Wildish thing happened in college sports today. Let me paint a picture so you'll understand:
Imagine if you will that Fulmer is still the head coach at Tennessee. We've won a couple more natty's. Peyton Manning retired from the NFL several years earlier and since 2015 has been coaching at, say, UNC. He's won some ACC titles and put them in direct contest with Clemson and FSU for the top of the league. He's getting 1st rounders consistently and recruiting well. Unprecedented success for UNC.
Last year, in this fiction, Fulmer hired Peyton away from UNC and tabs him associate head coach and OC. At some point midseason, Peyton takes over practices, then Fulmer gives him HC duties in games to finish the season. At the end of the season, Fulmer retires and tabs Payton as his successor. Life is good.
But after 2-3 weeks there's been no contract announcement or official word from the AD. There's rumblings behind the scenes.
Suddenly, the AD and boosters have been tracked on a flight to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The next day, they announce Derrick Henry is retiring from professional competition and will be the head football coach at Tennessee. With no HC experience. And his alma mater is our rival. Spurning Peyton.
That basically just happened in collegiate wrestling. Legendary coach John Smith (like, Bobby Bowden of college wrestling maybe) retired from Oklahoma State with alum Coleman Scott tabbed as successor. An athlete he coached to great success who after his Olympic and World competitions were over, took over UNC's program. Putting them at the top of the ACC and having a national titlest. He returned to Stillwater last year as assoc. HC.
Then the AD and boosters flew to State College, PA and hired David Taylor (Olympic Gold, multi-World golds, 2x NCAA champ for Penn State) a week after he didn't get this year's Olympic bid.
Just wild. Did Scott dirty. Don't get me wrong, DT is an awesome guy and will be highly successful at OSU. But if this happened in football or men's basketball... heck, maybe even women's basketball. Like, if we had spurned Holly Warlick and hired UConn alum Diana Taurasi straight out of the WNBA after Pat stepped down. Almost that level of dirty. Except OkSU and PSU don't vehemently hate each other as much.