I am falling off the Charlie Strong wagon

I still stand by Vandy having 3-4 win talent (hell most people on here said Vandy wouldn't win more than 3-4 games this year) on their roster. But they play hard, they play confident and they are well coached. All things Tennessee has lacked under Dooley. I just cant downplay a Vanderbilt teams having 8 wins and going 5-3 in the SEC no matter what the circumstances at other schools are. That's impressive.

I think they could do a lot worse than Strong. Like I said my biggest concern with Strong is why have his defenses at Louisville gotten significantly worse each year he's been there? Is he less hands on defensively than he was when he arrived? I cant figure it out, because the level of talent is improving and most of their starters on defense are returning starters from previous years yet as a unit they have been absolutely terrible this season.

 

Ole Miss can't be much better and the other two were poorly coached enough as to be changing staffs.

Tennessee and Auburn aren't significantly better than some of the usual OOC riff raff Vandy faces. The results this season confirm that.

 

How did Kevin Sumlin fare in the C-USA championship game last year?

 

Some of his defenses at Florida had me a bit concerned.

 

Playing the #21 team in the nation? They lost.

What does that have to do with Louisville losing to a 4-5 Syracuse team and a 4-6 UConn team? And Louisville has finished 6th, 2nd, 1st, and 2nd in recruiting in the conference, so the talent is there.

 

Anyone know who Strong's S&C coach is? One thing that is critical and almost always goes unmentioned is who the S&C coach is for these coaches. It's critical to the success of a program. For example, a guy like Preston Brown (who I know from his high school days here in Cincy), is now a 3 year starter on defense for U of L at Linebacker and to me he has looked far slower and less explosive this year than he ever has. I think that really sums up how their defense has looked this year as a whole.

 

What does it have to do with it? Taking one and two game snapshots of a coach is idiotic.

 

They lost in the fashion Custer "lost" at Little Big Horn.

 

Strong has accomplished what, exactly? 4 of the 9 wins this year are against cupcakes and he still may not win his conference. Also, he has more talent than the rest of the conference so should be beating the others if he is a great coach. Thought that was obvious.

 

To me, the analysis of Charlie Strong is very simple. Has he shown at Louisville enough evidence that he's going to come in to Tennessee and be able to compete with Steve Spurrier, Nick Saban, Les Miles, Mark Richt, and company. I think the answer to that is no, but I get that there can be some room for disagreement. I don't think he's a bad coach and is certainly an upgrade over Dooley, but I don't see him taking us to the promise land.

 

Acclaimed defensive coordinator at the SEC level. Led Louisville out of the post Apetrinolyptic morass to the brink of a conference title. When was the last time Tennessee hired a coach with a better resume? 35 years ago. Before that? Never.

 

A Big East title is supposed to be impressive?

 

How does he have more talent when the average recruiting finish in the numbers you quoted is essentially 3rd?

 

He's finished 1st and 2nd in his three full seasons recruiting.

 

Compared to getting anally raped in the C-USA title game? Ask Georgia how much fun it was for them last time they played the Big East champion.

 

So, if he wins Friday he will have out recruited everyone in the league and won the title. Pretty sure that's the [dadgum] job description anywhere.

 

Why wouldn't it be?

 

Why are you bringing the Conference USA into this? We are talking about hiring a coach who is supposed to lead UT to conference titles over teams like Bama, Florida, SC, LSU, UGA, etc. I'm finding it hard to put all of my faith into a coach that hasn't even won the shitty Big East yet. Is he better than Dooley? Yes. Should that be a main selling point? No.

 

Big Easy football sucks.

 

Has he won it yet? I'll change my tune a bit if he can pull it out against Rutgers.