Crap, sorry, I mistook you for someone else, obviously blinded by rage, my bad, disregard the last bit.
But, crud, man, I just was asking a legitimate question. I didn't follow Tampa when he coached there, all I've seen is what is on his wiki page and his TV appearances. People put him in the automatic win column and I just wanted to understand why.
Here's my 2 cents
When the talk of Gruden came up years ago, like everyone else I was interested and excited. Here's a guy that won a SB so lets bring him to the Hill to coach. So I started looking at his resume. Of course there's the SB and its glaring. There's no doubt that its special and no one can take it away. Backed into it or not he's got it.
I then looked at his past. When he worked in the college ranks he was a position coach. That's all. No coordinator position. Doesnt give me a good feeling.
Then I see that the last time he was active in college football was 21 years ago. IMO, huge red flag. Unlike the NFL where players are either drafted or picked up on FA, you must actively go out and be a sales man for kids to come to the school. There's alot of change in 21 years and you have to know how to court those kids as well as the specific guidelines for recruiting those kids or you'll be in deep doo-doo. One slip up and the NCAA will sanction the s__t out of you. I just feel all those years away from college add to his learning curve of college football. Not a good fit for us.
I then started looking at his NFL resume as a coach. Before he got to Oak they were 4-12. He begins to build. 8-8, 8-8, 12-4, 10-6. Not shabby work. Then he's traded to TB. Not a quit or a firing - a trade. Why - because the owner wanted a more vertical passing attack and not the hortizontal pass attach Gruden used Plus Oak got two 1st round picks and $8mill. That's the owners call. And the immediate benefit was TB who in that first year won their SB. Not sure if that offensive mind set will work for us or in the SEC.
Then there's the next 6 seasons. 45-51. Only 2 playoff appearences losing both in the wild card game. Big red flag. If he was such a great coach then his record should have been much better than .500. Remove the SB and I'm not ready to say he's an elite coach.
So there's the SB win and the building up of Oak.
On the other hand
*there's no cfb coaching experience (hc or coordinator)
*a tremendously long period since coaching in college
*no coordinator experience
*21 yrs since he recruited
*a offensive philosophy of hortizonal instead of vertical passing (I dont think this will work in the SEC)
*a sub .500 record after winning a big title
*has been out of coaching since 2009.
There's too many negatives for me to back him.
Could Gruden be a good cfb coach? Absolutely. In fact any coach can. Classic example is Gene Stallings at Bama who was an aweful HC for Arizona yet excelled at Bama. Does it mean he will or wont? no.
Could he recruit players? Well sure. He starts with a name but at some point he's got to win or his name means nothing.
I just dont believe that we the Vols are despreate enough now to make a huge investment into a coach that has that much of a risk. There are alot of coaches out there that have experience and are proven. We dont need another Al Davis reject.
Yet.
lol:
