Time for Fun With Math:
7 home games next year.
Let's estimate at least 20,000 empty, unsold seats. I think that's conservative, but let's roll with it.
$45 minimum ticket cost. Let's just go with $50 as the average price for those 7 games.
$50 x 20,000 tickets unsold = $1,000,000 per game x 7 games = $7,000,000
You're telling me we can't afford a buyout? Are you serious? And that is on the conservative side of things. If it were 25,000 tickets = $8.75 mil... 30,000 tickets = $10.5 mil...
And that's not even counting donations coming into play.
This alone, not even counting all the great info from DTO, Boro, Jay, etc., makes me believe there will be a change. We can't afford to not have a change.
I remember reading in On Rocky Top (Clay Travis' book where he followed the team for the disastrous 2008 season) and how the coaching search for Kiffin went down. Very secretive, lots of smoke screens about going after different coaches, tracking the plane, they drove to Atlanta in a different vehicle instead of flying to keep it off the radar... etc.
Although that hire didn't end up being the right one, I feel like in this situation we're going to hear lots of different things, rumors intentionally leaked out of AD, rumors leaked by agents, lots of smoke to distract media and fans from what is really happening.
Whether or not Cheek, Hart, anyone in the AD is slowing up the process or not (or if this is an intentional rumor), the big money guys will win out. That's how it works in our particular situation.
We've realized we did what Alabama did in the early 2000s with Franchione, Price, and Shula from 2001-2006. Blew up in their face, went with the safe hire, and proceeded to be mediocre for 4 seasons (26-23, 13-19 in conference). Then roll out the big dollars for the big coach.
The same thing must happen at Tennessee. Fire a legend, hire a flash in the pan, panic safe hire, rebuild the roster from a pure # of players on scholarship perspective, now it is time for the grand slam hire.
SOON.