Blackburn Is Not the Guy

Agreed. Nobody saw that coming

 

There's only one name I could think of that could come close to achieving that task. He sells decent to shitty pizza depending on who you ask.

 

Stop asking when, and start asking why.

 

Bruce Pearl was a lying piece of shit con-man from the moment he stepped on campus, and has continued as such, unabated.

 

OK, why has it been so long that Tennessee has employed a capable and competent AD? Why did the shift into shittiness occur? Fulmer?

 

I agree but he won games like nobody had in a while here. Lots of folks on here are advocating hiring lying pieces of shit to coach football.

 

I see Peyton doing for Tennessee what Archie does for Ole Miss. There if you need him on a search committee or something like that but not in the AD.

 

Yup. He won plenty of big games here.

 

Many people inside and/or fans of Tennessee essentially make the same argument as farmers, contractors, etc., when they say that "Americans don't want these jobs!" or "Americans won't do these jobs!" - which is nonsense. If you press deep enough, the unstated and second portion of those arguments is always ".....for the pittance I am willing to pay, without either benefits or security." While it is true that most Americans are not willing to work as a day laborer for $5/hour, that doesn't mean that they "don't want those jobs" at all. I always challenge those same people who "can't find anyone who wants to work (for $5/hr as a sporadically used day laborer) to advertise the same position for $20/hr and find out how interested Americans will become in applying.

That's what Tennessee does - it claims "nobody wanted the job", while always and conveniently leaving off that all-important second portion, "....at what we were willing to pay them.", as being unstated. No, Tennessee, you can no more take $4M/year and land an elite program-defining coach than you should expect to take $20K into a BMW dealership and leave with a shiny 2017 convertible. Hell yes, $20K is certainly a lot of money, and to a lot of people, but it's simply not BMW convertible money. And, no, it doesn't mean that BMW hates you, or had "no interest" in selling you a convertible, but it's just pure and simple economics, instead. What you are offering isn't worth what you want. So, either be prepared to pay a market value for what you want - a BMW convertible - or don't, and just admit that you're perfectly fine with driving the affordably priced and budget-friendly AMC Gremlin that you Uncle Rick sold you on the cheap. No shame in being thrifty. But don't then spray paint a BMW logo on its hood and try to convince me to take a road trip with you. And if I do agree to go on the road trip with you, despite your shitty not-the-BMW-you-promised ride aside, and the damned thing breaks down and catches fire after 50 miles, don't have the audacity to somehow blame the situation on my getting irritated and frustrated with your stupid decision-making. And after we've walked 10 miles to the next dealership (it was a remote road trip, through hill country), and I watch you make the exact same mistake again by buying another but slightly differently colored AMC Pacer, painting another BMW signal on the hood, before turning to me with the exact same lie as before, but this time anew.....don't then angrily and self-righteously assert that I somehow hate you or want anything less than the absolute best for you, because I refuse to sacrifice reason and my own intellectual honesty in withholding my eager, willful and blind support of your increasingly stupid-assed decision-making. And don't tell me that it's somehow my fault when the exact same thing happens all over again in another 50 miles, because I just didn't trust you enough in making the decision. And damned sure don't ask me to split a portion of your automobile costs at BMW prices, for an AMC Pacer product.

Here's my own, and admittedly simplistic, view of hiring people: you get what you pay for.

If you want the best AD, be prepared to pay for the best AD. If you want the best coach, be prepared to pay for the best coach. If you are not willing to do that, just admit that you are willing to settle for something less expensive and shitty, but make me aware of that, let's all get on the same page with your decision, and here's the kicker - charge me accordingly. The problem with Tennessee is that they want the best of all worlds, and which we know is not realistic over the long-term - they only want to spend just enough money to be mediocre, but they want to charge and demand my devotion at a rate that is reasonably reserved for those programs who intend, expect, promote, pay and produce at the elite level, and which they neither intend nor are equipped to produce. And what is so inexcusably insidious about it all, is that they only get away with continuously striking such a shitty deal with the fans because they know that most genuinely love the university and its athletic programs, and will just silently suffer it. They do it, not because they have to - UT is FLUSH with CASH - but simply because they can, instead.

Which is why I often compare them to this, because this is exactly what they're doing:

 

Especially considering the staff he was bringing.

 

Probably the usual. Self-preservation for someone in a position of influence who would otherwise feel threatened by a strong-willed AD that might want to do things his/her way. That and some stupid jealousy or superiority complex resulting from a belief that football is a waste of resources that could be better spent on academia (not academics, but the concept of snobby ass higher learning).

 

I think this is mostly what happened. I think (and have talked to a few professors and in their talking to me, I can tell they feel this way) that most of the academic side sees sports as taking away from the academic principles of the school.

Never mind how much money it brings in or how many students gravitate to a school that has a great athletic tradition.

But once a coach started making 20x what they make, jealousy and principles start cropping up. Money has ruined a lot about college athletics, imho, and this is just another symptom.

Unless you can get the whole college in line (a la Alabama/Michigan/tOSU).

 

I argued with one of my teachers over this my last semester in college. He started saying how the academic side carried the University and sports leach off the money academics bring in.

I told him exactly how stupid I thought he was. I will say, I got b+ and he thanked me for "challenging his viewpoint"

 

So then it seems to me that the academics side didn't have a problem with the athletics side until college football became a money monster of a business and the SEC became an arms race.

 

I'm not saying that Pearl is a run-of-the-mill piece of shit on the coaching scale, but on the general human one, instead.

He's a despicably bad piece of shit as a human being. He was when he got here, maintained it throughout his time here, and remains so to this day.

 

I agree. Kind of like Lane Kiffin but with more success.

 

I had relatives in academia. There has always been serious penis envy when it comes to football, but no doubt it is worse now due to all the $$ involved.

 

Can someone guesstimate how much longer we keep dragging *** with this hire?

 

3 to 5 weeks unless coaches start leaving

 

Bowl game.