To all of the pissers and moaners on here. If you see a Notre Dame fan, and a legit one, not a bandwagon, do me a favor. Ask them how they felt when they hired the Head Coach at Cincinnati, and how it's working out for them.
The fanbase was split into about three camps: one that was enthusiastically supportive, one that was cautiously optimistic but with some concerns, and one that was vehemently opposed. Sounds familiar to a lot that I've read from Vol fans the last few days.
The cautiously optimistic group (of which I was one) were basically concerned about two areas. First was the quality of his assistants, since only three of them had major program experience. One of those was a holdover from Weis's staff, one was an assistant from Wisconsin, the third was a longtime Kelly assistant who had worked for Tyrone Willingham at ND and Washington (so this was considered a black mark against Kelly at the time). Four came with him from Cincinnati, one was the head coach at Grand Valley State, the other came from Kansas. The second concern was recruiting and whether he'd be able to recruit against major programs.
Here are some things I've learned from the previous years of ND misery.
1. I don't care where an assistant coach comes from because there are so many factors involved. I've seen guys who I thought were bums turn out to do fantastic jobs at other places after leaving ND, and I've seen guys who I thought would be outstanding at ND turn out to be bums. To give an example, current ND OL coach Harry Hiestand has done a great job this year with ND's OL and has recruited one of the best OL hauls ND has seen in many years but he was lucky to get out of Knoxville alive. The most roundly jeered guy that Kelly brought with him from Cincinnati just turned in the #1 scoring defense in the country and was named assistant coach of the year. Conversely, there were some assistants under Bob Davie that I thought were miserable but when they went to Florida with Urban Meyer they were lights out (Greg Mattison, Charlie Strong). The head coach makes the difference.
2. "Big time" coaching experience is overrated. If a guy can coach, he can coach. What's more important is whether or not the guy has been a head coach and what his track record is. Personally I thought Charlie Strong was a little too risky of a hire for UT because he only has three years of head coaching experience. He had a great year this year but coaching history is littered with guys who pulled out one great year and then reverted to their mean.
3. Recruiting is recruiting. The competition will be stiffer but I would say that Jones's record suggests that at the very least he was able to identify talent that allowed him to succeed at his previous two stops. Kelly's staff had very little experience recruiting against major football programs but his first two classes were ranked #9 and #20 by Rivals (the latter due to two or three very late defections). The current class is ranked #2. As with coaching, if a guy can recruit he can recruit.
Probably the major concern I'd have about Butch Jones is whether or not he can rebuild. He took over two programs at CMU and Cincinnati at which Kelly had already laid a foundation, but the positive sign is that Jones at least maintained what was already in place. He didn't backslide.
BTW, your athletic director failed miserably in the process. He never should have fired Dooley without already having someone ready (or nearly ready) to go, he never should have allowed the narrative to get out of his control, and he never should have allowed it to seem as if Jones was the fourth or fifth choice (even though he may have been). Allowing Gundy, Mora, and Strong to make a public rejection was outrageous. Whether or not the AD hired the right guy will be determined later on but he deserves a lot of scorn for the way he ran the search. If he wanted to see what not to do he should have looked at how ND ran the Bob Davie, George O'Leary, Tyrone Willingham, and Charlie Weis hires.
