Sabanization

[ScornedPapaVol]

Those unable to temper their expectations don't really have a leg to stand on when discussing the course the program is taking. It's really easy to be optimistic, make excuses for why your optimism was misguided and then continue to express misguided optimism. Easy, yes, but absolutely stupid.

:yes: but it cuts both ways. Love VN. Best fan site by far. Entertaining arguments err day.

 

[orangesparkles]

Did you forget to get the prescription for your anti-depression meds refilled? It's also really easy to be pessimistic, then make excuses why your pessimism was misguided and continue to express misguided pessimism. Instead of doing either, fans should take a look at the circumstances of the situation and come up with expectations grounded in reality. I can't help it if posters are overly optimistic and that bugs you, but you being overly pessimistic is the pot calling the kettle black.

I can respect that. I was overly pessimistic about last year; figured Tennessee would go 4-8 with a loss to Montana. This year, I think they go 7-5 and not a game over. Pessimistic compared to most predictions? Of course. Grounded in the reality of Tennessee's situation? I'd say so.

I'm not Dave Hart nor should I be, so what Tennessee's best course of action after, say, a 7-5 season this year would be is beyond me. However, the whole Sabanization of coaching just doesn't seem to apply to the Vols. I'm not sure you can attribute a miraculous 10-win season to Dooley focusing on the fundamentals, but I know damn well that there has to be a time-table for success under the Saban blueprint... and four years seems quite excessive.

 

[bamahatr]

I think Dooley is doing all the right things. We have a head coach that is basically a Redshirt Sophomore. He aint no Nick Saban, but neither was Saban 20 years ago. He can grow into the job, he has all the right tools.

 

[gnm53108]

I would turn down anything that had the name Alabama on it...

When my son was about 9 yrs old, we was driving from Knoxville to Panama City. When we arrived at the Alabama state line, there was a couple in front of the state sign having a photo made. My son said .....

"Daddy, those people are doing the right thing, when they got to the state of Alabama they refused to go in"

... that story sums it up for me I am sick of Bama and anything connected to it, and the idea that we need to become them to win... we need to be TENNESSEE an just win, we are very capable and without their help, thank you :hi:

:salute:

You sir are raising your son right.

 

[Titan&Volfan4life]

Do we even have all our 85 scholarships filled right now?

I don't think we do until next year.

We simply don't have SEC type starters at every position just yet and we certainly don't have SEC type starters on our 2 deep roster...yet.

The real recruiting classes of CDD are today only Sophs and freshmen with little experience just yet.

CDD held together the Kiffin recruiting class pretty well and he added Stone, Da'rick, Hunter and some others with less that 2 weels to go before National Signing Day and that was while facing possible NCAA sanctions, having no coaching staff at all except our O Coordinator, losing seasons before he got here and him being the 3rd Head Coach in 3 years so there was zero stability to our program at all.

Despite everything being stacked against him CDD and staff have done a pretty good job of rebuilding the roster so far and finally getting us back to the point that we can compete in the SEC at all much less against the best SEC teams which also happen to be the best teams in the country.

We're not there just yet but we ARE starting the tough climb back up the mountain towards being in the race every year for the SEC East title and beyond.

I want to Win it all right NOW too but that's not the reality of totally rebuilding a program back to the stature Tennessee should always be at.

I expect 7 Wins and 8 would be a good season and 9 or more Wins would be a really good season and prove that CDD has us back on the right track finally.

VFL...GBO!!!

 

[gnm53108]

Do we even have all our 85 scholarships filled right now?

I don't think we do until next year.

We simply don't have SEC type starters at every position just yet and we certainly don't have SEC type starters on our 2 deep roster...yet.

The real recruiting classes of CDD are today only Sophs and freshmen with little experience just yet.

CDD held together the Kiffin recruiting class pretty well and he added Stone, Da'rick, Hunter and some others with less that 2 weels to go before National Signing Day and that was while facing possible NCAA sanctions, having no coaching staff at all except our O Coordinator, losing seasons before he got here and him being the 3rd Head Coach in 3 years so there was zero stability to our program at all.

Despite everything being stacked against him CDD and staff have done a pretty good job of rebuilding the roster so far and finally getting us back to the point that we can compete in the SEC at all much less against the best SEC teams which also happen to be the best teams in the country.

