Jeremy Pruitt was Jimbo Fisher’s defensive coordinator during Florida State’s national championship-winning season in 2013. Just over four years later, Pruitt could be in line for Fisher’s former job now that he has accepted the head coaching position at Texas A&M. While he has no head coaching record to speak of, he does have an impressive history as defensive coordinator.
Since make the jump to college football from Hoover High School, Pruitt has coached under some of the most winning coaches college has to offer. That list includes Nick Saban and Kirby Smart from ’07-’12, the aforementioned Jimbo Fisher in ’13, and Mark Richt in ’14 before succeeding Smart as defensive coordinator in Tuscaloosa over the past two seasons.
His coordinator role has taken him through three of the south’s most fertile recruiting states. The connections he undeniably made during his time at Hoover High – consistently one the nation’s top high school football teams – also supplants what seems to be a rich recruiting resume.
While Florida State is a top school with a rich history and a lot of recent success, a lot of teams have been in coaching search mode for weeks – some even months – while the Seminoles are just now coming to grips with their loss. Pruitt’s familiarity with the school, recruiting grounds, and staff would make his hiring easily the smoothest in terms of transition. The fact that he has been recruiting in the southeastern states would also help retain any recruits Jimbo attempts to take with him to A&M.
Ultimately, the list of potential coaching hires will only continue to get shorter as the other schools finalize their searches. Pruitt may not be the ‘safe’ hire, but one with the safest rack record and perhaps the most experience and potential.
