Mike Leach describes conversations with Tennessee in 2017: 'It was like something out of Shakespeare'

#226
#226
Pride85 said:
So you don't mind that he can't beat major rivals? Your argument has as many holes as a screen door on a submarine.
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Yes because at Texas tech, you shouldn’t be beating Texas it Oklahoma in a consistent basis. This really shouldn’t be a difficult concept.
 
#227
#227
JMSqb11 said:
Totally fine to say you don't trust Pruitt. It is true that he has never rebuilt a program. However, you don't know that he can't like I don't know if he can. I would argue that he has been apart of Alabama's rebuild under Saban as Dir of Player Development in 2007.

I can only say this that has been offered as proof for Pruitt. The best players in the two losses have been his recruits. That is visible. Pruitt has been able to go after top coaches in Tee/Chaney to upgrade the staff given the roster was coming off 4-8/5-7 seasons. It is clear that he is recruiting help on the way that seem pretty committed as well.

With that said, I think if we were to go down the Leach route, people would easily give him 2-3 season passes in the name of "recruiting players for his system" and "changing the culture" because lets face it, the culture would shift drastically from what it was under Butch and even in the AD.

I think our current staff is top notch and has a clear track record of success this decade in terms of coaching or development or recruiting, respectively.

I'd rather give Pruitt 2020 to make a big leap (8 wins minimum in regular season) when the overwhelming majority of the two deep and roster are his kids and the majority of the majority have been in his S&C for multiple years.

I just don't see the value in torching 10+ million in Pruitt/Staff buyouts plus another 5-10 million in new coach buyouts/salaries just to reset.
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Reasonable position.
 
#228
#228
WilliamDuVOL said:
Well, at this rate 12 wins in 3 seasons might be an improvement or a tie with what Pruitt is capable of lol. I can honestly see 1-11 this year and the schedule is harder next year so....

I want Pruitt to succeed, but can you honestly tell me you think we should just wait and see if we go 2-10? 1-11? What about 0-12? All are very realistic possibilities if this team gives up.
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I think we all want to see Pruitt succeed because it would be the biggest F U to Butch and we would have a legit program in terms of players and system.

I do think we can win some games and try to make a run at 5-6 wins this year. We have seen Pruitt win games he shouldn't on top of the games we got blown out in.

You have to be able to say with certainty that this staff is trash and that their other coaching stops were anomalies to say there is no way Pruitt can ever succeed.

With that said, I will stick to my view on terms of Pruitt and a possible firing - I will judge him on 2020 (season 3) where he has the majority of the two deep being his kids.

Regardless of the coach, this rebuild from Butch's ceremonious fall from October 2016 was always going to be a football rebuild, roster flushing, and abrupt culture shift.

I have no reason to believe that Pruitt can't identify talent and put them in spots to contribute. We are seeing that right now.
 
#230
#230
JMSqb11 said:
I just don't see the value in torching 10+ million in Pruitt/Staff buyouts plus another 5-10 million in new coach buyouts/salaries just to reset.
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The argument for that is UT stands to lose far more than Pruitt/Staff buyouts if he tanks this year. UT will lose probably 4-5x that in lost revenue alone due to fans simply not caring enough to overspend to see Tennessee get bullied around by anyone who walks into Neyland.

Now, AGAIN, things will change if Pruitt turns the corner, but I'm pretty hesitant to throw my hat in the "I have faith" ring because:

He has no track record of being The Guy in a rebuild and his team has slipped in every definable category over the last 4/5 games.

If we start getting better QB play and can actually line up correctly half the time on D, I think we'll improve and things will normalize and we'll go back to being okay with going 4-8.
 
#231
#231
DC Vol said:
You're also forgetting the "go after an entrenched coach at his alma mater and help him get a pay raise but also convince the yokels in this has-been fanbase that we are actually trying before inevitably hiring a cheap nobody that will put butts in the seats for 2-3 years before we have to hire another cheap nobody" inbetween all of that as well.

Hamilton/Hart/Currie never conducted a real search and they certainly never provided any real offers. UT has always tried to low-ball it's candidates because the admin never cared. We could have had Gary Patterson (never offered but he has said he would have taken it in 2009/2010), David Cutcliffe (offered, but fell through once he said he wanted to bring his guys... ended up getting Jones who brought his guys) and Mike Leach (never offered, he said he would have taken it in) at respective Dooley/Jones/Pruitt conjectures.

Pruitt was a panic hire by Fulmer, nothing more.
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Fulmer was a panic hire (by the chancellor) nothing more.
 
