Blackburn Is Not the Guy

Discussion in 'Vols Football' started by Tenacious D, Nov 29, 2016.

  1. Tenacious D

    Tenacious D The law is of supreme importance, or no importance

    Some oppositional thoughts on the thronged-swell of unanimous support, both here and elsewhere, to coronate Blackburn as our next AD. Take or reject them as you will, in whole or in part.

    1. I'm not sure that he's a slam-dunk hire, by any means. I'm not even sure that he's a competent hire.

    2. His time at TN was almost entirely under the Fulmer regime, for both well and ill. I think that some want to cherry-pick this fact, mistakenly granting some of our mid-90's - early 2000's success to him, and exempting him for the absolutely toxic disaster that it became in Fulmer's final 3-4 years.

    3. First, tell me what Blackburn did, specifically, personally and uniquely, to lead to or significantly aided Tennessee's successes during his time here. Don't tell me what our football team did, or the money that the UTAD raised during his time here - tell me what Blackburn did, specifically.

    4. Next, tell me what Blackburn did, specifically, personally and uniquely to repudiate or amend the mess that Fulmer created, and frankly, spurred & stirred - in his final years here, within the UTAD, itself? How about amongst the boosters and fans, two groups who each, respectively, famously remain significantly fractured in wide schisms, both individually and collectively, and who continue to suffer with the same, even to this very day? I would argue that Blackburn had no obvious and effective impact in healing these hamstringing fissures, at absolute best, or was unconcerned and/or incapable of working to fix them, at worst.

    5. He was famously assigned to Kiffin during his short-tenure, an oft-told tale that puts Blackburn in sort of a program-saving protector role. As being specifically assigned to the football program during that time, wasn't that sort of, you know, his job? So, he did his job. Yay?

    6. Speaking of Kiffin, why does everyone rush to fawn over Blackburn's alleged insulating of the program from Kiffin's antics, and yet, seems to completely and conveniently ignore the fact that Blackburn had a primary role in hiring Kiffin, second only to Hamilton himself, to begin with? If Kiffin was so well-known to play fast and loose with the rules as to require Blackburn be assigned to him as a 24/7 babysitter...why did he sign off on hiring him to begin with - and to be sure, he would have been required to endorse the hire, if not formally advance and approve it.

    7. Continuing to speak to Kiffin's tenure - what exactly was Blackburn, Kiffin's 24/7 babysitter, doing while Kiffin was committing several dozen secondary violations? Did he stop Hostess Gate? Did he prevent the acts that lead to the allegations? His efforts may seem to have ultimately insulated Tennessee, but the acts not only still occurred - but directly while on Blackburn's watch, and under his allegedly keen eye.

    8. What was Blackburn - again, who his strongest advocates glowingly describe as being Kiffin's babysitter - doing for the several days that Kiffin was actively and unapologetically pursuing the USC job, while desperately working himself into consideration? Can we at least agree that of everyone in a position of leadership at UTAD, that Blackburn was the one best positioned and should have been most likely to have known about or reacted to it? Then why did it strike everyone - Hamilton, and his boss, notably included - like such a bolt out of the blue?

    9. Speaking of which, does it deserve even casual consideration that it was Hamilton - easily the single worst AD that the human mind is capable to conceive - who directly tutored, mentored and gave Blackburn his formative training in how to run an athletic department, and particularly Tennessee's, as he rose through the ranks to his position of prominence. Is that what we want in our next AD? The biggest limb from the dead and decayed Hamilton tree, and which damned near both bankrupted and tore the UTAD in two?

    10. Think about the hires that Tennessee made while Blackburn was here - Jerry Green, Buzz Peterson, Todd Raleigh, just off the top of my head. Delmonico consistently underachieved. Fulmer not only grew fat and lazy while running the football program into the ground, but quite literally tried to poison the TN well on his way out the door. And ask anyone who knows anything, and they will tell you that Blackburn was Fulmer's main guy, throughout, his biggest advocate and his staunchest defender, even up to and beyond when it became too painfully obvious to ignore that he needed to go. This is the track record of success, the commitment to excellence that you're wanting - hoping - would return with Blackburn? Really?

    11. Do you think he's learned his lesson on Fulmer? Perhaps, but any one of the dozens of people who he has told that one of his first acts would be to bring Fulmer back, even in a ceremonial and unofficial role, may politely but strongly disagree. And the guy doesn't even have the job yet. The last time you saw such mind-numbingly tone-deaf bravado of a person who does and says such dumb things, and with such incredibly poor timing, she was running for President.

    12. The local media is unanimously lock-step in their support of his hiring. Nothing else could possibly be said that should give you more serious pause, than this. Why do you think that is? Well, first, it's because they know and are comfortable with him from his time here, and secondly, because he's the presumptive pick to be named, and they want to jostle their way into his good favor, if named. Do either of those facts inspire greater confidence in his hire, or in the subsequent "coverage" and "scrutiny" that he'd likely be subjected to, here? These are also the same folks who famously refuse to do little more than tote the AD's water now, as things stand, and continuously chide and cajole fan s to be "be patient", "be realistic" and "give some more time" to Peterson, Raleigh, Dooley and Jones, that is, right up until the UTAD gives them the greenlight to begin mercilessly attacking and exposing them.

    13. Former players just love Blackburn, and surely that must weigh heavily in his favor, right? You know, many former players still adoringly love Fulmer, too, right?. Does that make you feel better?

