Worst hire in college football history

#6
#6
Yep. Why anyone expected differently with his resume when hired, I don't know. But alot of you did, that's for sure. Why is it that after the introductory press conference, 90% of volnations' ability to think critically about a coach goes out the window?

Also, Dan Hawkins is far too low on that list.
 
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#11
#11
At least we only appear on the list once. There are a few teams who made multiple disastrous hires. It's easier to bounce back when you have minimal damage. Look at Bama and Notre Dame that have missed several times.
 
#12
#12
I think Athlon meant "recent" history, because aside from one from the 50s, all of these hires came within the past couple of decades.
 
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#15
#15
Yep, but this statement baffles me. "We are only listing coaches who were hired after a program reached national prominence. Thus, pre-Nick Saban coaches at LSU ... for example, were not considered."

LSU has a very strong tradition including a national championship in 1958. Makes no sense.
 
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#16
#16
pualsline said:
I would argue that Tennessee could also be up there with Lane Kiffin.
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In hindsight, it was surely awful. But it's hard for me to look at that as the classic bad hire. It's crazy when you think about all the things that had to happen to create the situation where we got screwed. I think Kiffin is a complete jackass, but I don't think even he could've envisioned a scenario where Pete Carroll would sneak out the back door at USC and the job would fall into his lap after just 1 year at Tennessee.
 
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#17
#17
I think Lane could be right there with Dooley, considering the way he ran off elite players, and left us with a bare cupboard.
 
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#18
#18
I felt like I was gonna throw up when I heard who the hire was. I still don't know how you hire a coach who had never been a coordinator and had a losing record as a head coach. It was the worst hire in UT history in an sport.
 
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#19
#19
macrovol said:
Yep, but this statement baffles me. "We are only listing coaches who were hired after a program reached national prominence. Thus, pre-Nick Saban coaches at LSU ... for example, were not considered."

LSU has a very strong tradition including a national championship in 1958. Makes no sense.
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Agreed. Alabama's worst coach ever, J.B. "Ears" Whitworth, coached in the 50s. Bama was plenty prominent by that point.

Harvey Robinson might deserve the title at Tennessee.
 
#20
#20
pualsline said:
I would argue that Tennessee could also be up there with Lane Kiffin.
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I could see both sides of that, honestly. When you look at the way it ended and the damage just one year did, that hire could be on the list.

However, if you look at the hire at the time and the staff he assembled, along with what was going on with recruiting, one could argue it wasn't a disaster of a hire. Of course, we will never know what could have been. Kiffin had some things going for him when that hire was made. He didn't win in Oakland, but most of us chalked that up to Al Davis. Kiffin didn't want JaMarcus Russel, after all. He had been a key part of a college football powerhouse, so in ways, the hire made sense. I wasn't in love with the hire, but I wouldn't put it in the Dooley category either. It all depends on criteria I guess. Even Dubose and Shula had a moment of success at Bama and they made the list.
 
#21
#21
Gerry Faust should be numbers 1-10. It was insane to hand a program like Notre Dame to a high school coach.
 
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#25
#25
TNRazor said:
I felt like I was gonna throw up when I heard who the hire was. I still don't know how you hire a coach who had never been a coordinator and had a losing record as a head coach. It was the worst hire in UT history in an sport.
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THIS.

I kept thinking that the Dooley reports were a smokescreen, that the brass would never sign off on it. I will never forget that feeling when I realized it was really happening. Naturally, I talked myself into thinking he would do well. I am a moron.
 
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