Jeremy Pruitt weighs in on Florida-Georgia rivalry, possibly making it a home-and-home

Former Tennessee head coach and former SEC defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt joined the DawgNation podcast this week with Mike Griffith and rehashed one of the yearly debates for the Georgia and Florida programs. Griffith pressed Pruitt on what he would prefer between keeping the annual rivalry game in Jacksonville or moving the game to a home-and-home format.

“I do not (think the rivalry would lose luster),” Pruitt argued. “I get the tradition of the Cocktail Party, I grew up watching it. But when you sit there and look at your schedule at the University of Georgia, and I have no idea how Kirby feels about this … but, I do know, from a recruiting standpoint, if I’m one of the top players in the country, we know Georgia’s going to be really good every year, Florida’s got some making up to do there … but that’s a game that’s going to draw some of the best players in the country.”

“These prospects, they’re going to choose the games,” Pruitt continued. “If they choose that game, that might be the only time that they possibly can get one of the best players in the country on campus to see what the gameday atmosphere is in Athens. Athens is one of the premier places in the country when it comes to hosting a college football game. You want the players to experience that.”

Griffith and Pruitt also noted that while some prospects might take a trip over to Gainesville after the Cocktail Party in Jacksonville, it’s unlikely that they’d go from Jacksonville to Athens because of the nearly six-hour trek.

With Oklahoma and Texas joining the SEC, all the age-old scheduling questions are on the table. The Cocktail Party has been a Jacksonville staple since 1933. The only years the series went to a home-and-home was in 1994-95 during stadium renovations.

Pruitt reveals what lessons he learned from Tennessee

The end of the Jeremy Pruitt era in Knoxville was messy to say the least. Tennessee followed an 8-5 season with a Gator Bowl win in 2019 with a 3-7 year in 2020. After that season, the program fired him following an in-house investigation into recruiting violations. Even with all that coming from his time in Knoxville, he says he didn’t leave that experience empty-handed.

“The longer you do something, the better you get at it,” said Pruitt. “I think if you look at any assistant coach, first-time coordinator, or first-time head coach, the longer you do something you’re obviously going to improve at it.”

The responsibilities of a head coach go far beyond the responsibilities of an assistant. That’s something Pruitt had to learn by earning his promotion in Knoxville. Pruitt says he had to learn how to relinquish responsibilities to his staff to better his program.

“(I) figured out that I couldn’t do it all myself. I had always been on one side of the ball. It was easy to manage one side of the ball and coach my position,” said Pruitt. “When you add the offensive element, the special teams element, the recruiting and all the things involved, it takes a lot of folks.”

After his departure from Tennessee, he spent one season in the NFL under Joe Judge with the New York Giants. Since Judge got the ax, Pruitt said he plans to take a sabbatical from the coaching ranks.

On3’s Sam Gillenwater contributed to this report.