John Currie Question

[ru4real-really?]

Are you aware Mike Leach died suddenly in 2022 and left MSU in a mess trying to find a coach? And they are on their 2nd head coach since his death.

Yes

 

[Volfan1000]

AD’s haven’t been disastrous
Hart hired Barnes
Currie hired Tony
Fulmer renewed Barnes somehow even though he was halfway out the door with his Uhaul loaded for UCLA
White-need I say more?

Although each of these also had some terrible decisions, all 4 got us to where we are now.

It takes a village (sometimes of idiots and mistakes) to raise an elite program.

One of the last radio interviews Pat Summitt ever did, she said she hoped the Lady Vols win multiple championships, but more concerned with the individual student athletes graduating and going out into the world confidently.

So we also can’t lose perspective in that regard. Even with the mess of NIL, I think the leaders of UT are simply continuing and replicating that motto. That and I’ve also noticed an uptick in winning our state in recruiting again.

Boyd had a lot to do with the retainment of Barnes and I doubt that Barnes and Fulmer had a very good relationship because Fulmer would have let Barnes take the UCLA job if UCLA had paid the buyout for Barnes.

 

[P.O.T.S. VOL]

Exactly

Coach Fulmer did not make great hires...Clawson was good coach but not right fit Vols.,..
Not going diss CPF won a natty should have won more with talent TN had for yrs.....

Exactly....and DC got other opportunities because people understood what he was thrown into....even tho he was getting a paycheck.

 

[lukeneyland]

Tony Vitello was a genius move.

 

[Okie]

Not to derail the thread but hiring Clawson was simply a bad move by Fulmer. Clawson is a very good coach, just not the right fit for UT.

Imaging Peyton Manning going to Nebraska. Manning was a great QB. Nebraska was great at running the wishbone. That would not have worked well.

Sometimes those things work, but not often enough for either side to try it unless they have to. Troy Aikman started at Oklahoma his second season. After Miami broke his leg, OU went back to the wishbone and Troy was off to UCLA. He had seen the writing on the wall and knew he wouldn't be the guy at OU anymore. Nebraska had some great QBs, too, but they only worked well in the triple option. They would not have worked well in anything Tennessee has ever run. Different styles, but they have to be matched up player to style to win championships.

 

[knox73]

You have to give Currie credit for taking the Tennessee job at a very challenging time and with the Vitello hire certainly earned his pay for a brilliant program changing decision. He has done a superb job at Wake Forest with Clawson and Steve Forbes and very similar to Dave Clawson, turned an ill-fated stop in Knoxville into a positive career change.

 

[GUNTERSVOL]

Love me some DW at the helm, but how many HC’s CPF handed him has he elected to push out the door? Of those how many were disasters vs not good enough (where I put KH). Any character challenged folks like Pruitt, Tyndal, Bruce, or others???, that created NCAA issues?

DW has a chance to be a Mt. Rushmore category AD, good brains and good genes. His CJH gamble for the bell cow has really paid off and if our new WBC pays off, that would be 2 of big 5 on HIS belt and add the all sports trophies to date and his odds are great.

Fewer sore spots allows one to better use resources and not only sustain but help the more marginal programs get more competitive.

 

[TartanTurff]

Schiano would’ve been a disaster as well. This clowns and fans stood up for what they believed in. I don’t really pin that on Currie, he was hiring who Haslam allowed him to:

Very true and when the fans had other expectations and hopes for the program, there was no plan B, no second choice, no work arounds. In my opinion Fulmer felt "entitled" to the job, another cash grab at Tennessee, with absolutely no skill set to function in that role, further compounding a extremely problematic situation.

Currie is probably a better AD because of the Tennessee experience and learning how to manage plans B, C and D in coach searches, we paid him a $1 million out the door, he'll do well at Wake until the ACC begins to crumble away and then he may have to find a conference home for Wake going forward.

