The Fine Art of Burying Your Head in the Sand

[Jax_Vol]

I don't hate him. In fact, it's odd, if Auburn hired him, I would think it a good hire.

I think he's a solid coach. If we ended up with him after alot of rejections, I think I would be okay with it. But to go after him without even trying to get a Patterson or a Petersen (and supposedly passing on Gruden) just tells me the AD doesn't really want to win, at least not win big or beat our rivals.

Strong seems ike a guy who could win 7 games a season or 9-10 games a season here. But he doesn't seem like a guy who will ever win 12 or beat Saban or win a championship. So it's hard for me to get excited about him.

Yeah, I share some of that same feeling...different names than Patterson or Peterson. I keep trying to convince myself that Charlie is in that Tier One group but I think we can all agree that is a bit of a stretch.

 

[jackaro]

Basilio, Hyams, and another guy (Rucker or Hubbs, don't remember, don't know who either are really) have all said something along the lines of Hart not wanting Gruden or not being as interested in meeting Gruden's demands as the boosters were or simply having other names higher on his list and making those the priority. Either way, it has been reported by all that there was interest from Gruden and less so from Hart.

As for the "doesn't seem to have a plan in place" part, that's obvious. According to all reports, Hart spent the two weeks after the Dooley firing in town, in his office. There was no motion, no reports on actions in looking for a new coach until the end of last week. Since any sane, competent AD would have known long ago that Dooley would need to be fired, it seems very odd to go so long without a coach and without any progress.

You and I just have different perspectives on this, I guess. I did a google search and found this, which I assume you are referring to:

" Truth is, Gruden was heavily interested in this job but at the end of the day Tennessee wasn't going to make it happen. Too much money. Too much commitment. Too much too much. "

There is only so much a NCAA program can offer. I don't consider this to be Hart running off Gruden, he just was not willing to mortgage the entire program for him. I don't think this is unreasonable.

In addition Hyams is reported to have said that Gruden was upset that U.T. didn't pursue him hard enough. I couldn't find the actual quote, I just found people saying that Hyams said this on the radio (take it with a grain of salt). Couldn't find much else Hyams has been saying, although I do know that he was always skeptical of the hire and about a month ago said on the Enrichment Sports Source that Gruden liked to flirt with openings because he liked to attention and exposure.

This sounds to me like Gruden was doing to us what he has done many times over the last few years with all the job openings he has been linked to, use it to stroke his own ego.

Finally, I think there was little Hart could do until the regular season ended, as he could not officially contact coaches until then. I also believe that he is capable of doing a great deal of work inside of his office.

Like I said, we just have different perspectives on this. It just frustrates me when people assume Hart is incompetent or does not have the interests of UT in mind. Let this play out.

 

[Jax_Vol]

Gruden got to want it...and I mean WANT IT! If not, he is the wrong man.

And I don't think he has the drive, or the hunger, at this point to really WANT it!

And I don't think he's at the top of Hart's list. If he WANTED it bad enough, perhaps he could talk his way to the top of Hart's list. But right now, I think both sides are happy to just wonder what might have been.

We need a hunger!

 

[Doolittle 1720]

So your AD waited until absolute rock bottom before firing your coach, doesn't seem to have a plan in place, and according to most reports ran off the grand slam hire who was interested in the job. Don't worry...

Step 1: Say "Let's wait until he at least makes a hire before we start criticizing".

Okay. Now your AD has gone out and hired someone all right. He doesn't excite you. Maybe he has a history of losses to teams with lesser talent or he's been fired from another school previously. Based on his record, it doesn't seem likely that he's going to come in to the SEC and compete for championships anytime soon. Some fans are upset, but not you...

Step 2: Just say "We have to wait at least until he coaches a game for us, before we jump to any conclusions"

Okay, so it's midway through the first season. The team is getting decimated by our rivals as usual. There hasn't seemed to be much if any improvement from one game to the next. Meanwhile, recruiting is looking like it will finish outside the top 5 in the SEC yet again. Neyland Stadium looks emptier each week, but you don't care...

Step 3: Just say "We'll have to wait until the end of the season to evaluate all of it."

So, the seasons pass and TN makes slight improvements here or there. Maybe they even get up to 3rd in the East at some point. But you're still getting beat handily anytime you face one of your rivals. The losing streaks to Florida and Alabama are reaching historic proportions. Recruiting hasn't improved much. The fans who are left are grumbling a bit, but you know better...

Step 4: Just say "Once its been 4 years and our coach gets a full team of his guys, then we'll see what he can do."

