Anyone with insight to how this played out??

#51
#51
Liper said:
Your response to the TFP article, which sourced boosters, a potential staff member who is a current sec coach, and a third he didn't quote in the article but referenced in his radio discussions? And also Stargis stating in public he personally saw text messages between these people and Gruden proving Gruden's sincere interest and expectation for taking the job? I think you're overstating the opposite case now.
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boosters lie as much as everybody else. Probably more, actually. Hell, Gruden was on campus yesterday according to some.
Gruden never was close to coaching college football. It's not his thing. Time to move away from conspiracy theories and use some common sense.
 
#52
#52
Liper said:
It was a front page story with sources vetted by the sports editor and general editor. The facts of that story have never been disputed.
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Gruden never was close to coaching college football. I don't know what else to tell you. I don't need an erroneous report from supposed boosters and supposed pics of texts that never showed up anywhere. Any supposed facts saying Gruden was going to coach college football, much less at UT, are just plain bull****. Always have been. Thinking about it, and doing it, are 2 totally different deals.
 
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#53
#53
Spartacavolus said:
boosters lie as much as everybody else. Probably more, actually. Hell, Gruden was on campus yesterday according to some.
Gruden never was close to coaching college football. It's not his thing. Time to move away from conspiracy theories and use some common sense.
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The article had three sources. One was a booster. Two were not.
 
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#54
#54
Spartacavolus said:
Gruden never was close to coaching college football. I don't know what else to tell you. I don't need an erroneous report from supposed boosters and supposed pics of texts that never showed up anywhere. Any supposed facts saying Gruden was going to coach college football, much less at UT, are just plain bull****. Always have been. Thinking about it, and doing it, are 2 totally different deals.
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Look, I'm not Gruden. I don't presume to know what he was thinking, but you are speculating.

Which facts as presented in the TFP article do you dispute?
 
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#55
#55
Coastypop said:
Bcarter... what would you expect them to do...air out their dirty laundry in public. That is not a place to have any public display of disapproval...geeee

You may be correct, I have no way of knowing, but either the guy who placed his creditability on line in Chatt was a liar or you are just to naive.

Not sure which...
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No offense, Coasty, but speaking as a reformed Grudenite myself, I don't think we have any room to call anyone naive.
 
#56
#56
Spartacavolus said:
boosters lie as much as everybody else. Probably more, actually. Hell, Gruden was on campus yesterday according to some.
Gruden never was close to coaching college football. It's not his thing. Time to move away from conspiracy theories and use some common sense.
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We aren't the first fan base to be flirted with and not accepted regardless how close we were or were not.
 
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#57
#57
Please , Do list those articles . pay SPECIAL attention to the ones that says GRUDEN to Knoxville . I Personally am tired of trying to prove a negative . I am sure you can " Prove " your stance .
 
#65
#65
bcartervol98 said:
Ok, who all did you talk to at the booster meet and greet and presser? Just stfu, done with all this crap.
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I don't know you, but I do know Hargis. I do think Big Jim had a hand in thinking what CJG wanted was too much to give. Also, stuff he would want to change back to offering some (majors that are jokes) was something Martin and Cheek did not want. But, I think you even know there was a lot of smoke. Hargis was not lying but it was never a DONE 100% deal per him but it was per you. Still, not mad at you but please don't start dropping the were you at meet and greet and name dropping stuff. I could drop the name of a college coach who had a convo with Gruden but I will not do that. Also, found out last night that a NCAA college b ball coach and a friend of Gruden was told by him he had told UT no. But, it was not thru his agent on the day Hart called him the other Friday.

Now, hope we move on and support a guy who wants to be here. Hope he wins many SEC championships. You got to do that first then hope you get some gravy added to it. But, a dang bowl game would be nice.
 
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#66
#66
Liper said:
Look, I'm not Gruden. I don't presume to know what he was thinking, but you are speculating.

Which facts as presented in the TFP article do you dispute?
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that he was going to be the coach. That's what I dispute. Interest? Yes. But a big No when he looked at the total picture. The NCAA, academics, moving his family and chasing around teenage kids around the country to ask them to play for UT, while being strapped by a rulebook is why he isn't at UT and in college football. Period. Nothing to do with Zook. Nothing to do with money for assistants.
And I'm not speculating. I'm going off of what I was told early on that proved to be more right than anything posted in the Gruden threads.
 
#68
#68
vols-1 said:
I don't think TN was ever in a position to offer $6 mil in the first place. And it would have took that kind of money plus $4 mil for assistants to get him to listen.
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Nope. The Bammers can flood $6 million to Saban because their athletic department is flush with cash. Even still, if the right NFL offer came along, I still believe he would consider it.

