Comments on: What Next, Tennessee?

By: atnvol

atnvol — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 22:24:50 +0000

I for one am grateful that we are where we are at….the Strong hire was a disaster avoided….I was sick yesterday morning when it was being reported that Strong was a done deal. Put Gundy down as a loose cannon….I feel like Fedora or Del Rio would be a good choice….time will tell, but I thank our lucky stars that Strong was avoided. He is where he needs to be and I wish him the best.

By: JamieThornton

JamieThornton — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 21:35:40 +0000

@Fayettechill14 that’s just wrong. Bo Pelini is a nut. I would stay away from him. I think Butch Jones or Larry Fedora is who UT should go after. I would be shocked to see both of them turn Tennessee down. And no……….that’s not a twitter joke from last night.

By: Fayettechill14

Fayettechill14 — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 21:32:39 +0000

Pelini to Tennessee?

Bret Bielema approves of this!

By: JamieThornton

JamieThornton — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 21:08:07 +0000

Another thing I would watch out for is guys like Bo Pelini. I think the guy is a nut case anyway. But I think someone like him is trying to play UT for a raise. I can speak to that with Les Miles and us. Maybe the same thing for talking with Petersen.

By: JamieThornton

JamieThornton — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 21:04:39 +0000

I know UT fans might not want to hear this, but I would hire Larry Fedora today. You might say, he’s not a big named coach. So what. The guy was amazing at Southern Miss. The year after he left, they didn’t win a game. He went into UNC on his first year, cleaning up the Butch Davis/NCAA mess and went 8-4. UT doesn’t deserve to be down on the level of Kentucky. The coaching decision is to important to hire another Dooley(something I never got from the start). Tennessee fans, you guys should get behind Larry Fedora.

By: ChaseTheTrainWarren

ChaseTheTrainWarren — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 20:52:38 +0000

a thing that i do not really see people taken in to consideration on the TN job.

If i were to ask you to write down your top 10 rankings for next year, after arguing that i know that it is WAY to soon to rank teams just jot them down

now of that list of 10 would would Oregon, Florida, Georgia, Alabama or South Carolina on your list? 4 out of the 5? 3 out of the 5?

now go look at the Vols 2013 schedule

they will play all 5 of those teams with in there first 8 games, and FL, ALA and the Ducks are away games.

with the bar being set that you would only have 3 years to have the team back to being a huge power and it being vary reasonable that your first year that you will have 5 loses in your first 8 games, would you take the job?

would love to see the glory restored a for the Vols to be a great team, but its all up hill and the hills are vary steep at Rocky Top.

to any coach taking the job…. rent your house and have the buyout be bigger then your signing bonus.

By: david1314

david1314 — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 20:23:48 +0000

@Statesman Good points all Statesman.

Sumlin, Strong, Franklin have all proven to be better coaches and would have been far better coaches for UT had we chose to get involved with any of the trio than so called “proven coaches’that John seems to favor in this case.

Bo Pelini, Butch Jones give me a break.

By: david1314

david1314 — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 20:11:19 +0000

W While I agree with advice to remain calm, please no more mention of Bo Pelini as some type of savior. He’s no better coach than the one that just departed.

Hart has badly mismanaged this and will hopefully be forced to the role of puppet during the rest of the search.

There are viable coaches worth checking on but Pelini damn sure isn’t one of them.

By: david1314

david1314 — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 20:07:08 +0000

Please God Let’s not hold up Bo Pelini as some kind of savior. He’s vastly overrated. No better coach than the one that just departed.

By: Statesman

Statesman — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 20:04:22 +0000

Not sure your issue with Strong, but folks said the same thing about James Franklin &Kevin Sumlin. Even before the season started you implied more than once that Sumlin may not be the right coach for A&M even after his successful run at Houston. You implied (more than once) that Sumlin was in the hot seat even before he coached a game. Now Charlie Strong’S success at Louisville, his experience at Florida does no tmake him SEC-headcoach material(see Petrino’s record, Louisville, SEC assistant-1 year in pros). Now other than the mistress and bike ride please explain why Petrino was a “GET” while Strong is a “REACH” . Then John please look at the other head coaches in the SEC and their experience before their current positions and tell me how Strong’s background differs? Other than Saban I do not see any difference. C’mon John help me with your (il)logic.

