OneManGang
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Tennessee vs The Maxims vs The Coaching Change 2012 Edition
First off, let me say this: I am completely befuddled by the insertion of UT Chancellor Jimmy Cheek into the search for Tennessee's new Head Vol. My impression of Cheek's interest in athletics is NOT aided by my recollection of him referring to then-Head Vol Derek Dooley as Coach Dickey several times during the unveiling of the Neyland statue in 2010.
During the 2010 search you humble scribe had this to say about the relationship between athletics and academics:
Now the academics out there will say, (insert Wally Cox voice) Well, this is just a manifestation of everything that is wrong with college athletics. The Athletics Department is spending $200 million to refurbish Neyland Stadium and I can't find more than two copies of the 'Vagina Monologues' in the the UT Library.
Please.
Listen, you overpaid waste of good classroom space, if the University didn't have a football program, YOU WOULDN'T HAVE A JOB. This holds for an Alabama, a Texas, a Southern Cal or a Notre Dame and virtually every college in the nation outside the Ivy League.
Chew on that.
The University of Tennessee, without its football program is Maryville College. In fact when R.R. Neyland showed up on The Hill, UTK and Maryville were roughly the same size. No offense meant to any Scots out there. MC is a good school. My godson went there and got a fine education. But, Maryville College IS NOT the University of Tennessee.
UT athletics are the front yard and the front porch of the University. It is what most people see and what creates interest among prospective students to attend the stately walls. Again, no students = no job.
Chew some more.
That, my friends, is what is at stake when a coaching change goes down at a major college.
I stand by that.
Now, let's turn to UT's fanbase which, judging from those calling various sports-talk shows in the Knoxville area over the last 72 hours are as delusional and yes idiotic a group as I've ever seen. Swear to heaven, after about 20 minutes or so of listening to this or that show, I had to turn off the radio as my IQ would begin slipping into single digits. Listening this morning (Friday 12/7) I found my IQ heading into negative numbers before 10AM.
Now it's time to preach a little gospel (readings from the Church of the Painful Truth hat tip to Neal Boortz).
(Ahem)
John Gruden was NEVER repeat NEVER going to be the head coach of the University of Tennessee Volunteers. I said as much over three months ago and was told in no uncertain terms I would be forced to eat my words. Yep. Uh-huh. Mmmm, Mmmm. Mmmm.
Gruden not only makes more than UT was EVER going to pay a football coach while working only 16 nights a year, he also gets a cut from EVERY EA-Sports NFL game sold. That last totals a WHOLE lot more than his analyst gig pays. Had he come to UT the EA money would have gone bye-bye.
I'll admit I found Hart's infatuation with Charlie Strong puzzling since the Louisville AD had publicly said he would BEAT any offer from any other school to keep Strong at UL. Too many Vol fans assumed the Haslams would simply open their wallets and that would be that.
This attitude, of course, completely ignores reality. The Haslams just spent nearly a $BILLION to buy the Cleveland Browns. Not a whole lot left in the kitty after that kind of outlay, unless your last name is Gates. Also, UL is underwritten by Papa John's money which makes the Haslams look like Jed's Clampett's cousin Pearl Bodine.
I'm sure Mrs. Strong appreciates UT's efforts, though.
In summary let me say this and, yes, I have said it before: Tennessee has NEVER not once in its 121 years of football, hired a name coach who did not have a strong UT connection. The exception is John T. Majors. One should not forget that Majors first showed up in Knoxville as a seventeen-year-old snot-nosed freshman loonnnggg before he was coach of the National Champion Pitt Panthers in 1976.
I do have fond memories of the rousing welcome given Coach Majors during half-time of the 1977 Kentucky game at Stokely. The fact I was in the company of a DAMNED good-looking blonde that evening has nothing to do with those positive vibes. No sir. Nope.
Well maybe
*sigh*
Where was I?
Oh, yeah.
