We ran off a coach who never had a loss like this one

#76
#76
dovervolz said:
He was the head coach 5 yrs. Then took the Bama AD job because came open. Really wouldn't go as far to say he was ran off
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He was Head coach for 7 years and was absolutely forced out. He went into Collegiate Licensing (made tons of money) and became Alabama AD in 2013, not upon leaving TN.

en.wikipedia.org

Bill Battle - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

apnews.com

Bill Battle, former Tennessee coach and Alabama AD who founded licensing company, dies

Bill Battle III, who was athletic director at his alma mater, Alabama, where he played for Paul “Bear” Bryant’s first national championship team, coached the Tennessee Volunteers and also founded the Collegiate Licensing Company, has died.
apnews.com apnews.com
 
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#77
#77
Bill was a great person and outstanding family man.

He took over an absolute SEC powerhouse and had 3 very successful years as Dickey’s discipline relaxed and players had more fun. Condredge became the first black qb in the SEC and his talent and individual play masked serious issues since recruiting was slipping badly particularly with linemen. The strength program was neglected. Tennessee All-state players were signed that were not highly rated by OVC teams. A former etsu assistant who played at UK told me that he was stunned by players Battle offered and signed who were not recruited by etsu.

Around the SEC, integration began to occur and the talent disparity between Tennessee and the Deep South states was a new factor. Battle changed offenses and there were staff changes but the trends were unmistakably bad. Meanwhile John Majors, who was not even interviewed by Bob Woodruff to succeed Dickey, proceeded to win a championship at Pitt.

Well a fine young man was eased out of Knoxville and sent home to Bear Bryant country. The most similar situation I can remember is Larry Coker’s tenure at Miami where Jimmy Johnson’s powerhouse was systematically run into the ground. Coker was in a much stronger recruiting area than Battle so maybe his failure was worse. Lackluster recruiting and lack of discipline ruined both Tennessee and Miami. Not doing a real search to succeed Dickey and Jimmy Johnson were failures of the AD.

Anyway Battle was never boat raced apparently like other Vol coaches including Dickey, Majors and Fulmer.

This is an interesting observation not previously mentioned when evaluating coaching tenures.
 
#78
#78
knox73 said:
Bill was a great person and outstanding family man.

He took over an absolute SEC powerhouse and had 3 very successful years as Dickey’s discipline relaxed and players had more fun. Condredge became the first black qb in the SEC and his talent and individual play masked serious issues since recruiting was slipping badly particularly with linemen. The strength program was neglected. Tennessee All-state players were signed that were not highly rated by OVC teams. A former etsu assistant who played at UK told me that he was stunned by players Battle offered and signed who were not recruited by etsu.

Around the SEC, integration began to occur and the talent disparity between Tennessee and the Deep South states was a new factor. Battle changed offenses and there were staff changes but the trends were unmistakably bad. Meanwhile John Majors, who was not even interviewed by Bob Woodruff to succeed Dickey, proceeded to win a championship at Pitt.

Well a fine young man was eased out of Knoxville and sent home to Bear Bryant country. The most similar situation I can remember is Larry Coker’s tenure at Miami where Jimmy Johnson’s powerhouse was systematically run into the ground. Coker was in a much stronger recruiting area than Battle so maybe his failure was worse. Lackluster recruiting and lack of discipline ruined both Tennessee and Miami. Not doing a real search to succeed Dickey and Jimmy Johnson were failures of the AD.

Anyway Battle was never boat raced apparently like other Vol coaches including Dickey, Majors and Fulmer.

This is an interesting observation not previously mentioned when evaluating coaching tenures.
Click to expand...
Well, earlier in the thread, @Golfprovol and I pushed back on the “never boat raced” claim. BB took some beatings in the 21-23 point range. Most notably, multiple losses to Bama:

Battle record - bad losses included
1973 8-4, lost to Bama 42-21
1974 7-3-2, lost to Auburn 21-0. Bama 28-6
1975 7-5, lost to Bama 30-7. No bowl game
1976 6-5 No terrible losses, no Bowl game

Given the offenses of the time, you were much more likely to get “choked out” than “boat raced”. In the 1975 loss to Bama, they rushed for over 300 yards while passing the ball 7 times. Long drives that end in scores vs quick strikes and super high scores. These games were the “boat races” of the time IMO and felt just as futile (if not more) than Saturday’s game.
 
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#79
#79
Today's Shopper supplement in the News Sentinel had a front page article on Battle's funeral service and had players from Tennessee and Alabama at the funeral and they sat on opposite sides of the church.
 
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