Kim Caldwell (Rookie Coach of the Year-WBCA) is named Head Coach of Iconic Lady Vols WBB

[SoilVol]

I hope White makes a great hire--but this notion that he's some AD savant is comical.

Frost was a complete bust at Nebraska.

Leipold? This guy? He's 59 and this is his record at Kansas.

2021	Kansas	2–10	1–8	10th
2022	Kansas	6–7	3–6	T–7th	L Liberty
2023	Kansas	9–4	5–4	T–7th	W Guaranteed Rate	23	23
Kansas:	17–21	9–18

I like Heuepel but he hasn't accomplished anything significant yet. Yes, we had the one big year--then fell back last year. He's got to show that he can keep us at the top of a conference that is bigger and tougher than ever. The only other hire he's made at UT doesn't look good after two years...

White didn't hire Frost at Nebraska. White hired Frost at UCF. That matters. He hired a coach who was a good fit for their program and they had incredible success. What he later did at Nebraska can be attributed to failures of Nebraska or the AD there or Frost himself. Has nothing to do with White.

Again, White didn't hire Leipold at Kansas. But on that same token, Leipold just lead Kansas to their first 9-win season since 2007. Since 2010 Kansas won a total of 21 games. Averaged 1.9 wins a year during that time. Kansas was considered the WORST power 5 program in college football.

When he hired him at Buffalo, Leipold's head coaching record was 109-6 with 6 D3 national titles, and he was a great fit for Buffalo where he had a ton of success.

Heupel has absolutely been a great fit in Knoxville and has been incredibly successful. He took the Vols to their first New Year's Six bowl since 2005 and a #1 ranking. They lost a ton of production and stepped back as expected, yet still had one of the best seasons in the past 2 decades last year (people conveniently forget that).

The women's soccer hire has produced underwhelming results. That's a fact that can't really be argued. He could have done better.

 

[vol66]

Let me be clear, I do not view Kara’s status as a former player as a negative vis a vis candidacy for this job.

I’m just not sold she’s a better coach than the one we just fired.

Duke’s offense can be flat out painful at times. They’ve had 11 games in 3 years where they’ve failed to reach 50 points.

I didn’t say anything regarding her qualifications and I agree with what you’re saying. What I’m saying, after all that’s transpired with her two colleagues and the fact that she’s at a damn fine institution, maybe she doesn’t want this job and I Don’t blame her.

 

[VolFuture]

lol 12-37 12-37 12-37 12-37 12-37 12-37 12-3712-3712-3712-3712-37123712371237123712371237. If you don't get 12-37 carved on your tombstone, it'll be a missed opportunity.

 

[Mafiaboss]

Everyone seems to ignore that part.

No, but Kara won’t take the program beyond S16.

 

[LUVMESUMVOL]

I know one thing when the coach is finally announced it is going to be some fun reading in this thread not that it hasn’t been already but the temperature is going up a few degrees when it is announced.P.S.don’t spell your cuss words all the way please use symbols.

 

[Franklin Pierce]

Which is a massive improvement over what he inherited

But certainly mediocre.

 

[mudcat1973]

This would be really disappointing if he did not have a person on the hook before canning Harper

Probably had a list
Like to know if it was Tennessee that got Jackson state coach a raise

 

[cobbwebb0710]

No, but Kara won’t take the program beyond S16.

Maybe.
I don’t think she is the solution, either way.

 

[ttharp]

Duke’s offense can be flat out painful at times. They’ve had 11 games in 3 years where they’ve failed to reach 50 points.

In a conference (like the ACC) that isn’t known for defense, that’s BAD.

 

[SoilVol]

I dunno. If DW doesn’t care, he wouldn’t have let KJH go.

He doesn't care what people's response is to the hires when they're made. He cares how the hires perform.

You knew that's what I was saying before you made this comment or you have poor reading comprehension.

 

[JohnnyD1024]

But certainly mediocre.

Did you expect him to immediately start winning SEC championships?

 

[utvolpj]

But certainly mediocre.

Not at all if you understand the circumstances. They aren't numbers in a vacuum

 

[SweetasSoda]

I agree, Danny White is the best AD we've ever had. If the "old guard" will let him work, he'll get this LV hire right.

GO VOLS

We’ve got to get the “old guard” out to return to success.