#232
#232
Boston Vol said:
Yes because at Texas tech, you shouldn’t be beating Texas it Oklahoma in a consistent basis. This really shouldn’t be a difficult concept.
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You guys are so funny! You complete lack of logic with your own posts is amazing.
 
#233
#233
DC Vol said:
The argument for that is UT stands to lose far more than Pruitt/Staff buyouts if he tanks this year. UT will lose probably 4-5x that in lost revenue alone due to fans simply not caring enough to overspend to see Tennessee get bullied around by anyone who walks into Neyland.

Now, AGAIN, things will change if Pruitt turns the corner, but I'm pretty hesitant to throw my hat in the "I have faith" ring because:

He has no track record of being The Guy in a rebuild and his team has slipped in every definable category over the last 4/5 games.

If we start getting better QB play and can actually line up correctly half the time on D, I think we'll improve and things will normalize and we'll go back to being okay with going 4-8.
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So what amount of money will UT lose between now and December 2020 if we roll with Pruitt?

I'm eager to actually compare this because if we fire him after year 2, there is roughly 20 million or so additional being thrown on top of Butch's current buyout.

And in regards to your comment of "If we start getting better QB play", we can only pray. lol
 
#234
#234
tbones0711 said:
Dobbs wil beat out minshew once he learns the jags system.
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I hope he does, but that doesn't change the fact that Leach and Co. took a kid with offers from Troy, Akron, and UAB and turned him into an NFL draft pick. Dobbs was drafted only 30 or so spots higher than Gardner.
 
#236
#236
DC Vol said:
The argument for that is UT stands to lose far more than Pruitt/Staff buyouts if he tanks this year. UT will lose probably 4-5x that in lost revenue alone due to fans simply not caring enough to overspend to see Tennessee get bullied around by anyone who walks into Neyland.

Now, AGAIN, things will change if Pruitt turns the corner, but I'm pretty hesitant to throw my hat in the "I have faith" ring because:

He has no track record of being The Guy in a rebuild and his team has slipped in every definable category over the last 4/5 games.

If we start getting better QB play and can actually line up correctly half the time on D, I think we'll improve and things will normalize and we'll go back to being okay with going 4-8.
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If we have not improved and continue to play like this on game 12, then the search needs to begin. I will not judge a new head coach after only 14 games. Too many "established" coaches would not be successful under those requirements.
 
#239
#239
winsec said:
what's pruitt won? not jack ****. john majors never won the big 8 when he was at isu. fulmer never on the sec as an assistant. so leach has to win the pac 12 before he can coach here. stupid comment.
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It actually isn't stupid. Leach has coached for almost 20 years as a Power 5 head coach and has won 0 conference titles. Yet, he's revered as a great coach. Pruitt hasn't been a head coach for one and a half years and he isn't revered as great. John Majors hadn't coached almost 20 years at Iowa State without winning a conference title, nor was he revered the way Leach is. And Fulmer actually DID win the SEC as an assistant in 85, 89, and 90, but what that has to do with anything is beyond me.

Leach is the most overrated head coach in America. Unless Jim Harbaugh is.
 
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#240
#240
JMSqb11 said:
I think we all want to see Pruitt succeed because it would be the biggest F U to Butch and we would have a legit program in terms of players and system.

I do think we can win some games and try to make a run at 5-6 wins this year. We have seen Pruitt win games he shouldn't on top of the games we got blown out in.

You have to be able to say with certainty that this staff is trash and that their other coaching stops were anomalies to say there is no way Pruitt can ever succeed.

With that said, I will stick to my view on terms of Pruitt and a possible firing - I will judge him on 2020 (season 3) where he has the majority of the two deep being his kids.

Regardless of the coach, this rebuild from Butch's ceremonious fall from October 2016 was always going to be a football rebuild, roster flushing, and abrupt culture shift.

I have no reason to believe that Pruitt can't identify talent and put them in spots to contribute. We are seeing that right now.
Click to expand...


I really hope Pruitt can get things turned around because the games we "should" have won are half way over, making the climb to 4 wins even more difficult.

No, I can't say anything about this staff for certain, but what I can say is so far they have either regressed or somehow failed miserably to prepare for their "cupcake" opponents, making us a national laughingstock and leading us to a start so bad some of us weren't even born the last time it happened.

I want to tell you it makes me optimistic that the best players on the team are seemingly the underclassmen, but it doesn't really do much to make me feel better after the way Pruitt just seems to stick his foot in his mouth repetitively. I question if he wants the job.

I guess time will tell, and until then we're all stuck arguing here on the internet hoping something good happens.
 
