Worst hire in college football history

#76
#76
Agreed on Dooley. I think Dooley did far more damage to UT than Kiffin, and I think Dooley inherited a better team than Jones did. Many thought Dooley had at least "filled the cupboard" for Jones; laid the foundation. I think this season illustrates just how far from the truth that really is.
 
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#77
#77
Kudos to the people who mentioned George O'Leary and Mike Price as worst hires. How much worse of an exit does a coach need? Jeez, those two barely had time to unpack before getting the big adios.
 
#79
#79
Mike Price should be on the list too; even though he never coached in a game at Bammer.
 
#80
#80
VolFan4Life87 said:
Agreed on Dooley. I think Dooley did far more damage to UT than Kiffin, and I think Dooley inherited a better team than Jones did. Many thought Dooley had at least "filled the cupboard" for Jones; laid the foundation. I think this season illustrates just how far from the truth that really is.
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Still think it would be fun to watch CP work in this offense.
 
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#81
#81
I think this is something that we all can agree on. Only thing is Kiffin would be right up there with Dooley.
 
#82
#82
DiderotsGhost said:
Dooley was bad, but nowhere near #1 out of this group. Ron Zook, John Blake, Mike DuBose, Charlie Weis, Dan Hawkins, Ty Willingham, and Paul Hackett were all worse. Many of those guys inherited great situations and managed to turn things south very quickly.

On paper, Ron Zook's win-lose record is better than Dooley's, but consider how much talent Ron Zook had! He easily had amongst the top 3 most talented squads in all of college football and still managed to go 8-5, 8-5, and 7-5 in his three years. The SEC was also significantly easier back then than it has been the past several years.

Urban Meyer followed Zook and went 9-3 in Year 1 and 13-1 in Year 2, mostly with Ron Zook's recruits. It wasn't a huge surprise, because everyone knew Meyer was sitting on a goldmine that Zook could never use properly.

If Dooley had coached Zook's Florida teams, I think he would've been 8-4 or 9-3 at least. Maybe even 10-2. It's hard not to win with all that talent. It's likely that Dooley would've been good (but not great) for 2-3 more years, and then would've slowly deteriorated. But Zook was so terrible, he managed to take some of the greatest talent assembled in college football and would still lose 5 games every season.

Dooley was a poor coach, but let's be honest: he inherited a bad situation. His biggest sin was not turning it around, and in fact, making it slightly worse.
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Nope, Zook won some legitimate big games. He even won games against similar/more talented opponents (like against UT at Neyland in 2002. Thanks again Phil). Dooley never won anything of note. Not at La Tech. Not here. And talent is hardly an excuse for losing to Kentucky. Or getting blown out by Vanderbilt. Or having a worse record every year. Or finishing worse in recruiting every year.
 
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#83
#83
HollowaytoSeivers said:
Kudos to the people who mentioned George O'Leary and Mike Price as worst hires. How much worse of an exit does a coach need? Jeez, those two barely had time to unpack before getting the big adios.
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Yeah, but on the flip side, they didn't have time to do the kind of damage the other coaches did.
 
#84
#84
oregonvol said:
Yeah, but on the flip side, they didn't have time to do the kind of damage the other coaches did.
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You've got a point. Once O'Leary got his resume issue straightened out, he built a fine program at UCF. Regarding Price, did he eventually wind up at UTEP or am I thinking of someone else?
 
#85
#85
GAVol said:
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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You're right. All the hires that they are looking at have the benefit of hindsight.

OrangeInKy said:
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.
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what could have been...

Aerie Vol said:
or USC.
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yep
 
#86
#86
If this was a list of the worst exits, Kiffin would be #1. The timing was as bad as it gets and created the Derek Dooley hire.

Amen!
 
#89
#89
Doyle Hargraves said:
How did I guess who would be #1 without looking first?
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I would have thought Kiffin and Dooley would be #1 and #2, but it would have been hard to guess the order.

Kiffin should have definitely made that list twice. We cannot underestimate the damage he did to this program with the worst recruiting class in the history of the NCAA, rejecting Tajh Boyd and Bryce Petty, running off the talent we did have here.
 
#90
#90
Two of those Coaches listed were former Tennessee Coaches in the last 4 years and people want to b*tch about Butch Jones not winning enough.

Butch Jones has already done more than both of them and given what he has to work with, two worthless coaches talents.
I stand behind Coach Jones and believe whole heartily by 2015-2016 Tennessee will be force to contend with in the SEC East.
 
#93
#93
It boggles the mind that the author of this article listed Joe Kuharich of Notre Dame (1959-62) but failed to mention the man who immediately preceded Bear Bryant at Alabama, Jennings B. Whitworth (1955-1957). With the exception of his SEC record, Dooley does not begin to approach the following "accomplishments" which should elevate Whitworth to the pinnacle of this Hall of Infamy:

(1) Overall record: 4-24-2 (.166); SEC record: 3-18-1 (.159). See DO NOT HIRE: The Worst College Football Hires in History | Bleacher Report.

(2) 17 consecutive losses (from 11/13/54-10/20/56), 19 consecutive games without a victory (10/30/54-10/20/56). Included within that streak were back-to-back losses to the Commodes (21-6 and 32-7) and Tennessee (20-0 and 24-0). During that 19-game span, Alabama was shut out NINE times. Yes, I realize that Whitworth does not deserve blame for the latter portion of the 1954 season, but he skippered the Crimson Tide for the vast portion of this period. See Alabama Historical Scores.

(3) For all of the great teams that Alabama has fielded over the years, let us also raise our glasses to the perfect record of the 1955 Crimson Tide, a squad that went 0-10-0 and scored only 48 points all year. A job well done. See Alabama Historical Scores.
 
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#96
#96
I think if they do another similar list in a few years you might see Will Muschump on it. I know his record was good the first couple of years but they were the worst 10 win you ever see. And the literally had recruiting classes similar to bama the last 4 or years. Of course this year they've just been totally exposed
 
#97
#97
chattavol420 said:
i think if they do another similar list in a few years you might see will muschump on it. i know his record was good the first couple of years but they were the worst 10 win you ever see. And the literally had recruiting classes similar to bama the last 4 or years. Of course this year they've just been totally exposed
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muschimp is on it
 
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