When Robert Reese Neyland arrived in Knoxville, he was a captain in the US Army Corps of Engineers with orders to oversee navigation improvements on the Tennessee River and teach ROTC at the local university. That's it, that's all. Vol legend Nathan Dougherty found out Neyland had worked on Earl Blaik's staff at West Point and asked if him to coach the UT football team with a specific charge to start beating Vanderbilt.
That's how the legend was born.
Since Neyland:
Bowden Wyatt assistant to Neyland in the 50's unknown outside Knoxville
Jim MacDonald assistant to Wyatt
Doug Dickey unknown assistant at Arkansas who had played at Florida
Bill Battle unknown assistant to Doug Dickey who had played at Alabama
John Majors (see above)
Philip Fulmer assistant to John Majors unknown outside UT
Lane Kiffin sometime pro coach unknown outside California
Derek Dooley head coach at La. Tech and scion of Georgia royalty otherwise unknown outside Ruston, LA.
Notice a pattern?
I noted to a colleague that Vol fans would b*tch, whine and moan if UT went back in time and hired Vince Lombardi or Chuck Knoll.
I stand by that as well.
Now begins the Butch Jones Era on The Hill.
Butch Jones is essentially unknown outside Cincinnati. I wish him the best and welcome him to Knoxville and to the University I love. From everything I've seen, our new Head Vol is just the kind of hard-nosed disciplinarian we fans have been SAYING we wanted since the first time one of Majors' players violated team rules.
Just for the record, anyone who does not closely follow Cincinnati Bearcat football, know the Coach personally, or perhaps knows a former player or assistant and yet has formed a definite opinion about Coach Jones and his prospects as Head Vol is a moron.
Period.
Unfortunately those self-same morons form the core audiences for sports-talk shows and message boards in the Knoxville area.
And so it goes.
Take it from here, General:
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way SCORE!
3. If at first the game or the breaks go against you, dont let up PUT ON MORE STEAM!
4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
7. Carry the fight to the opponent and keep it there for sixty minutes.
MAXOMG
First off, let me say this: I am completely befuddled by the insertion of UT Chancellor Jimmy Cheek into the search for Tennessee's new Head Vol. My impression of Cheek's interest in athletics is NOT aided by my recollection of him referring to then-Head Vol Derek Dooley as Coach Dickey several times during the unveiling of the Neyland statue in 2010.
During the 2010 search you humble scribe had this to say about the relationship between athletics and academics:
Now the academics out there will say, (insert Wally Cox voice) Well, this is just a manifestation of everything that is wrong with college athletics. The Athletics Department is spending $200 million to refurbish Neyland Stadium and I can't find more than two copies of the 'Vagina Monologues' in the the UT Library.
Please.
Listen, you overpaid waste of good classroom space, if the University didn't have a football program, YOU WOULDN'T HAVE A JOB. This holds for an Alabama, a Texas, a Southern Cal or a Notre Dame and virtually every college in the nation outside the Ivy League.
Chew on that.
The University of Tennessee, without its football program is Maryville College. In fact when R.R. Neyland showed up on The Hill, UTK and Maryville were roughly the same size. No offense meant to any Scots out there. MC is a good school. My godson went there and got a fine education. But, Maryville College IS NOT the University of Tennessee.
UT athletics are the front yard and the front porch of the University. It is what most people see and what creates interest among prospective students to attend the stately walls. Again, no students = no job.
Chew some more.
That, my friends, is what is at stake when a coaching change goes down at a major college.
I stand by that.
Now, let's turn to UT's fanbase which, judging from those calling various sports-talk shows in the Knoxville area over the last 72 hours are as delusional and yes idiotic a group as I've ever seen. Swear to heaven, after about 20 minutes or so of listening to this or that show, I had to turn off the radio as my IQ would begin slipping into single digits. Listening this morning (Friday 12/7) I found my IQ heading into negative numbers before 10AM.
