Somebody Said It

I think you underestimate how toxic it will become with so many highly recruited players who are losing millions of dollars (literally) because their coach couldn't outsmart a lamp if his life depended on it.

 

If Jones shits the bed, Hart will get fired. Lets assume Blackburn gets the job.

UT's roster is 10-fold better than when we were searching for a coach after the 2012 season. There is talent at every position. This makes the search easier combined with the following factors:

UT has the completed facilities it didn't have in 2012.

UT isn't under fire from the NCAA for numerous violations which it was in 2012 as fallout lingered from the Kiffin tenure.

UT isn't in dire academic status which it was in 2012.

The SEC as a whole, and especially the East, is down compared to 2012. Georgia/Florida/South Carolina all won 11 games in 2012 and Vandy even won 9. Alabama won 13.

Point being... the groundwork and heavy lifting was done by Jones. For his failures on gameday... he was an extremely hard worker that rebuilt a lot of failed relationships that Kiffin and Dooley both destroyed. He also showed UT could be a recruiting power where Dooley was actively trying to destroy Tennessee's recruiting.

Dooley directly damaged UT while Jones has in every way helped it outside of gameday. I don't like the cliches and tireless excuse mongering coupled with failures on gameday... but I do appreciate the gaul he showed by coming to a high-pressure job at a program that was in terrible shape in every conceivable way.

 

No question.

 

Listen to Jim Harbaugh talk about any of his teams and what they're going to do or Saban talk about what you do to win. Those guys have 100% confidence in what they're doing

 

Meant to refer to the "assuming UT doesn't shit the bed again" part. Sorry for not clarifying.

 

Comparing those guys to Butch is almost exactly like comparing Patton to Frendenall. In many ways, the comparison is apt.

In fact, guess who this quote is talking about... Frendenall or Jones?

Frendenall failed spectacurlarly and handed the US Army one of it's worst defeats in it's history at Kasserine Pass. He immediately followed up with a compendium of excuses (that he is responsible for) such as terrain, enemy, inexperience of his troops, air cover, etc.

He was immediately yanked and Patton took over. Those excuses ended the second Patton rolled into II Corps HQ.

 

There is a certainly mentality that surrounds the program. Just like most people knew the Dooley hire was terrible, most people had the instinct of WTF when Lyle was hired.
He got us back to where we were and where we should be in recruiting. But, I remember talking about this either on here or somewhere else - that first full class he had was going to be a monstrous class no matter what. He gets credit for it, of course, but I am not as impressed by his part in it as most others seem to be. Not only was it a great year for legacies and in-state talent, it is also more like the historical norm for Tennessee football. I don;t get claiming he is some sort of football great because of it.
But then again this is the same fanbase that saw so many act like Christ had returned when we barely got our 6th win at Vandy.

He is in over his head just like most people figured before he had recruiting success. I think it would be hard for someone like Nick Saban to spend three years in the MAC and three years in C-USA to come into Tennessee and win immediately (although I imagine by now Saban would have figured a few things out), much more so for marching-band Lyle.

The key is two-fold: cutting our losses at the right time; and making a good hire.
We will not do either.

 

We need our damn Patton riding into town, siren blaring and kicking the shit out of everyone.

 

TKjr was going to Alabama and the Berry twins were LSU bound had Dooley stayed. He's done a lot to help repair the relationships Tennessee has with high schools around the state. Recruiting is the only thing he's done right here, but he's done it well.

 

I guess that is part of what I mean when you say "had Dooley stayed."
We could compare Dooley to Kim Kardashian and come to the conclusion that Kardashian is a pretty good coach.

 

I think that would be a push.

And I've seen several coaches flop at recruiting that are good in other areas. I'll say he sucks at a lot of stuff, but he's a good to great recruiter. He just doesn't know what to do with it when it gets on campus.

 

He might be a great recruiter. I just think by adding the context of how awful Dooley was and the historical record of recruiting here I am not ready to put him in the recruiting hall-of-fame (not saying you are either).
While some programs have clear recruiting advantages over us, we still have structural recruiting advantages that most programs would die to have.
Regardless, recruiting very clearly is not a problem he has, I just think a lot of people have bought into him because of it even after the "WTF?" moment when it was announced he was hired.

 

Not entirely on the effort side. He was sorry enough to hire DeBord from the trash heap.

 

Are you sure he's even capable of realizing how useless DeBord was? I'm starting to wonder if he's just very dim, and was lucky enough to keep falling into positions where moderate success was already laid out.

 

I think he knows. One of his excuses in the hire was that it's immaterial because the offense is his baby any way. Arrogance made this happen. He believes that an administrator to carry out his offensive vision is what we need, so didn't need ability.

 

And it's why he shouldn't get a chance to correct it.

 

absolutely not.