Worst pr disaster in college sports history

#55
#55
crying_baby.jpg
 
#56
#56
yrock777 said:
It completely blows my mind that the people in charge, Dave Hart or whoever, could let the Gruden thing come to this! Whether UT was getting Gruden or not, SOMETHING/ANYTHING should have been said! The Gruden cliff note thread alone has almost 1.2 million hits! How can they not say anything?!
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This is not on UT it is on the fans who created their own nightmare by slipping into fantasyland and believing every wisp of rumor but no FACTS.
 
#57
#57
Red Forman said:
People would have just claimed it was a smoke screen if Hart had issued a denial.

As a matter of fact, there are some still in denial over denials.
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I'm not in denial, however, there are a lot of things that just don't add up:

1. Now that Gruden has been asked about the TN job (Mike and Mike) and really did not deny anything except the part ownership in the Browns, why has he not come out and publicly stated that he does not want the job or has no interest in the job? I mean, think about it, he shot down the Arkansas offer pretty quickly.

2. Why did Gruden's agent say that there had not been any contact between UT and Gruden? We all know this is BS. There is way too much info floating around, from multiple, different sources, who all say the same thing, for that to be true. And we all know that if Arkansas contacted, then UT surely contacted.

3. With Hart knowing who the "Boosters", certain Alumni (Manning), players, recruits and fans want to have as the next head coach, why hasn't he made a statement that Gruden is not an option or has turned down the job? Especially with all the seemingly "bad publicity" we are getting right now? Unless Hart knows something we (and the media) do not.

4. Why does it seem that the media is all over the place on this hire? I mean, there has not been one single media outlet that has given anything concrete, except for what Gruden's agent said.

The way I see it (and personally, at this point, I could care less whether Gruden is hired or not, I just want it to be over), there is something going on to try to keep this hire quiet until a certain time. Whether Gruden might be getting flack from TB on the rest of his buyout or ESPN has found something in Gruden's contract that could be holding things up, or Gruden just wants people to lay off him and his family about this whole deal until it's finalized?

You can say what you want about denial, but if you think things have gone this far without any contact between UT and Gruden, then you have not been keeping up with this whole thing very well.

If someone "in the know" could answer my questions, then I will gladly hop of the Gruden Train. Until then, I'll believe it when Hart introduces someone else.
 
#58
#58
GoBigOrangeVols said:
worst in college football coaching search history, a strong argument could be made for that I think.
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Thats just flat out dumb. This episode has been child's play. Remember when . . .

Rich Rod turned down Alabama?
Les Miles did a 180 on Michigan?
Bama had to unload Mike Price before he even coached a game?
Notre Dame had to fire George O'Leary over his résumé?
 
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#59
#59
GAVol said:
Thats just flat out dumb. This episode has been child's play. Remember when . . .

Rich Rod turned down Alabama?
Les Miles did a 180 on Michigan?
Bama had to unload Mike Price before he even coached a game?
Notre Dame had to fire George O'Leary over his résumé?
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pun intended?

Yea those are bad ones as well. This one is ugly, and its not even close to over yet.
 
#60
#60
LebanonVolunteer said:
If Dave Hart is expected to call a presser and address the situation everytime a rabid fanbase wants to run with a fabricated story he would never get anything done. The fact that fans wanted to believe "It's Done" and "Soon" from some storytellers in Gruden thread #1943 it's their own fault. Dave Hart had nothing to do with that.
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Exactly. Now that it is obvious Gruden is not coming to TN there are still a few posters still thinks he is... unbelivable.
 
#62
#62
GoBigOrangeVols said:
pun intended?

Yea those are bad ones as well. This one is ugly, and its not even close to over yet.
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That's just the thing. There's nothing UGLY about this. This is just how things get done. We're just really bad at dealing with transitions.
 
#63
#63
Gramps said:
Exactly. Now that it is obvious Gruden is not coming to TN there are still a few posters still thinks he is... unbelivable.
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Honestly, there are still some fairly reliable people telling me it's not dead yet. Everybody is going to be in the dark until a presser is called.
 
#64
#64
GAVol said:
That's just the thing. There's nothing UGLY about this. This is just how things get done. We're just really bad at dealing with transitions.
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Its not ugly that in the middle of our coaching search the agent for our alleged top candidate said we are living in a fantasy world for thinking we could get him?

If Hart had handled the PR aspect of this search properly he could have prevented that from happening, and simply got a release from Gruden's agent said that thanks but no thanks or he could have done something proactively, like release a statement himself saying Gruden wasn't happening.
 
