I didn't like the hire initially, but he hired a couple good coordinators, and I thought maybe he could bail himself out by surrounding himself with high-quality people. Actually think a lot of people could bail themselves out by surrounding themselves with high-quality people, but the problem is that most guys who aren't great coaches in their own right (1) think they're great and don't understand their deficiencies, and (2) have trouble getting talented people to work for them. Dabo has been the exception to both (1) and (2). Butch was the Platonic form of both (1) and (2).
He put together a pretty legit staff though. Wilcox, as with others, excited me. Chaney, Baggett, Hiestand, Later Pittman and Jay Graham. He had a good staff. The recruiting wasn't good (especially at OL and on D) and the Sunseri hire sank his dumbass. If a guy hasn't been a coordinator for almost 20 years, there is a damned good reason for it.
Losing Garner and Trooper (for better or worse...) didn’t help. Once the recruiting aces were gone the talent level fell off precipitously.
Are you punishing the son for the sins of the father? Dave Clawson may be a good football guy today (I'm not sure; he's on his way to maybe making Wake a .500 program.) But his time here was an unmitigated disaster. Blame Fulmer for part of it if you want--he certainly chose him--but the Clawfense was Dave's, and when it sucked, he blamed the players for not being smart enough to run it. He did a terrible job here.
Briles legitimately has a string of issues with recruiting violations and is on a lawsuit saying, at best, "go to parties and get laid by some slots" and at worst could be spun as condoning daterape or pimping out coeds. This isn't my personal opinion, but more so the opinion of the media when Briles went to Houston.
Cut still figured out a way to put up points. I'm not sure where to dig it up, but I remember somebody doing an analysis of ppg with Cut's first stint here (~30,) his second stint here (~30,) and the time in between (~24.) I'm sure talent levels fluctuated, but the formula was add Cut, score points, win games.
I really don't know that much about it. If the guy is a pimp, then I've got the same issues with him as Freeze. I wouldn't discount him because of guilt by association, though.
I believe he was a coach at Baylor during that time. Innocent or not, I am just not sure UT at this point in time can afford to bring him on.
Dude could recruit but shit... what a pain in the ass. Obama shunning him on the chest bump was gold!