New AD- John Currie.

The man is awesome. He inherited a final four quality basketball coach and a legendary football coach and somehow managed to leave that place less competitive than they were before he got there. I'm sure now that he's got Butch Jones and a Big-12 castoff to head the flagship sports that he'll really shine.

 

Not sure if that's more arrogance than ignorance. Likely both.

I'm waiting to see if he tries to engage Vol Twitter in any way - as in, personally responding to a Tweet. If I were sufficiently arrogant (don't know if he is, or isn't....but I somehow suspect he is), I might think that I can not only safely do this, but could sort of "hold my own" if needed, and things started to get out from under me. And maybe he could hang, if only for awhile, right up until the first thing went wrong....because they would crush him, very soon thereafter.

It was never a possibility that Hart would have engaged Vol Twitter, but something tells me that this cat may think he can pull that off. Will be interesting to see.

 

God, please let him engage Vol Twitter. Please, please, please.

 

That Cotton has somewhat advocated for the guy - not endorsed, mind you, but advocated - has given me some momentary pause on the immediate belief that he is an unmitigated train wreck.

He can be wrong. I can be wrong. But, I don't think that Cotton would simply be pumping sunshine and roses for a guy who he knew nothing about, or when there wasn't some room for optimism, however guarded.

If I'm misrepresenting you, Cotton, bust my ass and correct me, but that's been both my take on your comments, and my reaction to them.

 

Oh man, I hope these are set up as to where it falls under the FOIA rules and we can request them to read for entertainment purposes.

 

Now is your time to go after him via email Card

 

Thanks. I think that's fair. I look at it this way-- he isn't Blackburn, but it's possible Blackburn looks good mainly bc he was standing next to a bunch of incompetent boffoons when he was here. That's done.

Currie is an upgrade over Hart, who was brought in as a hatchet man to merge men's and women's and got caught having to actually ad. He is a massive upgrade over Hamilton (see: incompetent boffoons, above.) He is smart, ambitious, and assertive, a clean break from both of his predecessors. It's possible he is also overconfident and domineering. We'll see.

But I have no doubt we are better off today than we were yesterday. How much we will just have to see.

 

Was anybody knocking Currie for 'losing' Martin (and replacing him with a final four coach) three weeks ago?

 

I'm curious why you think UT is rid of incompetent buffoons now.

 

I forgot Weber went to the championship game (even if it was with the last guys' recruits). He sure proved that to be a fluke.

 

I was. He got rid of a guy that's proven to be a winner and replaced him with someone whose best years were well behind him. Even if Martin never gets to the level he's gotten at SC had he hypothetically stayed at KS, the replacement is still a downgrade.

 

I don't.

 

I've talked with three people who think this is a good hire, cotton and 2 friends. That includes a few folks I know inside the AD who can't stand the man.

His pro is that he understands winning at football is the key to athletic department financial success.

His con is he's too big of an ego to stay out of the way and I am highly concerned that good coaches are not going to want to work under him. And quite frankly his biggest (only?) backers are the Haslams and I'm trying to remember the last time they made a decision that was good for the UTAD.

 

The one pro you listed isn't much. My wife knows that UT football needs to be good for the AD to make money, but she hasn't the first clue how to go about making that happen. Up to this point in his career, Currie hasn't shown he has the ability to improve either of the major sports. This wasn't a good hire, by any measure.

That said, I'll give the guy a chance. How he handles Serrano and the baseball situation will be the first glimpse of what is to come. He has lame duck head coaches in the two major sports, so he'll have the opportunity to prove his worth early in his tenure. Unfortunately, I expect this to play out the same as every other major hire the AD has made for the last decade.

 

He ran off a final 4 quality coach and replaced him with a finals quality coach with a better lifetime record. If we are just looking at the stats. Not backing the decision but that is how it could be spun.

 

If he fires Jones and hires Gruden, I hope we give him a lifetime contract and won't personally give much of a shit about anything else he ever does here, beyond that. Lifetime Tenny D pass.

 

I expect us to be a two sport school, but football championships are worth at least 10 basketball championships. Probably more.

 

That one pro might as well be cold fusion to Hart.

 

I think it's almost certain he fires Jones, hopefully next year. The gazillion dollar question is who does he hire to replace him? Is Gruden even an option? Money isn't the issue. The 2 biggest issues I see are, (1) is Gruden even interested anymore? Does he want to work for Currie? Does Currie know how to (a) pull this hire off? And then (b) get out of the way? I think it's certain that Gruden never aggrees to come if (b) is not answered in the affirmative. After reading some about the guy and doing some research it's clear Currie knows football is king here, his ego is huge, he wants to put it back on the map. He wants to not only make a hire that splashes, but one that yields long term, big time results. The question for me lies with his competency. Does he have a good plan in place to get the result we all want in hiring a new football coach?
Issue (2) lies with Haslam. Does he even let Currie make the hire? Does he give any freedom whatsoever?

I wanted Blackburn like most everyone else,but I'm willing to give him a chance on the football hire. It'll obviously tell us all we need to know. Basketball is the only other sport I care about. Just hire someone who can make the tourney every year and finish in the top 4 of the SEC consistently and I'm happy there. If Barnes were younger, I think he could do it, but he's obviously on his way out. Hopefully he just gets it ready for whoever is next.

 

If Currie fires Butch he better have a replacement inked before he does it. That replacement better be top notch. If he fires him without a proven replacement ready to go then he better have his resume up to date.

UT has already invested 5 years into Butch's OJT. Firing him without a proven replacement will be more OJT in a league with Saban.

The problem isn't really Butch Jones. The problem is Alabama and the rest of the SEC.

Saban has an open checkbook and autonomy. I will speak heresy here. Saban is not a genius. He surrounds himself with people smarter than himself. He loads up the program with quality personnel. How many quality control coaches does he have? He innovates and goes as close as one can to breaking the rules without actually doing it.

Here is the secret sauce:

1.) Hire great recruiters
2.) Hire great coaches
3.) Oversign oversign oversign
4.) Load up your "quality" control roster.

Now lets look at Butch
1.) Yes he continues to hire recruiters to keep up in the SEC arms race.
2.) No, He has failed at this so far as player development is lacking considering the talent and the results @ WR, CB LB etc
3.) Yes Butch plays the Blue, Grey, and red shirt game well. He is not as cutthroat as Saban but cant be since his roster isn't as deep yet.
4.) No. Saban has an open checkbook and autonomy. He can hire who he wants. But Butch is learning as this years hires show. Everyone and I mean everyone in the SEC is chasing Saban. What other school has given their HC the money and autonomy that Alabama has? None.

What Saban has done is reproducible.

That it has happened at Alabama should be no surprise. This is a school that was on probation for nearly 2 decades. In a worthless state full of toothless inbreds where all they have is football. Its a place where wearing a hounds-tooth hat is a fashion statement and shows "class." Its a place where people murder their own children or other bama fans for not showing enough sorrow after a loss. Its place where a male bama fan sexually assaults a passed out male LSU fan in a restaurant. Its a place where a fan poisoned the trees of a rival team.

It was the obvious place for a merc like Saban to land when the NFL didn't work. He got the power and the money no other HC has and he wouldn't have gotten it anywhere else he may have went.

You want to get to the top then model your program after Alabama's...not its fans.

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/behind-scenes-what-exactly-does-an-alabama-football-analyst-do