Time passes and your coach hasn't improved any further. It's clear he's hit his ceiling and, meanwhile, even the lousy teams you used to beat have upgraded their coaches and talent level, while you've stayed stagnant. A string of super embarrassing losses leaves the stands nearly empty and the program an utter joke. The AD is forced to finally fire the coach (even though it seems he doesn't really want to). Most of the fanbase wonders how it got this bad. And they're worried about an AD who let the previous guy lose so much before he took action and they're worried about reports coming out about the search that suggest the AD doesn't know what he's doing and isn't going after the top candidates. But you're not worried, you're optimistic.

Step 5: Say "Let's wait until he at least makes a hire before we start criticizing".

Bring in strong and it begins again.

 

[KingNick865]

Ignoring the obvious and attacking anyone who doesn't fall in line has been the calling card of a very vocal segment of this fan base for over a decade.

First, it was Fulmer just needs to give Sanders more time. Then it became Clawson is the answer. Then it became it was Clawson's fault, not Fulmers. Fulmer just needs more time, we shouldn't fire him. Then it became Lane is a great hire. Then it became Dooley is a great hire. Then it became Dooley needs more time. Then it became we should have never fired Fulmer. Now that this coaching search is dragging on, it has become Dave is the man and knows what he is doing.

No way to pass judgement on the new coach or Hart until next season, but I am not overly impressed with the candidates and it seems like other programs are handling this coaching search business better.

A healthy dose of skepticism never hurts.

It's okay to be skeptical of the AD. Where it gets to be an issue is when one starts a thread when one clearly doesn't have any of the facts in front of him, or worse, when one doesn't care about the facts to start with.

 

[oregonvol]

Gruden got to want it...and I mean WANT IT! If not, he is the wrong man.

And I don't think he has the drive, or the hunger, at this point to really WANT it!

And I don't think he's at the top of Hart's list. If he WANTED it bad enough, perhaps he could talk his way to the top of Hart's list. But right now, I think both sides are happy to just wonder what might have been.

We need a hunger!

Do you think Saban was dying for the Alabama job? How about Meyer? Was he talking Foley into giving him the Florida job while his dream job at Notre Dame was about to come open? No. It's the other way around. If you want to be the best, you have to recruit the best. The most important thing the AD does at a big time school like ours is hire the football coach. If that were just a matter of picking up the phone and offering a sum of money, then anyone could do that job. To be a good, effective AD you have to be able to go out there and find the best people and convince them to come work for you. Hamilton never did that and that was why he ended up hiring a Dooley. And it appears Hart has a similar approach.

 

[Jax_Vol]

Do you think Saban was dying for the Alabama job? How about Meyer? Was he talking Foley into giving him the Florida job while his dream job at Notre Dame was about to come open? No. It's the other way around. If you want to be the best, you have to recruit the best. The most important thing the AD does at a big time school like ours is hire the football coach. If that were just a matter of picking up the phone and offering a sum of money, then anyone could do that job. To be a good, effective AD you have to be able to go out there and find the best people and convince them to come work for you. Hamilton never did that and that was why he ended up hiring a Dooley. And it appears Hart has a similar approach.

You make a valid and good point.

Surely, Hart started putting a list together back in October. It does admittedly seem odd that he seemed to do nothing for a couple of weeks there. I just assumed he was waiting until after the conference championships. Which meant, he was going after someone whose team was playing in a championship game.

Bama got a bit lucky on the saban deal. They actually offered that job in mid-December in Rich Rod. It was only after fumbling and bumling around on that deal, when they still needed to hire a coach after Christmas. And Saban decided that he was a failure in the NFL.

 

[oregonvol]

You make a valid and good point.

Surely, Hart started putting a list together back in October. It does admittedly seem odd that he seemed to do nothing for a couple of weeks there. I just assumed he was waiting until after the conference championships. Which meant, he was going after someone whose team was playing in a championship game.

Yeah, we can all make guesses, but based on the limited facts we have, it looks to me like Hart is a guy who didn't want to fire Dooley until he absolutely had to (he said as much in his press conference), didn't have a real plan in place for afterward (as evidenced by the lag time before movement on the search began), and doesn't have the best interests of the football program at heart (judging by reports that the 3 candidates we have interviewed are Strong, Gundy, and Fisher, when there are lots of better coaches out there). Hart said himself that money would not be a factor, but there is no evidence we are going after the top candidates and making big offers. There would be no reason to hide this info if that were the case. There's no shame in being turned down by the best, but there is shame in not even trying for them.