Now it's time to preach a little gospel (readings from the Church of the Painful Truth hat tip to Neal Boortz).
(Ahem)
John Gruden was NEVER repeat NEVER going to be the head coach of the University of Tennessee Volunteers. I said as much over three months ago and was told in no uncertain terms I would be forced to eat my words. Yep. Uh-huh. Mmmm, Mmmm. Mmmm.
Gruden not only makes more than UT was EVER going to pay a football coach while working only 16 nights a year, he also gets a cut from EVERY EA-Sports NFL game sold. That last totals a WHOLE lot more than his analyst gig pays. Had he come to UT the EA money would have gone bye-bye.
I'll admit I found Hart's infatuation with Charlie Strong puzzling since the Louisville AD had publicly said he would BEAT any offer from any other school to keep Strong at UL. Too many Vol fans assumed the Haslams would simply open their wallets and that would be that.
This attitude, of course, completely ignores reality. The Haslams just spent nearly a $BILLION to buy the Cleveland Browns. Not a whole lot left in the kitty after that kind of outlay, unless your last name is Gates. Also, UL is underwritten by Papa John's money which makes the Haslams look like Jed's Clampett's cousin Pearl Bodine.
I'm sure Mrs. Strong appreciates UT's efforts, though.
In summary let me say this and, yes, I have said it before: Tennessee has NEVER not once in its 121 years of football, hired a name coach who did not have a strong UT connection. The exception is John T. Majors. One should not forget that Majors first showed up in Knoxville as a seventeen-year-old snot-nosed freshman loonnnggg before he was coach of the National Champion Pitt Panthers in 1976.
I do have fond memories of the rousing welcome given Coach Majors during half-time of the 1977 Kentucky game at Stokely. The fact I was in the company of a DAMNED good-looking blonde that evening has nothing to do with those positive vibes. No sir. Nope.
Well maybe
*sigh*
Where was I?
Oh, yeah.
When Robert Reese Neyland arrived in Knoxville, he was a captain in the US Army Corps of Engineers with orders to oversee navigation improvements on the Tennessee River and teach ROTC at the local university. That's it, that's all. Vol legend Nathan Dougherty found out Neyland had worked on Earl Blaik's staff at West Point and asked if him to coach the UT football team with a specific charge to start beating Vanderbilt.
That's how the legend was born.
Since Neyland:
Bowden Wyatt assistant to Neyland in the 50's unknown outside Knoxville
Jim MacDonald assistant to Wyatt
Doug Dickey unknown assistant at Arkansas who had played at Florida
Bill Battle unknown assistant to Doug Dickey who had played at Alabama
John Majors (see above)
Philip Fulmer assistant to John Majors unknown outside UT
Lane Kiffin sometime pro coach unknown outside California
Derek Dooley head coach at La. Tech and scion of Georgia royalty otherwise unknown outside Ruston, LA.
Notice a pattern?
I noted to a colleague that Vol fans would b*tch, whine and moan if UT went back in time and hired Vince Lombardi or Chuck Knoll.
I stand by that as well.
Now begins the Butch Jones Era on The Hill.
Butch Jones is essentially unknown outside Cincinnati. I wish him the best and welcome him to Knoxville and to the University I love. From everything I've seen, our new Head Vol is just the kind of hard-nosed disciplinarian we fans have been SAYING we wanted since the first time one of Majors' players violated team rules.
Just for the record, anyone who does not closely follow Cincinnati Bearcat football, know the Coach personally, or perhaps knows a former player or assistant and yet has formed a definite opinion about Coach Jones and his prospects as Head Vol is a moron.
Period.
Unfortunately those self-same morons form the core audiences for sports-talk shows and message boards in the Knoxville area.
And so it goes.
Take it from here, General:
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way SCORE!
3. If at first the game or the breaks go against you, dont let up PUT ON MORE STEAM!
4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
7. Carry the fight to the opponent and keep it there for sixty minutes.
MAXOMG