#241
#241
Pride85 said:
What is your point? He is supposed the be the next coming of Nick Saban or Robert Neyland. Don't see any major program even looking his way. If he was that good, why did Texas not try to lure him back. Oklahoma was desperate for a new head coach, but I can't find any evidence Mike Leach was even interviewed. (Thanks BOT for that tidbit) They knew how weak his overall coaching was so they took a powder.
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I don't know about Saban/Neyland
He's a wildcard coach who can build confidence in losers historically, the bluebloods in the conference felt too good for him
Texas and oklahoma didnt want the scandals at the time
He's not Saban but he does similar renovations, he turned a team similar to this UT crew to 11-2
You can be a Socratic debater all you want but he's a great coach and has always succeeded with less talent than Vanderbilt in recruiting. Our players quit a lot and that's what Leach changes in a program, really nothing else. He just makes them fight their 2* hearts out. I think he deserves a shot at a real program for once, but I definitely see him as risky with a prerequisite time and place for his deployment somewhere.
You'll probably nitpick some stat against him but I like him as a person and believe he could change the attitude of our players, he is a coach that changes his players mentality and gives them confidence, life coaches them, etcetc
I still want Pruitt and don't even want Leach here, I just don't see how people hate on a man who is an underdog hero who changed football schemes forever, who used his schemes to outplay 5* talent with an average of 2* on roster, unless you're a douche bag contrarian I guess
 
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#243
#243
The same bunch yelling for Leach are the same morons that were yelling for Chip Kelley to be hired. Who else thinks we dodged a bullet BY NOT hiring ole Chip? ME! ME! ME!
 
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#244
#244
JMSqb11 said:
So what amount of money will UT lose between now and December 2020 if we roll with Pruitt?

I'm eager to actually compare this because if we fire him after year 2, there is roughly 20 million or so additional being thrown on top of Butch's current buyout.

And in regards to your comment of "If we start getting better QB play", we can only pray. lol
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Hard to say.

After the last 2 years (4-8, 5-7) if Pruitt does tank this year and we're 2-10, it will be hard to sniff the $38mil in ticket sales. Not to mention donations will be down as well as merchandise/etc sales will tank as well. UT's gross revenue is something around $150mil, I can easily see a net hit $10-20mil.
 
#246
#246
OriginalCoach said:
Because OU already had a HOF coach (Stoops) and a Coach in waiting (Riley) that was endorsed by Stoops and Switzer (who still wields power amongst the boosters at OU). Why would they reach out to Leach?
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Riley is a student of Leach. So you mean to tell me OU thought hey the student is definitely better than the master? I mean lol. Ok so now let’s move on to Texas. Why didn’t they hire him? We know money wasn’t an issue. There is no way Wazzu could match what Texas could. Yet they hire Herman?

I could go on and on with teams that DIDNT hire the great Mike Leach.
 
#248
#248
WilliamDuVOL said:
He took a 2 star QB and got him into the NFL. He can develop talent, especially on offense and has done so at a school with a fraction of the resources we have. At this point, I'd take a coach that knows how to at least win 7 or 8 games a year over the worst start to the season in 30 years.
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Leach is a good coach but he did just manage 3 wins in year 3 at Washington state.
 
#249
#249
It really doesn't matter. The Pirate ship sailed. We hired a knuckle dragging, redneck Bammer who will eventually be fired from this gig but only after taking us to even lower depths than Butch. That's the long and short of it. Better days are coming. Hopefully, we all live long enough to see it.
 
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#250
#250
Volunt33rs said:
I don't know about Saban/Neyland
He's a wildcard coach who can build confidence in losers historically, the bluebloods in the conference felt too good for him
Texas and oklahoma didnt want the scandals at the time
He's not Saban but he does similar renovations, he turned a team similar to this UT crew to 11-2
You can be a Socratic debater all you want but he's a great coach and has always succeeded with less talent than Vanderbilt in recruiting. Our players quit a lot and that's what Leach changes in a program, really nothing else. He just makes them fight their 2* hearts out. I think he deserves a shot at a real program for once, but I definitely see him as risky with a prerequisite time and place for his deployment somewhere.
You'll probably nitpick some stat against him but I like him as a person and believe he could change the attitude of our players, he is a coach that changes his players mentality and gives them confidence, life coaches them, etcetc
I still want Pruitt and don't even want Leach here, I just don't see how people hate on a man who is an underdog hero who changed football schemes forever, who used his schemes to outplay 5* talent with an average of 2* on roster, unless you're a douche bag contrarian I guess
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Ok so let’s firget about Texas and OU. UCLA, Arizona, Michigan, Ohio State, Florida, FSU, Miami, UGA, TAMU, Nebraska, USC, Oregon, PSU, Mississippi State. A whose who of big time programs that never looked Leach way.

Why?
 
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