True. And I agree w chavisut - need to take in account it's MS St and NOT some mediocre-to-great program. But we can't get just "better than what we've had"...because what we've had sucks.
there you go. guys like harbaugh and chip Kelly took bad programs (or in the case of Kelly mediocre ones) and had them beating the big boys. that's the difference. I truly do think some guys are great at lifting programs out of the gutter and not taking programs to the elite level. I'm trying to think of a guy who succeeded at a smaller school, but never really beat anyone that went and won big. all I have is franklin and it's up for debate whether he has won big at penn state.
And Lexington is actually a nice place to live. Starkville Mississippi is the capital of the armpit of America. By all rights the program doesn't really belong in the SEC. Hard to imagine them being any rectuit's first choice
I don't particularly like the idea of anointing a guy who has a single winning SEC season(and an overall losing SEC record) as the next top candidate. I personally think he's a good coach, and I'd take him over some Big East Co-Champion, but I think it really highlights the dearth of proven, championship caliber coaches on the market that he's essentially the top guy outside of the very small "home run" tier of coaches.
I don't live in a world in which Tennessee should or can continue to define success by merely doing the minimally expected.
1. Put Nick Saban in Starkville and he is playing for a NC within3 years. 2. Like it or not, fair or unfair, everything Tennessee wants and needs to do goes through Nick Saban. 3. Mullen can't beat Saban now, in Starkville (even after 8 years) and nothing suggests that he could do so from Knoxville.
I've always liked Mullen. I'm not sure how well he would do here, but he has always intrigued me with what he has done with Miss St. I wouldn't dislike the hire if we did go to him. At the same time, I think there are some better prospects that we could entertain.
So we should be okay with hiring a guy that hasn't accomplished anything relevant as a head coach because the school he's currently at didn't take football seriously before he arrived? He's only finished above .500 in the conference once in 8 seasons and only finished ranked in the top 25 twice. If he doesn't catch lighting in a bottle with Prescott in 2014, he'd have nothing of note on his resume as a head coach. Even with Prescott as his starting QB, he only managed finishes of 5th, 2nd, and 5th in the West.
Let's see, Alex Smith, Tim Tebow, Dak Prescott, and now Nick Fitzgerald. Maybe it's not lightning and just the fact that he's great with QBs. You say they didn't take football seriously. Most can acknowledge that it's a crap job.
I live in a world where the Haslam's run things at UT and they will never hire anyone that meets your expectations.
Mullen won't ram 200 ridiculous and embarrassing catch phrases down our throats and will beat the crap out of teams like the one we played Saturday. So that will be nice. At this point, with the apathy that has so deeply set in and is so dangerously close to terminal after the combined efforts of Butch and Dooley, I don't know if Mullen is enough of a shock to get the heart beating again.
He could and would win here. He'd have a much better platform to recruit from than he currently does, he would develop players, especially QBs and as long as he's paired with a good DC and is given plenty of money to hire good assistants he'd have us competing at the highest level. JMO. Now, I'd rather have Gruden, Stoops, Kelly or Patterson first, but would he fine with Mullen as coach.