Morpheus
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
- Messages
- 1,268
- Likes
- 59
While the circus surrounding Coach Martin's departure from knoxville has been highly entertaining, I would like to point out a few things that seem to be consistently missed by those who've succumbed to the media frenzy.
1. Coach Martin was the last of the Mike Hamilton hires in the major sports.
2. All the major sports suffered some form of embarrassing controversy during Hamilton's tenure.
3. The UTAD devolved from a thriving, rich athletic department under Dickey, to a relative poverty stricken third world disaster by the end of Mike Hamilton's reign. It is still struggling to rebuild.
4. One of the primary reasons for the decline in UT athletics was Hamilton's inability to negotiate contracts that didn't leave the AD in a precarious position down the road.
5. Dave Hart refused to do what Hamilton did.
6. UT BBall was going to struggle next year to live up to the fan base's expectations. Martin has not recruited well and all the key players were leaving.
7. The likelihood of Hart having to fire Martin next year and pay a large buyout was fairly high.
8. The petition was never going to "Bring Back Bruce", but it appears to have served to expedite the process of removing Martin now before the program was set back even further, and it likely saved the AD millions.
9. I did not sign the petition.
10. The media exists to sell words and pictures. Drama, exaggeration, sensationalism sells. If something news-worthy happens at a place with a large, passionate fan base, writers will take the most extreme position they can to get people reading, watching, listening. Its how they make a living.
11. Besides the petition, nothing that happened with Martin is all that unusual in the world of sports.
So in summary, anyone getting caught up in all the media nonsense need to relax and enjoy the fact we have an AD who knows what he's doing. Yes we had a dysfunctional AD under Hamilton, but this is the final fallout from his regime. If you feel the need to blame someone, blame him.
Martin is a good guy and decent coach, but he was following a successful, fan-favorite coach, which very rarely works out long-term. Even if the next guy turns out to be mediocre, this divorce needed to happen anyway, given all of the above.
Good luck Coach Martin and Go Vols!
1. Coach Martin was the last of the Mike Hamilton hires in the major sports.
2. All the major sports suffered some form of embarrassing controversy during Hamilton's tenure.
3. The UTAD devolved from a thriving, rich athletic department under Dickey, to a relative poverty stricken third world disaster by the end of Mike Hamilton's reign. It is still struggling to rebuild.
4. One of the primary reasons for the decline in UT athletics was Hamilton's inability to negotiate contracts that didn't leave the AD in a precarious position down the road.
5. Dave Hart refused to do what Hamilton did.
6. UT BBall was going to struggle next year to live up to the fan base's expectations. Martin has not recruited well and all the key players were leaving.
7. The likelihood of Hart having to fire Martin next year and pay a large buyout was fairly high.
8. The petition was never going to "Bring Back Bruce", but it appears to have served to expedite the process of removing Martin now before the program was set back even further, and it likely saved the AD millions.
9. I did not sign the petition.
10. The media exists to sell words and pictures. Drama, exaggeration, sensationalism sells. If something news-worthy happens at a place with a large, passionate fan base, writers will take the most extreme position they can to get people reading, watching, listening. Its how they make a living.
11. Besides the petition, nothing that happened with Martin is all that unusual in the world of sports.
So in summary, anyone getting caught up in all the media nonsense need to relax and enjoy the fact we have an AD who knows what he's doing. Yes we had a dysfunctional AD under Hamilton, but this is the final fallout from his regime. If you feel the need to blame someone, blame him.
Martin is a good guy and decent coach, but he was following a successful, fan-favorite coach, which very rarely works out long-term. Even if the next guy turns out to be mediocre, this divorce needed to happen anyway, given all of the above.
Good luck Coach Martin and Go Vols!
