Tennessee gets big win at Auburn, but long rebuild still remains
Tennessee’s road win at Auburn is big for Jeremy Pruitt’s program, but the Volunteers still have a long road towards SEC respectability.
Winning an SEC game feels good for the Tennessee fan base. After all, they’d lost 11 straight SEC games before knocking off Auburn on Saturday. While it certainly represents a step forward for the Volunteers, beating the Tigers doesn’t change the long road ahead for Jeremy Pruitt and company.
Beating Auburn was absolutely a step forward for the program. In particular, it’s going to give the Volunteers a big boost of momentum on the recruiting trail. The long SEC losing streak was starting to become a talking point in recruiting battles against conference opponents. The win over Gus Malzahn’s team will end that negative recruiting point.
That’s huge for a Tennessee program that desperately needs to upgrade the talent on their roster. Pruitt can coach this current group up all he wants, but he doesn’t have the playmakers necessary to challenge the elite SEC opponents on their schedule. Earning a big win over Auburn on the road should help Pruitt turn a few recruiting battles in his school’s favor.
What the win doesn’t do, is drastically change how this season is going to go for the Volunteers. Defeating a struggling Auburn team doesn’t position Tennessee to spring a massive upset against Alabama next weekend. This team will still struggle to achieve bowl eligibility in 2018.
The win should, however, do a lot to energize everyone around the program. It’s hard to keep your player’s attention when you’re in the midst of a losing streak. Pruitt and his staff should find it a lot easier to make progress in practice moving forward. That’s vital for a team that’s still trying to change the bad habits instilled by previous coaching staffs.
The passionate Tennessee fan base might be the biggest beneficiary of the victory. This was a group of fans sick and tired of losing SEC games. Anyone looking for a reason to get behind Pruitt’s program now has one. Don’t be surprised to see better crowds at Neyland Stadium down the stretch. That could be a real factor in games against the likes of Kentucky and Missouri late in the season. Those games could be the difference between bowl eligibility and a losing season in Knoxville.
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The point here is that Tennessee fans have every right to celebrate this win, but they can’t allow their expectations to get too high for his team. It’s still going to take the program multiple years to have a chance to get back on par with competitors like Georgia and Florida. Beating Auburn gives the Volunteers a useful shot in the arm, but it’s not a fix for the long-term issues that have plagued the program for years.