I did find it interesting when he compared UT's handling of the NCAA, with the University of Miami's handling of the NCAA.
They absolutely did Bruce no favors. A question for consideration is how would it be handled if you could see how the following 3 years were going to turn out? If we had thumbed our nose at the NCAA and the show-cause, would we be any worse off today?
Write the administration, newspapers, blogs, booster etc. Cancel season tickets. Stop going to games. The fans wield an awful lot of power.
My biggest fear is that either Martin gets fired and Hart hires another no name coach, OR Martin keeps his job for another year.
Meanwhile....
Bruce Pearl gets snatched up by any desperate SEC team not named Kentucky or Florida.
Can you imagine the outrage at the administration if Hart and Cheek let Pearl end up at Bama, Vandy, UGA, Auburn, etc.?
I think it's going to happen, too. Hart is going to think he can find another Butch Jones and will strike out big time, while one of our rivals will hit the jackpot with Pearl and end up with him for the long haul. Meanwhile, we'll be hiring another coach in 3 years AGAIN after getting pummeled by Pearl twice a year.
It's going to be an absolute disaster for UT athletics and a sad, sad scene when he comes to TBA to thump us.
For someone who is supposedly a "professional", that article could have been written by any person here.
He uses the Petrino argument, which only works if Petrino was hired back at Arkansas. I don't know why that's so hard to understand, but him going back to Louisville really proves absolutely nothing. He left Louisville on good terms and wasn't fired.
There's also the problem that Jimmy Cheek is still there. You want a reason Pearl won't be back, that's a huge one.
And finally, I can't wrap my head around this notion that the admin would never hire a winner based on past hires (something I don't necessarily disagree with), but you think they'll even consider hiring Pearl back? How the heck does that work?
Every time I read a post like this, I can't help but replace "I think this will happen" with "I really, really hope this will happen". In other words, if we don't get Pearl back, there's a lot of posters here who seem giddy at the idea of another SEC team with Pearl coming in and just destroying us.
I really don't see how that's any better than any kind of defending of Martin.
Pearl told his coaches and recruits to lie and say nothing about the BBQ, a panic move, could get over that. But --There is always a but-- then he walked away with a $1,000,000, but all his coaches got was fired. That to me said it was all about him and he did not care about those under him. Hope UT looks elsewhere.
Clay's point is that if Jimmy Cheek and a few of his cronies are the sole obstacles to rehiring Pearl because of grudges/personal vendettas, then UT should just get rid of them. They are easily replaced, and in fact, have been detrimental to UT athletics since day one.
Great job making a baseless assumption there.
I certainly DON'T want to see Pearl at any other school, let alone an SEC school. But it seems almost like a no-brainer that unless Mike Slive explicitly forbids SEC teams from hiring him, Pearl is going to end up somewhere in the South...probably coaching one of our rivals.
Trust me, I and anyone else who has made this argument would be sick to watch Pearl build up a rival program and regularly start beating UT. And his most likely landing place is Alabama, IMO.
I agree 100% with Clay right here!Set aside your feelings for Clay Travis and do yourself a favor and read this article. For those who say this can't happen, list concrete, factual reasons why not, instead of "he ain't comin' back!"
Outkick the Coverage : It's Time To Bring Bruce Pearl Back To Tennessee
If the basketball program was a car... Pearl handed Martin the keys to a Ferrari.
Martin driving...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/v/YlgST-LdHwo[/youtube]
The car Pearl gets back...
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Give Pearl his car back already. At least he knows how to drive the damn thing.