So Grudenites, want to play a role? Increase your skin in the game. Buy more tickets and increase your donor levels. We have to get out of the fiscal hole to have a shot at a premier hire the next time.
 
#69
#69
“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it”
 
#70
#70
orangepaladin said:
So Grudenites, want to play a role? Increase your skin in the game. Buy more tickets and increase your donor levels. We have to get out of the fiscal hole to have a shot at a premier hire the next time.
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Mine was as high as it could get. Now I am resetting to zero. Once Haslam checks out and UT demonstrates that it is serious about competing for championships we can reevaluate.
 
#71
#71
tm3 said:
Mine was as high as it could get. Now I am resetting to zero. Once Haslam checks out and UT demonstrates that it is serious about competing for championships we can reevaluate.
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That's only going to hurt.

Just hang in there. Hart's going to be gone.
 
#72
#72
babyvol's statement from TOS free:

Posted: Today 8:08 PM

Ok guys I promised I would be back and

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Explain everything as best I could either way (getting Gruden or not) ....so I'll try. I've been following this thing very closely for a long time so if I leave out details or if you have questions just let me know and I'll try to answer. First off let me say that I was not nor have I ever been trolling. I truly thought right up til this morning that we were getting Gruden.

I'll first say that I heard we were pursuing Gruden from a booster way back in the summer but quickly discounted it because I felt we would have an 8-9 win season this year so clearly this is not the first time I've ever been wrong....nor will it be the last.

Now as for timeline of late:
When our coaching search got underway I text a guy that is a friend of mine- he's an NFL coach and knows Jon personally. I asked him if he knew we were pursuing him? He responded yes, he actually has an offer on the table of 8 years 50 million. I asked him if he thought he would take it? He said I know he's considering it but I'm not sure how seriously. About a week later I'm talking to a former player at TN and tell him what I heard. He said I'll call Peyton and see what's up. He called me the next day and said Peyton said he's agreed to the contract. I asked him how much and he said 8 years around 50 million. So I had two very credible sources saying the same thing....this is when I said it was a done deal.....little did I know at that time that he had only agreed to his personal contract. This whole mess has been about control and assistants pay.

Moving on.....I was told early on about the Saban plan and the smokescreen info and not to be worried at every media report. On Thursday before the Friday (I believe) when Hyams gave his announcement about gruden being out of picture i received a text from a booster friend. It said be ready for announcement tomorrow. I thought this meant they were announcing Gruden that day even though it didn't match the timeline I was given. Then when Hyams gave his report I felt like this booster had lied to me and I was mad.

I tried getting a hold of him and couldn't. So I came here and posted an apology letter. When i finally got a hold of my friend he told me that this was just beginning of smokescreen to get Gruden's name out of limelight so they could work behind the scenes on finalizing different details. He said he was just meaning to warn me of announcement that hyams was going to make. I still think he duped me because he knew my posts were getting copy and pasted to other boards.

So after talking with him i came back and made a post about me only being wrong on the time and date. Soon after the frenzy was building on message boards of Gruden still being in play....because he was. I was asked by a different friend in the football office that knows i post to come out with a post that I'm off the Gruden train. He said right now we are dealing with alot of huge egos and the quieter things are the better. So i made a sort of tongue in cheek post.

During this time i had been talking to several different people to see what info they had. We talked about this constantly. We all brought what info we had and tried to cross reference to make sure we weren't being duped. I won't go into the details of everything but suffice to say we knew gruden was very intetested and with a few of my nFl contacts I found out that he had truly approached several different coaches about joining our staff, one a real good friend. He wasn't interested due to wanting to stay in nFL but others were.

One of guys I talk to knew a reporter from times free press and said he had significant reasons to believe we were getting Gruden. We delved further and he had a local coach that was going to be on staff as a high school relations recruiting liaison and an Sec coach that was going to be on the staff if Gruden hired. He said the meetings between Gruden and TN were progressing great. Around the same time a friend of mine in gA who has an uncle that is a huge booster in Alabama. The booster told him that Gruden had asked permission to talk to the strength coach about joining Tn staff. Then the reporter told us about a meeting on a thursday night that had gotten very heated between both sides, mostly about money. Neither side wanting to give in. We had all heard not to be alarmed if we heard offers being reported ect. When the strong rumors started the people i talk to all say stay calm it will pass.