 

[KB5252]

I agree, Danny White is the best AD we've ever had. If the "old guard" will let him work, he'll get this LV hire right.

GO VOLS

Only chickens cluck

 

[Majors]

You’ve been here forever this what u reply too

He’s got a 12-37 button on his phone… lmao

Muscle memory to blunt the casual fan excuses

 

[Enki_Amenra]

I agree, Danny White is the best AD we've ever had. If the "old guard" will let him work, he'll get this LV hire right.

GO VOLS

I don't think he even considers the old guard's opinion for even a moment.

 

[Majors]

lol 12-37 12-37 12-37 12-37 12-37 12-37 12-3712-3712-3712-3712-37123712371237123712371237. If you don't get 12-37 carved on your tombstone, it'll be a missed opportunity.

I was hoping 13. It’ll probably say something along the lines of

Majors
1977-TBD

Husband, Father, Friend
Lived life with ZFG and Go Vols!

 

[Dadof2Vols]

I know one thing when the coach is finally announced it is going to be some fun reading in this thread not that it hasn’t been already but the temperature is going up a few degrees when it is announced.P.S.don’t spell your cuss words all the way please use symbols.

When this is announced, I would prefer two threads. One for those celebrating the hire and one for those complaining.

That way depending on my mood I could chose which to read.

This thread is going to be 200 pages before the announcement and then 6 months of complaining to take it to 1,000 pages.

 

[docholiday]

But certainly mediocre.

Damn people are really this dumb.

 

[ERvolsfan]

This idea of just hire Marshall coach (after 1 year there) or GCU Molly Miller and be done. Is just a lack of patience.

We just announced the move Monday, it's been 4 days. Having said that I do believe we need to act swiftly with portal open, and I believe he had feelers out before announcement of Kelly being fired.

No disrespect to those candidates above, but if we are to be aggressive as DW indicated in his statement, that means opening up the checkbook and going after proven top tier coaches. Will you land the top choice or 2nd/3rd maybe not. But if we are willing to spend we aren't gonna lose out on all the top tier options. We shouldn't be that far down the list at Caldwell or miller, Berube, Coach Yo, etc... Why make a fire to hire a lateral coach.

You're not gonna go 0-10 on top candidates.
- Walz, Brese, Ivey, Gottlieb, Fortier, Barancyzk, Moore, Moren, Close, Schaefer, etc...

 

[papatomany]

He also hired Lance Leipold and Nate Oats at Buffalo when he was AD there.

Apparently he just promoted Oats. He was already an assistant when the head coach left.

 

[SweetasSoda]

Heupel 14-10 in SEC games.

Considering what he started with personnel wise, dealing with the NCAA, and the “SEC” being the SEC plus playing AL and GA every year…. That’s at least a B+ if not an A- grade. Can’t think of many coaches who would have done better dealing with all that.

 

[KB5252]

Even if I hate the hire I'm still going to come in here talking it up just to chap the nega arses!

 

[Bigvalley84]

So if Lawson didn’t even interview why in the world is a statement even warranted , must be a slow day in Durham

 

[JarFly]

At Buffalo, Danny White hired Felisha Legette-Jack. She coached Buffalo 2012-2022. 202-116 (.635) record, with a S16 appearance in 2018, before getting hired at her alma mater, Syracuse. She was the 2024 ACC COY.

White has a history of hiring coaches that excelled as players. Heupel and Frost won national titles. Legette-Jack was a star for Syracuse. Dawkins was NPOY. Hurley won 2 national titles. White has said he prefers hiring point guards, catchers and quarterbacks.

White also takes his time (btw there's a great Athletic article about him that I'm pulling this info from. Not trying to pass it off as my own. You're getting cliff-notes). It was a month after White interviewed Leipold before he hired him. During that time he had Leipold draft him up a staff and a reason behind it, and a plan for the roster essentially. He did the same for Oats.

White doesn't care about how the public perceives the hire near as much as if he believes the hire can win Day 1. There's no "Year 0". I would not for a second think White doesn't know or care about the Lady Vols' NCAA tournament record and expectations.

Out of 100+ pages of posts in this thread, this is the post that gets my vote for being the best, most sensical one in the entire shebang. The arguing and bickering of what seems to be 50% of the posts (but only a small handful of posters) is wasted bandwidth and headache inducing to say the least.

Many thanks SoilVol!! GBO!