By: badbadhoggie

badbadhoggie — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 19:43:02 +0000

@HoustonVol
Sure why rush into things….this time of the year unemployed Dooley’s are everywhere…take your pick….

By: Dnayew

Dnayew — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 19:41:32 +0000

I seriously created a account just to post some props for the reporting done during the AU ARK and TN Coaching Searches. Been a reader for a couple years now – keep up the great work, guys.

By: MrSEC

MrSEC — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:59:28 +0000

@bfkoontz From Dec 2006… http://t.co/7yTyYB6m

By: robbieu007

robbieu007 — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:58:36 +0000

@wrunderwood –> RT@MrSEC Dave Hart had Strong wrapped up yesterday…then left Louisville without him. http://t.co/YpvO1nCC …

By: Arkansawyer

Arkansawyer — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:57:51 +0000

Very thoughtful article. For the Vols’ sake, I hope they take your advice.

But I don’t think Jeff Long ever was a buffoon in the eyes of the Arkansaw faithful. Not many really were ready to blame Long if he ended up hiring Sonny Dykes. But he had put himself in a tough position with his vow to hire a sitting head coach with BCS experience. That narrows the list considerably. And Arkansaw has an inferiority complex (from a conference history of being Texas’ little brother for 6 decades) that makes us all expect that we will be choosing from assistant coaches and mid-level universities.

In our hearts we all know Long did the right thing in firing Petrino. Now with the hiring of Bielema, I really do wonder if Jeff Long is the smartest guy in the room.

By: ice2cold

ice2cold — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:56:34 +0000

Surely you did not mention Butch Jones!!! I refuse to stand behind any coach who cannot out coach Derek Dooley head up!! Terrible!!!!!!

By: sunflowerking

sunflowerking — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:37:36 +0000

There are so many amazing coaches out there…and we are just looking at little minnows. I do Like the Del Rio hire have been preaching Defense for years and we just hire stupid offense minded idiots. I wouldn’t mind us going after Cowher, I was a huge Dave Doeren fan when he was at Wisconsin and wanted UT to hire him as DC 3 years ago. Matt Campbell, Kyle Flood, Lembo, DeRuyter are all going to be awesome. If we want that OMG i can’t believe we hired him away it would be Sumlin from A&M heck that’s all he wants is money at the very least make A&M pay him more he deserves it. I think Vic Fangio would be a great hire even Koetter from Atlanta would at least get us 10 wins. Honestly, i just don’t understand why they can’t pick a winner. 8 years i’ve been picking winners… i have a board at my house and i have been able to pick the top 10 coaches each year…if i can do it why the hell can’t they figure it out!!! Here is another name out there Everett Withers…Oh and Larry Fedora…great coach…but he is the biggest ass…he is Petrino 2.0!!! scum of the earth…as a Southern Miss grad i don’t hate him for leaving us when he knew he couldn’t win the next year…but all the lies he told his players then all the bad mouthing. Bret Farve had your back man good luck animal!! At this point i agree…wait 3 weeks till the bowls and you’ll probably get a good feeling who else is out there if they win and want more money. no point choosing another loser. Of course if we had balls we would have called up Jim Leavitt and been in contention next year, but it takes a genius to find a genius and Hart and our DEPT can’t even figure it out with the fastest computer on the planet.

By: HoustonVol

HoustonVol — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:23:16 +0000

I am not in a panic. This might turn out to be a good thing in the long run. The time pressure is now off for UT and Hart. You won’t be rushing to beat the hogs, tigers or other X school to make the headline. It allows everyone to cool their heels and possibly do some better work to get the right guy, and not the one looking to jump for the biggest increase in pay.