Paul Finebaum was an early champion of Jeremy Pruitt at Tennessee, but after Monday’s events, the college football commentator simply had to admit how wrong he was.
In 2018, Finebaum ripped former Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray after Murray said he was skeptical that Pruitt had the right temperament to be a head coach. Finebaum called Pruitt a “phenomenal leader” and dismissed Murray’s comments as “not relevant” and made out of loyalty to former Georgia coach Mark Richt.
On Monday, Finebaum was reminded of those comments by a caller on “The Paul Finebaum Show,” and the host admitted that he’d gotten it completely wrong.
“Of course I recall that,” Finebaum said, via Kipp Adams of 247Sports. “It turned out that, Aaron Murray was extremely critical of Jeremy Pruitt, and Aaron Murray was right. A lot of us were wrong. We thought Jeremy Pruitt would be good. Aaron said a lot of it had to do more with his temperament.
“I will tell you, at the beginning, I thought he would be good. Then, the few times I was with him up there, I came away more disappointed every time. He has a block somewhere within his system that he just cannot differentiate. He cannot take advice, number one. I know people tried to help him. Number two, he had a propensity just to be a hothead. We saw evidence of that all of the time. I am glad you brought that up. Aaron was completely correct in his evaluation of the situation.”
Credit to Finebaum for admitting when he was wrong and giving credit to Murray for being right when a lot of people were hailing Pruitt as a good hire. Three years later, Pruitt has been fired for cause, and the Volunteers are essentially back at square one.
More must-reads: