Heupel’s proven to be a leader and winner..

#4
#4
Well, there's this:

Danny White certainly had a unique journey to land Josh Heupel as Tennessee’s new coach.
The Tennessee athletics director recalled the hiring process as he brought Heupel with him from Central Florida, and kept in mind what a move like that would do to the UCF program. White recalled the hiring during a conversation with Duke men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski on satellite radio.

“You know, it was actually painfully hard once I realized that was the right decision because I knew I was creating more transition for the team back at UCF,” White said. “That part was really hard. I didn’t take this job planning to do that.” White utilized his process of identifying leadership on the football team to learn what kind of coach the program needs. Turns out, Heupel fit the bill.

“It just became — one of the things I always do in a coaching search is I talk to the players. I want to know from their perspective what is going on,” White said. “I learned a lot doing that, from them. I don’t talk to the whole team. I have the team vote on representatives, and I met with nine kids off the football team here. I use that as I’m going through the interview process and vetting. They’re not all interviews. A lot of it is just casual conversations just trying to figure out the market and what the opportunities are. I learned from each of those conversations too.”

Multiple reports at the time suggested several well-known coaches were in the mix for White and Tennessee, including Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell, SMU’s Sonny Dykes, Minnesota’s PJ Fleck and Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott.

“Towards the end of it, in my mind, Josh wasn’t even on the list. Emotionally and psychologically, I couldn’t even get myself to think about doing that, but then I’m comparing the candidates and the options,” White said. “None of them were as good a fit for what this place needs right now as Josh Heupel. A light bulb went off, and it was a light bulb that was exciting for a minute but then, ‘Oh no, how do I do this?’”
 
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#9
#9
robby487 said:
Just like the last coaching hire, that's how we ended up with JP. I don't think any good coaches was interested so we had to settle.
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It’s “were.”

Yes, we had to settle, but that doesn’t mean Heupel isn’t good. What I look for is the trajectory a coach on for the future. At UCF it was defense that was holding him back. You can’t do any better than finish #1 in the nation on offense. His track record is inarguable.

Defense? Randy Shannon was a “name” coach and it seemed like a win getting him as DC. Wrong. Folks say the Shannon thing was White’s doing. For Heupel to take it to the next level he’ll have to be more involved on defense. Not a meddler, but he needs to be engaged on the direction and philosophy to insure success through complimentary football.

Had Heupel stayed, UCF was likely making a change at DC. If UCF improved their defense, they were heading for some impressive years and Heupel would have been a commodity on the coaching market. I’m hoping UT got ahead of the curve. Time will tell. One thing is for sure. You can see that CJH was on a trajectory to be a head coach. Pruitt was not. It was an out of left field hire.

Pruitt just spent his first three years as a HC creating a hot mess, and in his area of expertise (defense) he looked enemy. Heupel, in his first three years, took middle of the road talent and consistently put up elite numbers.
 
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#11
#11
Based on everything we've heard from reliable sources (mainly AD DW, CJH, and Chris Low after his conversation with White and others), we can have a pretty good picture of how the hiring process played out.

Graphically, it looks like this (arrows are real offers...boxes without arrows are conversations that never progressed to an offer, colors are redlight-greenlight indicators of how interested each candidate was in the conversation...the rainbow boxes mean we will probably never know how interested each of those guys were):

1614347749875.png

We know the Franklin conversation went longer than White expected, which threw a wrench in the discussions with Elliott as the backup plan. Elliott soured, probably over feeling like the second-run that he was, to Franklin. Through all of that, Danny was exploring possible Plan Cs...that's where the conversations with guys like Fleck and Dykes came in. Never deep conversations, apparently, just looking at other options.

Then, in the final hours of the effort, a light bulb came on for White: short of Franklin, what he was looking for was right there at the place he just left, Orlando. So his Plan C which may already have become Plan B or even Plan A, was the guy we eventually got.

Kinda fun to reflect that all this happened in just 5 short days, two of them a weekend. 120 hours. I bet White and some of his closest lieutenants didn't sleep more than 3-4 hours a night, 15-20 hours total, over those five days.

I think Dan did a great job. Excited to see what Josh can make of his time as a Vol, and hoping it's a very long, successful time.

Go Vols!
 
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#12
#12
VFL-82-JP said:
Based on everything we've heard from reliable sources (mainly AD DW, CJH, and Chris Low after his conversation with White and others), we can have a pretty good picture of how the hiring process played out.

Graphically, it looks like this (arrows are real offers...boxes without arrows are conversations that never progressed to an offer, colors are redlight-greenlight indicators of how interested each candidate was in the conversation...the rainbow boxes mean we will probably never know how interested each of those guys were):

View attachment 354343

We know the Franklin conversation went longer than White expected, which threw a wrench in the discussions with Elliott as the backup plan. Elliott soured, probably over feeling like the second-run that he was, to Franklin. Through all of that, Danny was exploring possible Plan Cs...that's where the conversations with guys like Fleck and Dykes came in. Never deep conversations, apparently, just looking at other options.

Then, in the final hours of the effort, a light bulb came on for White: short of Franklin, what he was looking for was right there at the place he just left, Orlando. So his Plan C which may already have become Plan B or even Plan A, was the guy we eventually got.

Kinda fun to reflect that all this happened in just 5 short days, two of them a weekend. 120 hours. I bet White and some of his closest lieutenants didn't sleep more than 3-4 hours a night, 15-20 hours total, over those five days.

I think Dan did a great job. Excited to see what Josh can make of his time as a Vol, and hoping it's a very long, successful time.

