more off-the-cuff.
Get. Fired. Up. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/WF9iR25GpO
— zach ragan (@zachTNT) September 26, 2020
Georgia’s f’n dead. Let’s go. pic.twitter.com/lII7j9ul0Y
— Colby Howell (@VolChow) October 5, 2020
When Pruitt says “are there fighters in this room?” and then follows it up with “you damn right there are”, I admittedly got chills. It reminded a bit of Jack Nicholson’s famous courtroom scene in A Few Good Men (a movie I’ll watch everytime it’s on, but I digress).
Pruitt is obviously more genuine than Jones…and it’s not even close.
Of course, this isn’t exactly a shock to Vol fans.
Featured image via USA Today