Sure enough when it did I was completely sold on this happening as I thought no way Strong turns down tn for Louisville. Anyway lots of other tidbits were sharwd to me but I dont want to lose friendships over it. I did talk to someone that is friends with cindy's brother and he said they were all hoping jon and cindy would come home. So, when Butch jones rumors started this was the least worried I was during this process as i knew he was not the home-run hire we were promised that would unite the fanbase....more like a bunt single. Anyway I'll try to be around long enough to answer wuestions but then I'm going to take a sabatacle for a time cause i'm sure lots are mad at me and reasonably so.

Trust me no one is madder than me that this didnt hapoen and not because I wanted to be right....it's because I love the Vols andvtruly want the best for our fans. I will get behind our coach but honestly my passion for this is at an all time low. Thx again for thosevthat believed I wasn't ttrolling as I would never purposefully lead anyone astray. To all I apologize for being wrong. When some time passes I'm sure i'll join back in just cause I lovevthe Vols!
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LWS statement from TOS free:

Posted: Today 8:25 PM

Re: LWS - A salute!

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1TNMan wrote: Thank you, sir, for shooting this board straight during the whole process. You were a voice of truth and reason during the Gruden mania and I appreciate it.


thank you. Just saying what my sources were telling me. I believe all those that were saying Jon was coming, were doing the same. It was too consistent across many different people on many different venues. Some I personally know. Following is my high level account of what I believe transpired.

we had people, not AD people, people that love the program and university as far back as Florida game that began that feeling out process on Gruden. as losses continued, those people continued to grow and continued to talk about Gruden at Tennessee. Talk with him. I believe the reports of him feeling out potetntial coaches. I also think that is something he continues to do so he is preped for NFL gig.

There was definitely a block of those people who also love the university who never felt he would legitimately commit to Tennessee. They continued to hear from NFL people that he was an NFL guy and would not commit. Some never supported or thought it would happen. Some tried to help see if the interest was going to be there but never felt it would play out.

Those people being boosters or the money people.

the demands I heard, which IMO came from the agent, were such that no university could accept. Basically, I would describe it this way. Agent was trying to setup like an NFL franchise with the coach also being the general manager reporting to the president, not the coach reporting to the general manager. This tactic lost additional support from those people althought many still wanted it to work.

Bottom line to me, Agent / Gruden made demands that they had to know UT could not do. Got them the pub and kept name hot. but in the end, they would still be position for NFL. note: I have heard that the NFL not as enamored with him as a lot of people think but don't know if true or not.

I think two major over riding things. He is an NFL guy and UT could not accept what they required so it never got to talk with university and Gruden, other than the Wednesday phone call.

On the fans who felt he was coming, my guess is they were getting information from sources tied most closely to those people who had been in pursuit since early in season. People who are powerful and believe when they want something they can make it happen. unfortunately, this wasn't to be. I will be interested in talking with some of these fans / former players and see how deep their sources went and from which side. I think Gruden's closest confidents knew he would never take job.

I said several times, I felt at this time this program needed him but I never heard anything that made me feel it would happen.



thank you again
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#73
#73
I believe Larry's account is the most plausible. Some boosters may have very well tried to woo Gruden and at least made him think about it. In the end he was never serious and walked away in the early stages of the official search. It's no Hart's fault. It's not Cheek's fault. It's just the reality of the situation.

Now, you can question how Hart conducted the search after that but this fantasy conspiracy theory about Hart going rouge is asinine.
 
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#74
#74
burntorangeVOLffle said:
I believe Larry's account is the most plausible. Some boosters may have very well tried to woo Gruden and at least made him think about it. In the end he was never serious and walked away in the early stages of the official search. It's no Hart's fault. It's not Cheek's fault. It's just the reality of the situation.

Now, you can question how Hart conducted the search after that but this fantasy conspiracy theory about Hart going rouge is asinine.
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The point of posting both views is simple. None of it was incredible. babyvol got info and LWS got info from different places and drew different conclusions...whether it was a done deal or a less than 5% chance, it was real.

This has bothered me...the portrayal of all Vol fans as nut jobs. Truth is, the AD and the Boosters, big, medium and small got in a pissing match because they did not ALL have the same goal, they weren't in lock step. Why didn't they put a stop to the Grumors after 5, 6, 10 days? They certainly could have.

It's over. We'll never get the answers because those in charge are a wee bit embarrassed.

I just hope they can all get together. It's not fans on the internet at fault, info was leaked for whatever reason and people do what people do...try to make sense out of it. GBO!
 
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#75
#75
we asked, Gruden said no

We asked Strong and he said No

We asked Jones and he said YES!!! I have been waiting for you all my life to come call me and ask to take the UT job.. forever my dream job.. boom ahhahahahaha ha ha ha

McKaylaSmirk2.jpg
 
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