Go Vols!
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Nice progression chart
 
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#13
#13
VolBricks said:
...it is sad UT has fallen so far that we can no longer pull in a top level coach.
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I don't think it is just Tennessee. In the past 10 years, there have been VERY few "proven" head coaches leave a P5 program to take a HC job at another school. There's probably all kinds of reasons that is the case, but it just doesn't seem to happen very often anymore.
 
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#15
#15
The key was finding the right fit, someone who could succeed here, who wanted to be here. Look at Cuonzo Martin, with stops at Missouri State, Tennessee, California, and now seems to have found a perfect fit at Missouri. Martin knew how to be a good head coach, but sometimes it takes the right fit. Heupel seems to be the right fit, at the right time. Time will tell.
 
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#16
#16
Volfan2012 said:
He just needs to go 6 and 6 recruit a class in the top 10 to 15 to get everybody excited. These days a team going 6 and 6 is awesome.
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Yep, the reality is that all the coach at UT has to produce is enough on-the-field results to get a bowl game, and in that bowl game they have to whip whatever middling Big 10 team we play, and calls for "next year is our year" will start anew; rinse and repeat for 3-4 years.

Heupel is most likely capable of such production, so I'm sure the UT admin is very happy with getting him for $4 million/year amid looming NCAA sanctions.
 
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#17
#17
robby487 said:
Just like the last coaching hire, that's how we ended up with JP. I don't think any good coaches was interested so we had to settle.
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Heupel is a good coach. That may not be enough to succeed... but he's a good coach.

Outside of possibly Freeze who was a non-starter because of his recent history considering UT's NCAA issues... there was just as much a chance that Fickell, Chadwell, Dykes, Fleck, Elliott, etc would have been like Sumlin, Butch, or many others that made that step up in competition. UT is a tough gig and especially right now. A series of really bad choices and coaching moves has left the program a mess. Above that, there appears to have been A LOT of systemic problems within the Athletic Department.

This was a good call in two respects. Heupel is a good coach and at a minimum should produce an O that's fun to watch.... as opposed to anything UT has had in a long time. The other is pragmatic. All of those other guys would have wanted $6-7 million per year and buyout guarantees. Heupel may have no more risks as a coach as the rest and will make $4 million... and if it comes to a change will be easier and cost less with him in 3 or 4 years.

Everyone has a price and every one of those guys could have been bought at theirs. But as you look at your risk/reward with all of the potential hires... Heupel makes more sense than they do.
 
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#18
#18
BeardedVol said:
Yep, the reality is that all the coach at UT has to produce is enough on-the-field results to get a bowl game, and in that bowl game they have to whip whatever middling Big 10 team we play, and calls for "next year is our year" will start anew; rinse and repeat for 3-4 years.

Heupel is most likely capable of such production, so I'm sure the UT admin is very happy with getting him for $4 million/year amid looming NCAA sanctions.
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I think he's potentially better than that... but like I mentioned in the post above he's the best "risk/reward" available to UT. The risks of failure are probably not much different with him than most of the others that were mentioned but his cost and cost of potential separation is much lower.

For my part... I'm just ready to see an O that puts up 35 ppg and doesn't squander whatever talent it has.. That's happened 3 times since 2000.
 
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#19
#19
Volfan2012 said:
He just needs to go 6 and 6 recruit a class in the top 10 to 15 to get everybody excited. These days a team going 6 and 6 is awesome.
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6 and 6 truly should be a floor for a program like ours. Three G5 cupcakes plus Vandy, Kentucky, Mizzou and USCe should pretty much always give us 6 wins as a floor.

The fact that we have NOT achieved that floor five times in the past decade shows just how much we've been hurting through the Dark Ages (not counting 2020 against us, since we might have gotten six with a regular schedule).

Here's hoping we never fall below six again. Starting immediately.

Go Vols!
 
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#20
#20
VFL-82-JP said:
6 and 6 truly should be a floor for a program like ours. Three G5 cupcakes plus Vandy, Kentucky, Mizzou and USCe should pretty much always give us 6 wins as a floor.

The fact that we have NOT achieved that floor five times in the past decade shows just how much we've been hurting through the Dark Ages (not counting 2020 against us, since we might have gotten six with a regular schedule).

Here's hoping we never fall below six again. Starting immediately.

Go Vols!
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8-4 should be the floor for a program like ours.
 
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#22
#22
sjt18 said:
I think he's potentially better than that... but like I mentioned in the post above he's the best "risk/reward" available to UT. The risks of failure are probably not much different with him than most of the others that were mentioned but his cost and cost of potential separation is much lower.

For my part... I'm just ready to see an O that puts up 35 ppg and doesn't squander whatever talent it has.. That's happened 3 times since 2000.
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He might be better than that, we're going to find out, but the reality is that the bar for "success" at UT is low; real low.
 
#24
#24
BeardedVol said:
He might be better than that, we're going to find out, but the reality is that the bar for "success" at UT is low; real low.
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Not for me... and I suspect not for others like you.

I like the guy. Love his character. His faith brings out one of the few real biases I have and don't battle to nullify. It sounds like he's a good leader intent on creating a tight team.

But... as far as I am concerned he has 3 years to "prove" something. Same thing applies to him as anyone else. If the reality and perception are that he isn't "succeeding" by year 3 or no later than year 4... he has to be replaced. You can only tolerate a coach until he cannot recruit at a level that advances the program. I don't think his "something" is as high as it was for Jones or even Pruitt. I think it was realistic for Jones in particular to win the East in either his 2nd or 3rd year with the advantages that fell in his lap. Pruitt just needed to improve. A 7 win season this year would not have been unrealistic with the talent they had. Six minimum.

I would like to see Heupel win 9 by year 4 and make steady progress in quality of play and roster talent.
 
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