West Virginia is much like East Tennessee. Its history is that it seceded from Virginia when Virginia seceded from the Union, just like East Tennessee attempted to secede from Tennessee when Tennessee seceded from the Union.
East Tennesseans have always been fiercely independent Appalachian mountain people, pioneering spirits that don't want government telling them what to do. West Virginians are the same.
No way Tennessee, with all of our resources, facilities, donors, & fan base, need to be looking at unproven mid-major coaches or assistants or unemployed guys to fill their head coaching jobs. That's what we've done with our recent hires in all of our major sports, including Kiffin, Dooley, Raleigh, Peterson, Green, Houston, O'Neill, DeVoe, and even Fulmer & Pearl.
Instead, how would we have done worse by hiring the last successful coaches from West Virginia, a major school albeit one that has a smaller budget & fan base to work with, & that also has inferior facilities to ours. We should've hired Rich Rod long before Fulmer, who we kept too long, was fired. He turned down Bama & was a poor fit at Michigan but would've been perfect at UT.
Also, Beilein would've been a better hire than Peterson. However, despite his profane nature & his health issues, I'd hire a guy that is the same age as Beilein, at age 58, to be UT's next head coach. Bob Huggins is one of the Top 10 coaches in America. He's on his 2nd stint at his alma mater. He would come to UT for the opportunity to coach in the SEC & to match wits with his friend Calipari twice or 3 times a year if we paid him enough.
Besides that, Huggins packs arenas. His sometimes acerbic comments bring in the fans. He would keep the swagger going that Pearl has started. He would keep the string of NCAA tournament appearances up. He's been to the Big Dance 14 of the last 15 years he's coached at Cincy & WVU. He would be tops on my short list if we fire Pearl.
My first choice is to keep Pearl. If he gets fired, I'd hire Huggins Monday.