 

[turbovol]

The bottom line on Currie is that he was treated very badly and very unfairly. He's a good AD. He hired the coach who brought us our first team national title in, what, 16 years. The whole Schiano thing was mega-idiocy by fans, our feckless chancellor at the time, Fulmer (who coveted the AD job and had the ear of the chancellor, who caved) and some clown state legislators. I'm glad he's doing well at Wake. I'm glad our sports programs are doing well now.

 

[volbound1700]

The bottom line on Currie is that he was treated very badly and very unfairly. He's a good AD. He hired the coach who brought us our first team national title in, what, 16 years. The whole Schiano thing was mega-idiocy by fans, our feckless chancellor at the time, Fulmer (who coveted the AD job and had the ear of the chancellor, who caved) and some clown state legislators. I'm glad he's doing well at Wake. I'm glad our sports programs are doing well now.

You left out Clay Travis who was the biggest voice behind the Schiano coup.

 

[Firebirdparts]

For those who understand how things work, more so in corporate America, with all that went down here, how in the world was he able to rebound as well as he did?

I'll go out on a limb here and say that nothing he did was at all disastrous. I would have just said it was a little lazy on the "sports" side. He was taken violently down by two clueless people MUCH less competent than he was, and I would think anybody in an interview would easily believe that. They were both fired later, sort of. Fulmer was allowed to resign after loss of institutional control.

That said, I find that insane idiots, once they reach the top, find it easy to stay at the top. Here are a couple of interesting examples:
- Bob Nardelli is the poster boy for clown CEO's. Home Depot payed him $211 million just to leave. his next job? Chrysler CEO.
- Mark Whitacre was a corporate vice president for Archer Daniels Midland who had bipolar and was also involved in money laundering and embezzled $9 million through ADM. There's a movie about this called "The Informant". His next job? CEO of Biomar Internationals. After he got out of prison, COO and CTO at Cypress Systems. Board level every time.

You guys don't realize how much demand there is for the insane megalomaniac idiots. It's hard to find one when you need one.

 

[cyclevol]

The people who reach the top of their profession always get more chances. It's almost like those at the top take care of their own, but those at the bottom don't get second chances if they get fired. I worked in a business where the top guy always got a 2 year contract. They rarely got that contract renewed, but they always managed to get better and better jobs. It always blew by mind....

 

[P.O.T.S. VOL]

Nobody knows what kind of coach he would have been--and this idea that the fans knew is both nonsense and irrelevant. The bottom line is that AD's make decisions, and their decisions are accepted by fans. Fans aren't always thrilled with the AD's choice--that's been true for all schools for ages, but it's the way it's always been done. Fans could have revolted when Dooley was announced--or Jones? ADs don't present fans with a list of candidates and have them vote on their preferred choice. So how the fans think Schiano or anybody will do is completely irrelevant. And we saw how it all evolved with Fulmer--a second disaster after the first.

Its absolutely not irrelevant....and you can't run an AD on empty football stadium's. You seem to be confusing what fans thought of him as a coach to his alignment with ped state.

 

[P.O.T.S. VOL]

I think it's less about what fans thought of his coaching abilities and more with association with his then his employer.

 

[#1fulmerite]

How does he answer the question “what happened at Tennessee which led to the end of your tenure there”?

I’m being serious, too? I’m surprised anyone picked him up as bad as that situation was!

 

[FirstAndGoal]

Who cares?

 

[MemphisVol77]

Not to derail the thread but hiring Clawson was simply a bad move by Fulmer. Clawson is a very good coach, just not the right fit for UT.

Imaging Peyton Manning going to Nebraska. Manning was a great QB. Nebraska was great at running the wishbone. That would not have worked well.

Naked bootleg out of the wishbone. Peyton could have pulled it off.

 

[Tin Man]

Currie was Hamilton’s cabin boy before he added K-State and Wake to his resume.

 

[Firebirdparts]

How does he answer the question “what happened at Tennessee which led to the end of your tenure there”?

I’m being serious, too? I’m surprised anyone picked him up as bad as that situation was!

Well, obviously he says he was fired by people less competent than he was. They "just didn't understand" how good he was, and then too, Fulmer was playing dumb cloak-and-dagger games that look stupid now.

That's not hard to figure out.