Comments from Cade Mays make Josh Heupel look like a better coach than Jeremy Pruitt
Most Tennessee Vols fans know by now that Josh Heupel is a better head coach than Jeremy Pruitt. But if you're one of the one or two people out there who still have doubts, comments from Vols offensive lineman Cade Mays on Friday should change your mind. Mays spoke about Heupel and Tennessee's offensive staff from […]
Most Tennessee Vols fans know by now that Josh Heupel is a better head coach than Jeremy Pruitt.
But if you're one of the one or two people out there who still have doubts, comments from Vols offensive lineman Cade Mays on Friday should change your mind.
Mays spoke about Heupel and Tennessee's offensive staff from last season at the NFL scouting combine on Friday.
And Mays' comments definitely made it sound like he learned a lot more from Heupel than he learned from Pruitt.
“They (Tennessee's coaches) put together a really good game plan every week, a good game plan that we can go execute on Saturdays,” said Mays. “They expanded my football IQ tremendously, taught me how to watch film effectively, how to study my opponents, how to break that down. They put together a good game plan to go succeed on Saturdays. Their fast-tempo offense put me in the best shape of my life. I feel like I can go play a whole game and practice was so hard, then you go play a full game, it was easy.”
A couple of things stand out there. First off, the fact that Heupel and his staff "expanded" Mays' football IQ "tremendously".
Pruitt was supposed to be a great X's and O's coach who understood the game deeper than many of his colleagues in the SEC. It turns out that wasn't necessarily the case. And it explains why Tennessee often looked confused and out of position during Pruitt's tenure.
The other thing that stands out is that Mays said he was in the best shape of his life under Heupel. So not only was Pruitt not as smart of an X's and O's guy as we thought, but he didn't do a good job when it came to conditioning, either.
Heupel is running circles around Pruitt as a coach. His team plays smart and they never looked confused, despite playing at a much faster pace in 2021 than they did in 2020. And they're in better shape.
I'm sure fans are tired of hearing about Pruitt. I get it. That era is over. But the new guy is always going to get compared to the old guy. And when it comes to Heupel and Pruitt, there truly is no comparison. Heupel is lightyears ahead of Pruitt as a football coach.
Featured image via Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