We're not there just yet but we ARE starting the tough climb back up the mountain towards being in the race every year for the SEC East title and beyond.

I want to Win it all right NOW too but that's not the reality of totally rebuilding a program back to the stature Tennessee should always be at.

I expect 7 Wins and 8 would be a good season and 9 or more Wins would be a really good season and prove that CDD has us back on the right track finally.

VFL...GBO!!!

Curious....At what position do you see us not having "SEC type" players?

IMO we have at the very least "SEC" level talent starting at every position. Elite level talent at several.

Got a few I'd like more exp in tho...esp in the 2 deep.

 

[GmanTN]

Talent not tallent

a special natural ability or aptitude: a talent for drawing. 2. a capacity for achievement or success; ability: young men of talent.

 

[justingroves]

bama got lucky on Saban. To say they paid the price is a bit misleading

Luck didn't really have anything to do with it.

They were on him for a 5 months and backed up a Brinks truck to his front door. They also made it very clear his budget was all but limitless once he got on campus.

That's not luck, that's making a commitment to a proven coach.

 

[GmanTN]

What is up with the Saban love fest? is he a good coach? yes, is he our coach? no. Name the last big name big hire coach that UT has hired in any sport on campus. This woulda, coulda shoulda bs is irrelevant, it has never been the universities MO to go out and hire gunslinger coaches at any UT sport team. Will that change in the future? who knows, but until that changes we have to support what we have.

 

[gnm53108]

Talent not tallent

a special natural ability or aptitude: a talent for drawing. 2. a capacity for achievement or success; ability: young men of talent.

I can appreciate your "aptitude" at being a smart a$$.

 

[UTvol1fn]

I agree!:aggressive:

No real Tn fan would say those words. Just messing with you by the way. Don't want anyone taking me too seriously.

it pisses off my Bama coworkers when I say it sarcastically to them...especially when something negative about the program surfaces.

 

[GmanTN]

I can appreciate your "aptitude" at being a smart a$$.

Wasn't trying to be one, if you are going to ask someone a question on talent, spell the word correctly. Look up how you spelled the word, it is the last name of people or a business. If you want to continue spelling the word wrong and have people view you in a different light, that is your business but at least you know the correct spelling now.

:hi:

 

[justingroves]

What is up with the Saban love fest? is he a good coach? yes, is he our coach? no. Name the last big name big hire coach that UT has hired in any sport on campus. This woulda, coulda shoulda bs is irrelevant, it has never been the universities MO to go out and hire gunslinger coaches at any UT sport team. Will that change in the future? who knows, but until that changes we have to support what we have.

Majors was a pretty big name hire at the time.

Kiffin brought in a future NFL HOF'er in his dad.

 

[82_VOL_83]

Uh... Tennessee hasn't paid the price for success up front and it isn't willing to do so, both figuratively and literally. Alabama did, which is why the Crimson Tide went to the Sugar Bowl in Saban's second year. I could see the point of this thread if we just hired a coach with a BCS title under his belt for a tidy sum, but not every coach has the ability to focus on the little things instead of the "end game" knowing that it will eventually pay off.

Sabanization works if you're, you know, Nick Saban. It doesn't work when you've only strung together one winning record as a head coach.

We had one of those. He is part of the reason that we are "paying the price" on the field right now. Once again, let's have a name that we could hire, that would be acceptable to the major donors, and has won a NC. I can't come up with one that would have been available and acceptable when they got CDD. Maybe we could get Spurmier to come home?

 

[bamawriter]

We had one of those. He is part of the reason that we are "paying the price" on the field right now. Once again, let's have a name that we could hire, that would be acceptable to the major donors, and has won a NC. I can't come up with one that would have been available and acceptable when they got CDD. Maybe we could get Spurmier to come home?

Who would that be?

 

[volfan2024]

Majors was a pretty big name hire at the time.

Yep. A lot of excitement he just coming off a n/c. I was a great time to be a vol fan. Of course later the fickle fans became uneasy, actually I probably did as well. To be honest though seems like Dickey was a decent hire.

 

[GmanTN]

Majors was a pretty big name hire at the time.