    14. He's been the AD at UTC for what, several years now? He's made some good hires and seems to be ticking along at a healthy clip, by any measure. For all of those who tout his single-term tenure at UTC as being positive proof and unassailable evidence of how well that success would translate to UTK....might I gently remind you as to what an infinitely better coach that Jones at least had the illusion of being while he was at Eastern Michigan(?) and Cincy? Remember that two-year run that Cuonzo put together at SW Missouri State? How about Dooley's magically triumphant second-to-last season at LaTech? What? Nobody wants to talk about those, because they've been long and well-proven as being mere false illusions? Yeah, that's my point on Blackburn's tenure at UTC.

    15. Well Blackburn is a "Tennessee guy" who "loves Tennessee" and who "wants to see Tennessee win big". So did Fulmer. So would anyone we hired. So would I - can I have the gig. I have two degrees from TN, and Blackburn has none. I live in Knoxville, and he doesn't. I have an array of orange ties, and have bought enough Tennessee gear to bankrupt a small nation. My youngest son's middle name is Crockett. I not only own a blue-tick coonhound, but from the same lineage as Smokey himself. Can Blackburn match any of that? Hell no. So do I deserve the gig more than he? Hell yes. Is that any reason to hire me as AD? Double-hell, no. Because those are stupidly inept and entirely insufficient means of measuring someone's fitness for the job, in whole or in part.

    16. Finally, if his name wasn't Blackburn, and he hadn't served at Tennessee for all of those years, you wouldn't even know his name. He wouldn't be within 100 concentric rings of even casual consideration for this gig, nor should he be. And if you guys caught wind of Tennessee even contemplating replacing our AD with someone in his first tenure at UTC, the reaction would be so apoplectic as to border on something biblically Old Testament. And you'd be exactly correct. But you aren't, ostensibly because his name is Blackburn, he served here before, you have significant memory-loss and aren't seeing this objectively as you should, or anywhere even closely approximated to it, and for that, as well as the many reasons listed here and more, that makes you all stupidly near-sighted and wrong.

    There is a reason he wasn't hired before, and perhaps still more and damned good others, which remain.
     
  2. BigOrangeBeech

    BigOrangeBeech Poster of the Month, July 2014 and recruiting guy!

  3. cpninja

    cpninja Member

    Let me ask this not in defense of Blackburn(who I know little to nothing about), but what ADs are really killing it out there and would leave their current job? The AD search has seemingly been "Blackburn or bust" the entire time, and I haven't really got a clue about any other potential candidates.
     
  4. IP

    IP Super Moderator

    Ok. Another topic in which I'm told why something is wrong beyond doubt, but offered no solution beyond vacuum. I guess we can just get ready to [itch bay] about who is behind curtain number 3. Round and round we go
     
  5. lylsmorr

    lylsmorr Super Moderator

    #FulmerforAD
     
  6. smokysbark

    smokysbark Chieftain

    I wish you guys would just make up my ****ing mind already.
     
  7. dtmvol

    dtmvol Member

    #9 is the most concerning

    #11 is my favorite
     
  8. JohnnyQuickkick

    JohnnyQuickkick Calcio correspondent

  9. TDVol1989

    TDVol1989 Always Be Menstruating

    Supposedly he was anti-Dooley. Showing some respect for Fulmer is not a bad thing.
     
  10. Volst53

    Volst53 Super Moderator

    Hopefully he could bring together the Majors and Fulmer camps which causes a lot of the shit show.
     
  11. Savage Orange

    Savage Orange I need ammunition, not a ride. -V Zelensky.

    This is why it sucks to be a Vols fan.... No matter WHO gets hired, somebody will be right on the spot to shit all over it. Other schools seem to be able to get behind coaches and administrations.... Not us. We gotta [itch bay] and moan before the guy is even hired. Name one coach/AD in recent (like, the last 50 years) that Tennessee fans weren't utterly divided on....


    Yeah, I couldn't think of one either....
     
  12. Tenacious D

    Tenacious D The law is of supreme importance, or no importance

    Perfect! It leaves you more time to beat the non-rush in ordering your Belk Bowl tickets, to record your next limited release track of Broadway show tunes, to work on entirely new ways of awkwardly and completely unnecessarily interjecting your foreign language skillzzz into routinely uninvolved and otherwise normal conversations, and all while still maintaining your penchant for being childishly obtusive and comfortably ignorant.

    Win-win-win, JQK, all you do is win.
     
  13. MaconVol

    MaconVol Chieftain

    Who should it be then?
     
  14. IP

    IP Super Moderator

    Where is the cat woman joke? Geez, stick to the formula.
     
  15. This is paralysis by analysis, IMO.
     
  16. IP

    IP Super Moderator

    We've eliminated Hamilton, hart, Fulmer, tenny d, and Blackburn. 7 billion more to go.
     
  17. Savage Orange

    Savage Orange I need ammunition, not a ride. -V Zelensky.

    This.
     
  18. JohnnyQuickkick

    JohnnyQuickkick Calcio correspondent

    I have a state job. I have to get done by 10 so I can play GeoGuessr for 6 hours.
     
  19. NYY

    NYY Super Moderator

    Which is the ONLY reason he would bring him back in any capacity. Every action he's wanting to do early is to eliminate the multiple camps and have one central focus. That's what's best for the UTAD.
     
  20. MWR

    MWR Contributor

    One thing Blackburn has going for him is that he isn't Hart.
     

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