SI.com grades the coaching hires

#1

apsuhead

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#1
• Tennessee: Butch Jones, former Cincinnati head coach. Former Cincinnati coaches (Mark Dantonio, Brian Kelly) have a pretty good recent track record and Tennessee has ample reason to believe Jones -- who's won or shared four conference titles in six seasons as a head coach -- will continue the tradition. But it's also no secret Jones was hardly the Vols' first choice. He'll need immediate success in the SEC East to win over a skeptical orange fan base. Grade: B

Read More: Texas Tech, Kliff Kingsbury top college football coaching hire grades - College Football - Stewart Mandel - SI.com
 
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#3
#3
• Tennessee: Butch Jones, former Cincinnati head coach. Former Cincinnati coaches (Mark Dantonio, Brian Kelly) have a pretty good recent track record and Tennessee has ample reason to believe Jones -- who's won or shared four conference titles in six seasons as a head coach -- will continue the tradition. But it's also no secret Jones was hardly the Vols' first choice. He'll need immediate success in the SEC East to win over a skeptical orange fan base. Grade: B

Read More: Texas Tech, Kliff Kingsbury top college football coaching hire grades - College Football - Stewart Mandel - SI.com

Negavol. IMOJMOTIFWIWBBQSRKEWL
 
#5
#5
• Tennessee: Butch Jones, former Cincinnati head coach. Former Cincinnati coaches (Mark Dantonio, Brian Kelly) have a pretty good recent track record and Tennessee has ample reason to believe Jones -- who's won or shared four conference titles in six seasons as a head coach -- will continue the tradition. But it's also no secret Jones was hardly the Vols' first choice. He'll need immediate success in the SEC East to win over a skeptical orange fan base. Grade: B

Read More: Texas Tech, Kliff Kingsbury top college football coaching hire grades - College Football - Stewart Mandel - SI.com

COMPLETE BS.... I completely disagree. Cal and Tennessee hires should be higher. Auburn's grade should definitely be lower - GM is going to prove to be a bad choice for Auburn, IMO.
 
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#7
#7
I could be wrong, but I don't believe Mark Stoops was ever a head coach before, either, and certainly not in the SEC. Plus, he took over UK. I mean, seriously. Ranking us lower than UK is pretty stupid.
 
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#8
#8
I see Butch Jones as a B+.

A+ would have been Patterson ,Peterson, or Stoops
A- would have been Fisher
B+ is Jones and Strong

Jmo
 
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#12
#12
I'm not sure that either Malzahn or Bielema are worthy of A's. Malzahn is still a largely unproven commodity. Cam Newton was one of those rare players who could single handedly take a slightly above average college team and make them special. I am impressed with Malzahn's staff, though.

Bielema couldn't deal with Urban Meyer and hates cutthroat recruiting. Now he's in a conference full of cutthroat coaches and sell your soul recruiters. This isn't the "big" Ten.

I don't see Mark Stoops being a better hire than Butch Jones either, unless the lowered expectations at Kentucky are taken into consideration.
 
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#14
#14
Wasn't everyone praising the Dooley hire as well? We knew better but darn those media guys ;)
 
#15
#15
To further my point about Malzahn:

I think everyone can agree that the Cam Newton year should be set aside. So we're really looking at 2009 and '11 with AU, and '12 at Arkansas St.

In 2009, AU's offense put up impressive numbers. But those were all players that were recruited, and developed, by the previous staff. In 2011, Malzahn was dealing with players that he and his co-workers recruited and had three years to develop, and they were god-awful. In 2012, again, he was coaching the players recruited and developed by the previous regime (two regimes, actually), and they had a great year. And over on the Plains, the guys in his first couple of recruiting classes were Juniors and Seniors, and they were fricking terrible; they hadn't developed a bit.

Malzahn has never shown any ability to develop guys over time any more than Chizik could. Maybe Malzahn hired a stellar staff, but I don't see how you can rank his hiring any more than a B-.
 
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#18
#18
To further my point about Malzahn:

I think everyone can agree that the Cam Newton year should be set aside. So we're really looking at 2009 and '11 with AU, and '12 at Arkansas St.

In 2009, AU's offense put up impressive numbers. But those were all players that were recruited, and developed, by the previous staff. In 2011, Malzahn was dealing with players that he and his co-workers recruited and had three years to develop, and they were god-awful. In 2012, again, he was coaching the players recruited and developed by the previous regime (two regimes, actually), and they had a great year. And over on the Plains, the guys in his first couple of recruiting classes were Juniors and Seniors, and they were fricking terrible; they hadn't developed a bit.

Malzahn has never shown any ability to develop guys over time any more than Chizik could. Maybe Malzahn hired a stellar staff, but I don't see how you can rank his hiring any more than a B-.

I was in the minority around here in wanting UT to take a look at Malzahn. His track record before was '09 was impressive too. In his time at Arkansas he turned around a mediocre offense into a really good one. Then at Tulsa they led the nation in offense. Then you throw in his time at Auburn and Ark. St. and it seems like everything this guy touches turns out successful. I don't know how good of a hire he'll turn out to be, but I can see where he gets a high grade.
 
#19
#19
Wow, reading between the lines in that list, it appears that SI really doesn't like this hire. Sure they give it a "B", but that's pretty much their lowest rating. While I would obviously expect a guy like Bielema to be out in front (that was a great A-list hire by a program that has never even won an SEC title. Shows what a real AD can accomplish), but I'm very surprised to see guys like Andersen and MacIntyre well above Jones. Those guys seem to have alot more question marks than Jones at this point (I'm guessing the only reason Rhule, Kingsbury, and Stoops are above Jones is that they're considered the best their lower level programs could hope for).

Maybe SI is wrong or maybe they know something we don't? I'd say we'll have a pretty good indication of how this thing is going to go come signing day (if he can't get talent here, I can't see Jones really competing in the SEC going forward).
 
#21
#21
At first, I was upset with the hire. It was mostly because I didn't know anything about him. However, as I've learned more about him, there is no way he is the lowest rated hire in the SEC. I have high expectations for him.
 
#24
#24
Shouldn't grades be handed out after we actually see what they can produce on the field?

Well, we've actually seen what they produce on the field, just at other jobs. And even now, we're hearing daily about what they're doing with staff decisions and recruiting. There's alot of info on which to base expectations. It's important to keep your head out of the sand and to evaluate early and often, otherwise you get...

1."wait until he coaches his first game before you say anything"

2. "you have to wait until the season is over before you evaluate it all"

3. "just wait until he has all of his players..."

...and so on and so on...in other words, "The Dooley Era".
 
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#25
#25
Who know how these recent coaching hires will play out?
I think after this comming season we'll have a better idea, I also think Auburn with the talent already there will have the best chance to improve upon last year...but we'll see how things play out....I think Butch Jones has the most difficult challenge due to the lack of SEC talent presently at UT, again time will tell but I don't expect to win any more than 4-5 games at most this season
Go Vols
 

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