I cannot stand this argument. I don't understand why people continue to think this way. And media in this town likes to perpetuate it too. I've seen several start in on the "this job isn't as good as we think it is" line. Last time I checked, we've managed to be pretty good at football for, oh, about 100 years. It's true that there are a few jobs that possess innate advantages that Tennessee does not. But am I wrong when I say we've got facilities second to none, tradition second to few, and people with deep pockets willing to write checks? Am I that far off base? Why can't we hire a damn good football coach?
Because some think coaches should beg for this job. Tennessee was spoiled by Majors wanting to come home and Fulmer wanting nothing but this job. Those are two pretty good coaches that went thirty years because they did love this place. The money is just starting to realize there aren't any died in the wool Tennessee men that are begging for this job anymore. Tennessee can be a destination job, it should be a destination job, but you have to pay competitive prices for competitive coaches. You're a top ten program, expect to pay top ten prices. Thunder didn't spend $30 million on facilities to let a guy like [ddiapos] run around it. The administration didn't spend $100 million on the stadium so 60,000 people come out to watch Akron hang with Tennessee for 3 quarters. A change is coming and it's not going to be "on the cheap".
If we don't get a big time coach and end up with another mid-major coach, we're only slightly better than before. When we make a change, it has to be a homerun in my opinion.
General Neyland was taking trains all over the country getting who he wanted. Go **** yourself with the "hard to recruit to" bullshit. There is a reason Tennessee is historically a top ten program. It's because guys that can't coach don't last here.
I love how some people bring up the fact Tennessee doesn't have great in-state talent. If Neyland could recruit out of state on coal power, you damn well better be able to recruit out of state nowadays if you want to be succesful. No excuses.
Exactly. The whole Tennessee is hard to recruit to line is overplayed and worn out. You can recruit to Tennessee if you have a coach that is good at it. And that is the bottom line. Fulmer was good at it early in his career. Kiffin was good at it. Dooley is not good at it. The excuse making for a bad head coach like Dooley has gotten completely ridiculous and out of control.
What bothers me about it is that it's not being done by a lot of folks for the purpose of propping up a bad coach. It's like people have just accepted that it's not possible to have success here, no good coach will want to come here. I don't get it.
Not fair. Could Kiffin recruit to Cairo during the 14th century bubonic plague epidemic? That is the situation that Dooley inherited.
Seriously, I am not a type A personality and I could sell the hell out of UT, Knoxville, and East Tennessee.
It's not even specifically Fulmerites or anything with some of the folks I know, it's just defeatism.
The most frustrating thing is that they all believed Fulmer walked on water. In big games, it always seemed that we always played not to lose rather than put your foot on their head and keep them underwater till they don't move anymore football.