Kiffin brought in a future NFL HOF'er in his dad.

I was around when Johnny was hired, people were more hyped because he was coming back home to coach, winning the NC the year before just added fuel to the fire. Not much different than as it is today when a former alumni returns to the hill.

Lane Kiffin was not a big name in the coaching ranks, Monte just made that hire more appealing.

 

[GmanTN]

Dickey did more for UT coaching and as the AD than many butt hurt fans give him credit. The thing with Dickey that hurt him was he only cared about the football program and really didn't concern himself with our other sports. Name a football coach that contributed more to our traditions than Dickey. The power T on the helmets, the checkerboard endzones and the band forming the T for the players to run thru were all the traditions that Dickey started coaching here in 6 years.

 

[justingroves]

I was around when Johnny was hired, people were more hyped because he was coming back home to coach, winning the NC the year before just added fuel to the fire. Not much different than as it is today when a former alumni returns to the hill.

Lane Kiffin was not a big name in the coaching ranks, Monte just made that hire more appealing.

So hiring a NC caliber coach wasn't a big deal, just the fact Tennessee hired an alum was? Right....

Disagree with that, but the staff he built were all big names in their own right with the exception of Reaves.

 

[VolBeef88]

Luck didn't really have anything to do with it.

They were on him for a 5 months and backed up a Brinks truck to his front door. They also made it very clear his budget was all but limitless once he got on campus.

That's not luck, that's making a commitment to a proven coach.

Exactly! And it's proven to be a very wise business decision.
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[GmanTN]

So hiring a NC caliber coach wasn't a big deal, just the fact Tennessee hired an alum was? Right....

The NC helped but Majors had a lot of support from his playing days here and fans were excited just like they are today when one of our own returns.

Disagree with that, but the staff he built were all big names in their own right with the exception of Reaves.

I actually was a fan of the Kiffin hire not because of Lane but for the staff he was going to bring in. The 2 big things with the Kiff hire was the poor timing of the USC job opening and the inability of Hamilton to control Kiffin

 

[VolBeef88]

We had one of those. He is part of the reason that we are "paying the price" on the field right now. Once again, let's have a name that we could hire, that would be acceptable to the major donors, and has won a NC. I can't come up with one that would have been available and acceptable when they got CDD. Maybe we could get Spurmier to come home?

A very intellectually dishonest question. How many people outside of bammer thought Saban would go there? The answer? ZERO!!!
The admin has to be serious and be will to fully commit to land big coaches. Hamilton was a fool and has done more to set our program back maybe more than anyone ever.
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[bamawriter]

Hamilton was a fool and has done more to set our program back maybe more than anyone ever.
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I don't think it's fair to blame it solely on Hamilton. He made plenty of mistakes, but if the school had been committed to getting a big name coach, then Hamilton wouldn't have been as financially hamstrung. The AD doesn't set his own budget.

 

[sjt18]

I'm sure I'll never be confused with someone that would praise Bama, but in this age of instant gratificaiton, Saban has gone about building up a team down in Tuscaloosa that I think we all agree is pretty damn good. After reading this SI article it makes me a little more confident that Dooley is doing the same thing in Knoxville; the obvious difference being our ground game has yet to show up...we'll see about that this year. I know it's been said before by Dooley that he's all about the "Process"...I guess we know now where that attitude comes from.

Sabanization of college football spreading Nick Saban's Process - Andy Staples - SI.com

Been telling folks about "process" for months. Many just don't want to hear it because it requires more than a superficial (usually negative) conclusion.

I still do not know how good Dooley will be. But the logic is sound and used across the organizational world.

Another difference between Dooley and Saban is that Bama had a decent roster. Shula left some talent. Dooley inherited a really bad, depleted roster.

 

[sjt18]

BTW, there was a report that came out early in DD's tenure from someone who had followed Saban for a long while... it said Dooley was the most "Saban-like" of all the assistants that observer had seen. Numerous things from this article have been reportedly done by DD.... like having practice schedules done more than a year in advance, big facility upgrades, academic and character support/training, recruit scoring system that incorporates character but basically ignores the public recruiting hype sites, etc.

We will soon see if he can get it done on game day but he seems to have made a lot of progress on the infrastructure needed to win.