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#65
#65
GoBigOrangeVols said:
Its not ugly that in the middle of our coaching search the agent for our alleged top candidate said we are living in a fantasy world for thinking we could get him?

If Hart had handled the PR aspect of this search properly he could have prevented that from happening, and simply got a release from Gruden's agent said that thanks but no thanks or he could have done something proactively, like release a statement himself saying Gruden wasn't happening.
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It's called plausible deniability and it happens all the time. Nobody outside our fanbase thought it was ever anything but a pipe dream in the first place, so what's the big deal?
 
#66
#66
I really wanted Gruden and don't know if it was our AD or Money or Gruden's ego. Like too think it is Gruden's ego or agent and not our side that Eff deal up. If it is about money that is sad because we have a lot of wealthy boosters that can make it possible. If AD screwed it up over a few million we will lose twice that in tix sales. If we wanted Gruden more than he wanted us then so be it. We need a coach not a super egotistcial coach that thinks he is above our school and our fans.
 
#67
#67
It really just boiled down to it was too alien for gruden and he still needs a few years in the League to be elgibile for retirement
 
#69
#69
yrock777 said:
It completely blows my mind that the people in charge, Dave Hart or whoever, could let the Gruden thing come to this! Whether UT was getting Gruden or not, SOMETHING/ANYTHING should have been said! The Gruden cliff note thread alone has almost 1.2 million hits! How can they not say anything?!
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Absolutely, Hart should have nipped it in the bud. Puzzling why he does not speak. One thing I would be sure of Dave Hart is toast.
 
#70
#70
MFL said:
Absolutely, Hart should have nipped it in the bud. Puzzling why he does not speak. One thing I would be sure of Dave Hart is toast.
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Why would he nip something in the bud if we were working for it all along? He doesn't speak because his job is to get the best hire; not satisfy a bunch of people who don't understand the process anyway.
 
#73
#73
GAVol said:
The PR disaster is the one happening in people's brains right now. There's not enough Midol in the world for some of these guys.
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A VN Mod called this a done deal based on his sources in October. He was the first poster to go to 100%. That helped fuel this "mental PR disaster" a lot.
 
#74
#74
WVU05UT09 said:
Dave Hart absolutely cannot call a press conference in each situation you reference above. However, many times the situation "gets away from you" if you will in things as public as this. A recent example would be President Obama's endorsement of gay marriage. In no way shape or form do I believe he intended to do that as quickly as he did--too many culturally red states like Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia were in play. He was forced to move in that direction by the fuel that is Joe Biden, speaking freely on Meet the Press. Joe Biden was an agent of the President and it forced his hand.

Similarly, in this situation, we clearly have a person or people who are feeding various individuals in the media with information that each of them has deemed credible (ex. Chattanooga v. Knoxville media). Each in essence are acting in the same way as Joe Biden--agents of the university because they are "players, soon to be coaches, boosters, athletic department officials, etc.)
The two examples diverge in how President Obama handled his predicament.

Obama knew his base was heavily in favor of it, any equivocating or non-answers would infuriate them--he knew that, so he immediately cut losses and endorsed same sex marriage consequences be damned.

In our example, the combination of no information in the form of leaks from sources around the University, the hunger of this fan base, and too many contradictory Gruden stories coming from the media (i.e. Chattanooga) and you've created a wildfire of speculation and anticipation. It has steadily been growing all week reaching the crescendo it did today, because Dave Hart, the central figure of this search, did not bothered to put it out.

I'm on twitter like many of you. I follow many of the national and regional sportswriters. Our drama has been the punch line all afternoon. We look like a joke. As an alum I am embarrassed by the donors would couldn't keep their mouth shut and the Athletic Department that refused to acknowledge reality and forthcoming PR mess they are partially responsible for.
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Good post.

Hart doesn't have to do a presser but they do have an SID that could have issued a statement 10 days ago clarifying the ideal candidate in a way that would have eliminated Gruden from contention.

Simply saying we need a coach with an NCAA background due to compliance issues or something would have sufficed.

This program has been a joke on and off the field for the better part of a decade now.

It pretty much hit a new low today due to the lack of initiative by Hart to put this fire out before it started.
 
#75
#75
GoBigOrangeVols said:
worst in college football coaching search history, a strong argument could be made for that I think.
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No, it couldn't.

It's not even the worst in UT college football searching history. Or the worst in UT college football searching history since 2010, given that we came up with Dooley at the end of our last search.

People always make a big deal about being rejected, but no one really remembers it after the hire is made. Hart took a shot at Gruden, and Gruden wasn't interested. There's no PR disaster at all.
 
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