Gary Patterson - “Tennessee didn’t think I could handle the Big Stage”

[ThreatLevelOrange]

Hamilton has the highest % of blame to me.

Fire Fulmer when it was a Top 10 job, with a crummy plan.

• Hire a high risk candidate with a career losing record as head coach.
• Have a replacement list with no one on it but Cutcliffe.
• Hire Dooley vs Cutcliffe or Kippy Brown.
  

It’s no longer a Top 10 job.

 

[Mccage]

Patterson would have been more stable than the string of hires we had. But he wouldn't have beaten Saban, Myers or Richt anymore consistently in my opinion.

Richt?

 

[B81]

Kiffin> Paterson.

 

[butchna]

Richt?

Top recruiting classes and 10-11 win seasons were the norm for UGA in 2009.

 

[TJVol95]

We wasted many years since Phil. Sad times looking up!

 

[SpookyAction]

Patterson was a hell of a coach. We would be competitive and pull off some upsets. It was the correct hire because was a real coach and we didn't have one for 11 seasons.

 

[DiderotsGhost]

Patterson would have been more stable than the string of hires we had. But he wouldn't have beaten Saban, Myers or Richt anymore consistently in my opinion.

He definitely would've beaten Richt. He did better at TCU than Richt did at Georgia and Georgia is a much easier job with an abundance of resources.

Saban and Meyer are two of the best coaches this century, so I don't know if he would've beaten them, but so what? That's a pretty high standard. And it's not like Gary Patterson was some scrub. TCU finished in the Top 10 7 times under him. At TCU! They weren't even a Power 5 team for much of that stretch.

Worst case scenario: Patterson would've been the 3rd or 4th best head coach in the SEC. Best case scenario: he would've won a national title. He came close at TCU, and he would've had much more talent at Tennessee, so it's not far-fetched.

 

[SpookyAction]

I think he could've upset Saban and Meyer at UT. He was a great football coach. But he wasn't hired and we were not good because of bad hires, despite a world class fanbase and infrastructure.

 

[ThreatLevelOrange]

Kiffin> Paterson.

Patterson>Dooley
Patterson>Jones
Patterson >Pruitt

That’s what we really had.

 

[Voltopia]

When the Fulmer firing was announced, I and everyone I knew thought we were hiring Gary Patterson. We were pretty excited by that idea. Then the Kiffin news broke and, particularly with Monte coming along, hearing that sort of suckered us in. It suckered almost everyone in, I reckon.

 

[Batman1948]

Better than Pruitt.

As it turns out, better than Kiffin too

 

[Zues1]

Tired of hearing about that dude.

 

[Jake Tate]

You can’t have a future if you’re always living in the past…

 

[GTBATV]

He definitely would've beaten Richt. He did better at TCU than Richt did at Georgia and Georgia is a much easier job with an abundance of resources.

Saban and Meyer are two of the best coaches this century, so I don't know if he would've beaten them, but so what? That's a pretty high standard. And it's not like Gary Patterson was some scrub. TCU finished in the Top 10 7 times under him. At TCU! They weren't even a Power 5 team for much of that stretch.

Worst case scenario: Patterson would've been the 3rd or 4th best head coach in the SEC. Best case scenario: he would've won a national title. He came close at TCU, and he would've had much more talent at Tennessee, so it's not far-fetched.

Richt had a .740 at Georgia, Patterson was a .696 at TCU. I'll consider that pretty equal. I think Richt was 10-6 vs us. But My math and memory could be wrong. Patterson probably would have changed the numbers. Not sure if he would have come out on top.

 

[ftsandersvol]

A big mistake by our admin IMO.

Possibly, but definitely our inept administration made many mistakes over the last 15 years.

 

[ftsandersvol]

Richt had a .740 at Georgia, Patterson was a .696 at TCU. I'll consider that pretty equal. I think Richt was 10-6 vs us. But My math and memory could be wrong. Patterson probably would have changed the numbers. Not sure if he would have come out on top.

Given the level of competition, those numbers aren’t really comparing apples to apples.

 

[VOLINVONORE]

Looking back on the University’s numerous bad decisions, I’m so thankful we finally have an competent AD in Danny White that truly wants to win. Hamilton is a huge reason why we sucked for 10+ years due to his massive ego. I wonder how things would have turned out if we had replaced Fulmer with Patterson whenever we had the chance?

He may not have been able to take the heat so he hired something who for sure could not handle it. Lane screwed us as badly as Dooley did and tried to take our recruits too. I hated to see him go, but the way he left was criminal. Total lack of ethics.

 

[JohnWardForever]

No. Patterson was gonna come here. He wanted the job. Hamilton screwed it up.

Would the next guy on here that runs into Mike Hamilton kindly kick him in the REGION?

 

[turbovol]

Looking back on the University’s numerous bad decisions, I’m so thankful we finally have an competent AD in Danny White that truly wants to win. Hamilton is a huge reason why we sucked for 10+ years due to his massive ego. I wonder how things would have turned out if we had replaced Fulmer with Patterson whenever we had the chance?

Easy there, ace. White hired the football coach from the school he came from--and that makes him a genuis? Please. I like Huepel, last year was promising, we'll see--but he hasn't won anything yet. Currie hired Vitello and Woodruff--two of our best coaches. Hart hired Barnes and Pensky--two excellent choices. I don't know who hired Kredich--certainly a stellar coach. And Fulmer--who worked to sabotage Ciurrie....hired Pruitt.

 

[GTBATV]

Given the level of competition, those numbers aren’t really comparing apples to apples.

So is your perspective that the past 15-20 years that mountain and big 12 were stronger competition or the SEC was stronger competition?

 

[orangefloyd]

Tennessee has made so many hiring mistakes in coaches across the board it is practically one of our school traditions now.

 

[knox-townVOL]

I don't care if that guy was a good football coach. He is a weirdo who fiddled with his package non-stop during games. There's no way.

Fiddling with your package makes you a weirdo?

……. well, dang it.

 

[DaddyChad]

Let me preface this by saying I despise Kiffin. That said the problem wasn’t Kiffin. The problem was the contract that Kiffin was signed to and the fact that the idiot that signed him to that was allowed to make another hire after Kiffin bolted. How Hamilton was allowed to hire another coach is just a great mystery to me?

 

[ftsandersvol]

So is your perspective that the past 15-20 years that mountain and big 12 were stronger competition or the SEC was stronger competition?

The SEC of course. Really didn’t think I needed to specify.

 

[DiderotsGhost]

Richt had a .740 at Georgia, Patterson was a .696 at TCU. I'll consider that pretty equal. I think Richt was 10-6 vs us. But My math and memory could be wrong. Patterson probably would have changed the numbers. Not sure if he would have come out on top.

Mark Richt was 63-29 (.685) from 2009 - 15 (the relevant timeframe), while Patterson was 70 - 20 (.778), and a healthy chunk of Richt's wins came against bad Tennessee teams.

Patterson coached at a program that was at a huge disadvantage in terms of resources while Richt coached at arguably the best job in all of college football (#2 IMO, but certainly top 5 in terms of recruiting, facilities, etc). Richt had perennial top 5 classes; Patterson haf classes anywhere from #25 - #55.

I don't think there's a good argument that Richt was a better coach than Patterson. Richt was a good coach, but it's an easy decision between the two for me.