SI.com grades the coaching hires

[apsuhead]

• 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

[GoVols876]

As a side note, SI says this is the lowest ranked SEC hire.

[voldawgforever]

Originally Posted by apsuhead

• 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

[bamawriter]

Originally Posted by GoVols876

As a side note, SI says this as the lowest ranked SEC hire.

That's garbage. I cannot figure out why some in the media think Malzahn was such a great hire for Auburn.

[thatbutchdontplay]

Originally Posted by apsuhead

• 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.

[thatbutchdontplay]

I mean, really....Kingsbury as top hire? Bogus.

[supersmo18]

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.

[KingtUT]

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

[mgu7]

FWIW a year ago ESPN graded DC Sal Sunseri hire as grade A

[KingtUT]

Oh yea......


SI hates UT too!

[WinginFlorida]

Originally Posted by mgu7

FWIW a year ago ESPN graded DC Sal Sunseri hire as grade A

They graded Sal on a curve...a really big effin curve.

[lonelawyer]

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.

[kohlrums]

Originally Posted by mgu7

FWIW a year ago ESPN graded DC Sal Sunseri hire as grade A

I just threw up in my mouth.

[Shaun1985]

Wasn't everyone praising the Dooley hire as well? We knew better but darn those media guys ;)

[bamawriter]

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-.