What happened to the wait and see approach?

You may well be right, but this frustrates me. I firmly believe we just need to hit reset on everything and start over. It seems like Tennessee's entire decision making process post-Kiffin has been to change as little as possible. I have no idea if Smart can do the job, but hiring him would seem to be little more than continuing what we've been doing over the last few years. The only difference is we would be firing our offensive staff instead of our defensive staff. I can understand if Smart was proven in some way, but he isn't.

 

saban clearly considers him his top assistant. good or bad this is no different than oklahoma hiring stoops or florida hiring muschamp.

 

Oklahoma hiring Stoops worked out very well. I don't see Florida hiring Muschamp working out so well.

The thing that concerns me is nobody from the Saban tree has struck me as impressive, or even good, at being a head coach. Maybe Smart is the one guy who is actually capable of living up to the hype, but it seems to me like hiring him could also turn out poorly.

 

yup i completely understand the argument. personally i'm a fan of the guy. there is no guarantee for any hire obviously. even a chris peterson could not work out. big difference between the wac and the sec and the way you run your program.

 

I would piss myself if we made a hire that is as successful as Stoops has been at Oklahoma.

 

That's my choice.

 

Strong will end up in the SEC and be successful at some point. I hope it is at Tennessee.

 

i'm surprised he's not the head coach at florida.

 

Well, it looks like there are at least four in the Strong camp. Now to winning Hart over

 

Vandy could have had him but he's got a white wife

 

Bama, Auburn, Ole Miss, State, maybe Tennessee I could see that being an issue.

Surprises me it was at Vandy.

 

To be honest, an issue I have with hiring Smart is the mentality behind the hire. Over the past few years, I've gotten the impression that the people in power at Tennessee are more concerned with finding a bargain, identifying a good 'cultural fit', and maintaining stability than they are with finding the best available coach. I'm not saying it can't work out that way. For example, some people seem to think Tennessee could have gotten a more proven basketball coach than Cuonzo Martin, but he may well turn out to be a very good hire (and I'm leaning that way).

That said, it's seems inexcusable to me that you would overlook better options for something as silly as 'stability'. We've been shooting for 'stability' for years now, and the only thing that has been remotely stable is the mediocrity. If the people in power really feel that Smart is the best candidate for the job, they should definitely hire him. However, the only thing that seems more idiotic than hiring an unproven for 'stability' purposes would be trying to identify his future assistants a year in advance and forcing them into a failing coaching tenure.

I'll admit I don't really have much of a right to demand that Tennessee hire someone I want. I'm not some big donor, and I don't pretend to know who all is willing to take the job. I would just like to see some indication that Tennessee is striving for excellence instead of trying to avoid mediocrity (or in other words, playing to win instead of playing not to lose).

 

So does Dooley. I wish we had used that disqualifier.

 

I agree with this. I'm much more a fan of Petersen than a couple years ago. I'm not sure how he would be on the recruiting trail, though.

 

personally i don't see him as a home run hire for a major program. he doesn't recruit very well to boise despite their success.

 

True, but playing in Idaho in the WAC (although now it's the MWC) has to be an enormous part of that.

 

i'm not suggesting he should be landing top 10 recruiting classes, but i see no reason why he can't land top 25. particurally with boise's rather low academic standards. there are guys that would have ended up on pac-12 teams that ended up at boise because even ASU wouldn't let them in.

 

Well said.

 

Some guys that sign with Boise have such shitty grades they don't get evaluated by recruiting services

 

My own personal opinion is that the guy hasn't had much of a chance to be successful on the field in the first two years. I think this year really is nut cutting time as far as that goes. I'm like everybody else, I haven't seen much, if anything, that makes me all that optimistic. However, I feel like, as some have said, this team appears to maybe have enough to win quite a few games in spite of Dooley.