Dave Hart and Charlie Strong

[Batman33]

Strong would be a good choice. Try not to be blinded by things like "he lost to Rutgers" and his recruit class is "#47."

Like losing to Connecticut, who loses to Cincinnatti???

It's not about one game or one recruit class. It's about what he's done (or any coach has done) relative to the situation they are in. Obviously UofL is not going to pull in a Top-5 class, dare I say, EVER. But, what he has done with UofL relative to what UofL and the Big East are, CS has done a great job there. Same as Franklin at Vandy. And same as (I know I'll catch backlash) Golden while at Temple. These are all apples and oranges comparisons and should be taken that way.

Exactly. Obtaining a coach from U of L is not enough proof of handling a Big Time program for many fans.

You can't just look at nominal things like "#47 recruit class--I don't want him." Or, "he's 8-4, he's an underachiever." Everything has to be taken into consideration under it's own context.

One example: Dooley (vomit) would NEVER have been able to recruit 4 and 5 star guys while he was LA Tech. But, within a 2 weeks of him being at Tennessee, he was able to get both Justin Hunter and David Rickey, 4* and 5*, future 1st round picks and NFL WR's.....

Exactly, small school coach!

....this was because of BOTH Dooley and Tennessee. Kiffin could not land them while he was recruiting them and Dooley would never had gotten them to play for him at LA Tech. It takes a good situation at a great university with a solid recruiter to (re)build a program. And Strong is one of the few, IMO, that can do that.

rebuilding a program should be reserved for those experienced as a HC in a large program.

Thanks for good attempts to substantiate Strong, but I don't believe there is anything there that will excite the fanbase at large. When I look around at the folks I sit with, they are not interested in mediocrity, excellence is demanded. Strong is just simply not proven enough for such a volatile situation.

 

[ChattaTNVol]

Strong would be a good choice. Try not to be blinded by things like "he lost to Rutgers" and his recruit class is "#47."

It's not about one game or one recruit class. It's about what he's done (or any coach has done) relative to the situation they are in. Obviously UofL is not going to pull in a Top-5 class, dare I say, EVER. But, what he has done with UofL relative to what UofL and the Big East are, CS has done a great job there. Same as Franklin at Vandy. And same as (I know I'll catch backlash) Golden while at Temple. These are all apples and oranges comparisons and should be taken that way.

You can't just look at nominal things like "#47 recruit class--I don't want him." Or, "he's 8-4, he's an underachiever." Everything has to be taken into consideration under it's own context.

One example: Dooley (vomit) would NEVER have been able to recruit 4 and 5 star guys while he was LA Tech. But, within a 2 weeks of him being at Tennessee, he was able to get both Justin Hunter and David Rickey, 4* and 5*, future 1st round picks and NFL WR's.....

....this was because of BOTH Dooley and Tennessee. Kiffin could not land them while he was recruiting them and Dooley would never had gotten them to play for him at LA Tech. It takes a good situation at a great university with a solid recruiter to (re)build a program. And Strong is one of the few, IMO, that can do that.

I looked at Louisville's recruiting classes on Rivals from 2002 to the present which is all they show and divided it up into the various coaching tenures to see how they compared. Overall, Strong has been the highest performing recuriter there. John L Smith was there in 2002 followed by Petrino then Kragthorpe until Strong got there in 2010. His 2011 class was the highest ranked class for the entire period back to 2002. Generally Louisville's classes have aveaged ranking in the 40's but Strong has a slightly higher star average than any of the other coaches. He also appears to have less turnover if you want to make that assumption based on class sizes. The current class isn't even half full so the current ranking is dramatically misleading but the average star rating is still pretty high for Louisville.

I think you can conclude that he has recruited slightly better overall at Louisville than Petrino or anyone else who preceded him back to 2002 however Petrino's team had a better performance record including the last two years of Petrino's term with them moving to the Big East.

I think it's probably a given that Strong would likely fare better than Dooley did at UT. I don't think there's evidence to suggest it's a given that he can consistently compete with SEC big time boys but I don't think there enough evidence to state that he can't either. It's something we'd just have to find out.

 

[seaofORANGE22]

rebuilding a program should be reserved for those experienced as a HC in a large program.

Thanks for good attempts to substantiate Strong, but I don't believe there is anything there that will excite the fanbase at large. When I look around at the folks I sit with, they are not interested in mediocrity, excellence is demanded. Strong is just simply not proven enough for such a volatile situation.

Charlie Strong is absolutely a head coach at a large program. He's in a BCS conference about to coach in a BCS game. Wouldn't that be fun?

The goal here is not to excite the fan base. The goal is to hire the right guy that will get big time talent here, develop it, and win with it. Thus exciting the fan base in the glorious process.

Charlie Strong has done that at Louisville. He's doing it right now. With the resources that we could give him at Tennessee to recruit and hire the assistants he wants, he would certainly have us competing at a high level in this conference again.

 

[Batman33]

Charlie Strong is absolutely a head coach at a large program. He's in a BCS conference about to coach in a BCS game. Wouldn't that be fun?

The goal here is not to excite the fan base. The goal is to hire the right guy that will get big time talent here, develop it, and win with it. Thus exciting the fan base in the glorious process.

Charlie Strong has done that at Louisville. He's doing it right now. With the resources that we could give him at Tennessee to recruit and hire the assistants he wants, he would certainly have us competing at a high level in this conference again.

1. They don't call it the Big Least for nothing.
2. If he was all that, why didn't Florida pluck up this "can't miss"?
3. Anyone will have the resources of Tennessee when they get to Tennessee, so what does that mean?
4. Building a program will take a skill set that is advanced. If you have supervised a staff of a decent size, you know that as the staff grows, the skill set has to be ahead of the game. Learning on the job is not an option for Tennessee right now.
5. Louisville is not a large program unless you are trying to get out of it...reference Wade Houston being the "recruiting ace" of the staff would be key to the elevation of the Vol basketball program. His son was great, but the program suffered in waiting. Who wants to revisit this in 3-4 years...let's get a big fish instead, it will save us a fortune in the long run.

 

[Vol Karma]

What is the official word? Did they or didn't they meet on Friday? I know is still saying they met is Hubbs?