While we may not have the overall in state talent as some of the other states, we are in a good location, not too terribly far from several states that do have a lot of talent and if you have good coaches and good recruiters, you can recruit them to Knoxville. Its been proven over and over again. The only reason we're down the list is we haven't been relevant for several years. If you go back in time, erase some of the bad fortunes of the past/hiring failures...throw in a couple SEC championships over the last the last 10 years, maybe a couple playoff appeanrces and maybe 1 NC, we'd be perceived as a top tier school. JMO of course.
I agree that we are a 2 or 3 year run away from being a can't miss top tier school, which again would remain so for a decade even if we went mediocre again.
honestly, if they’re dinging us for upheaval in the athletic administration, I can’t really blame them—not being confident of your AD definitely makes a job worse. But the other side of that coin is that it only takes a few years of competent leadership to reverse that, and it certainly appears on the surface that we’re on our way back.
It's amazing how a lack of planning can ruin something. Nothing makes any sense here, in terms of development. Nothing. It looks like random city blocks, commercial development parks, and subdivisions were assembled together by a 4 year old cosmic giant. Baby's America play set. Traffic infrastructure not included.
