Inside sources point to Cheek and Hart as the issues

#2
#2
Lost me in the first paragraph. The Toledo Rockets are a very tough team (are every year) and Texas tech are far from hapless. I have no idea what planet this guy is living on.
 
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#4
#4
willinhf said:
Great read. Points to the problems and the root being at the top. Recommend to all...



Do The Tennessee Football Program's Problems Start At The Top? - Chattanoogan.com
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Weren't most fans on pins and needles last December at the thought of Butch bolting for Ann Arbor? Didn't the UT admin step in and give him an extension?

You can't have it both ways. There's too much money at stake. It's not as simple as ordering the wrong thing from McDonald's, taking a bite, tossing it in the trash, and promise yourself you'd make a better choice tomorrow.

It was less than a month ago there was talk of:

Making reservations in Atlanta
Heismann talk for Dobbs
Hurd & Kamara both rushing for 1000 yards
etc, etc....

Were Cheek and Hart given credit for the enthusiasm? No. So why are they now to blame because of 3 stupid & costly penalties against OU, multiple blown 3rd & 4th down opps vs. UF, and negating the 1st half playbook in the 2nd half vs. Ark?
 
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#5
#5
It was a good read. I do agree with doubleD's comments, also.
 
#6
#6
Boca Vol said:
Weren't most fans on pins and needles last December at the thought of Butch bolting for Ann Arbor? Didn't the UT admin step in and give him an extension?

You can't have it both ways. There's too much money at stake. It's not as simple as ordering the wrong thing from McDonald's, taking a bite, tossing it in the trash, and promise yourself you'd make a better choice tomorrow.

It was less than a month ago there was talk of:

Making reservations in Atlanta
Heismann talk for Dobbs
Hurd & Kamara both rushing for 100 yards
etc, etc....

Were Cheek and Hart given credit for the enthusiasm? No. So why are they now to blame because of 3 stupid & costly penalties against OU, multiple blown 3rd & 4th down opps vs. UF, and negating the 1st half playbook in the 2nd half vs. Ark?
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Those are all good questions....not sure if I have the answer, but also feel this is bigger than just football.

The Tindell hire is a perfect example of this.

Also feel like the extension made to Butch is an example. I was not in favor of such an extension to a 6-6 coach.

From what I read, seems the importance(is that the right word?) of the athletic department has been lowered since Cheek took over, and that "atmosphere" has permeated through the university. And we do not have a 'strong' AD who will stand up to Cheek and challenge him on this view.

I do not have any inside sources, but just a thought.

Does that impact poor play calling? No. But with a more supportive administration and stronger AD, would we be with Butch now, or with a more proven commodity? That is my question...that and how bad must it get before someone higher up takes action...
 
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#7
#7
Boca Vol said:
Weren't most fans on pins and needles last December at the thought of Butch bolting for Ann Arbor? Didn't the UT admin step in and give him an extension?

You can't have it both ways. There's too much money at stake. It's not as simple as ordering the wrong thing from McDonald's, taking a bite, tossing it in the trash, and promise yourself you'd make a better choice tomorrow.

It was less than a month ago there was talk of:

Making reservations in Atlanta
Heismann talk for Dobbs
Hurd & Kamara both rushing for 100 yards
etc, etc....

Were Cheek and Hart given credit for the enthusiasm? No. So why are they now to blame because of 3 stupid & costly penalties against OU, multiple blown 3rd & 4th down opps vs. UF, and negating the 1st half playbook in the 2nd half vs. Ark?
Click to expand...

Hurd and Kamara have both rushed for OVER 100 yards. :)
 
#8
#8
Are we supposed to take that seriously? Honestly it reads like a bad creative writing assignment
 
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#9
#9
the administration is not to blame for team 119....coaching seems to be the biggest reason
 
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#10
#10
"Botch" Jones? "Blob" Kesling?

Great to see that message board-quality writing is now acceptable for publication.
 
#12
#12
willinhf said:
Those are all good questions....not sure if I have the answer, but also feel this is bigger than just football.

The Tindell hire is a perfect example of this.

Also feel like the extension made to Butch is an example. I was not in favor of such an extension to a 6-6 coach.

From what I read, seems the importance(is that the right word?) of the athletic department has been lowered since Cheek took over, and that "atmosphere" has permeated through the university. And we do not have a 'strong' AD who will stand up to Cheek and challenge him on this view.

I do not have any inside sources, but just a thought.

Does that impact poor play calling? No. But with a more supportive administration and stronger AD, would we be with Butch now, or with a more proven commodity? That is my question...that and how bad must it get before someone higher up takes action...
Click to expand...

Good discussion....

Let me ask you this....if UT wins those 3 games is Butch a more proven commodity? It's such a fine line.
 
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#13
#13
Look at the regression of UT football, basketball, and baseball under Hart's watch. A pattern of administrative failures can not be denied.
 
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#14
#14
Hart's hires are definite question marks. Can someone explain what Cheek has done wrong as Chancellor of the UTK? His job is not to have a successful football team, that's Hart's job and it trickles down to Jones. Cheek is supposed to run a highly successful, highly educational institution. Cheek's job is to make Tennessee one of the top educational institutions in the country and that's what he's doing. If football players can't meet the standards, that's on the player, not the chancellor of UTK. I'm a big fan of football, but football should never EVER come before the academics of the university.
 
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#16
#16
A kick going 6 inches to the left and a missed tackle and dropped pass made and these yard birds and media pukes would be singing a different tune.

BTW, I agree that Jimmy Cheek should go and that play calling has been lacking, but to even think this team was going to the SEC championship this year was just hype and over exuberance. If a couple of plays were made, everyone except the anti Butch screamers, would feel great. jmo
 
#17
#17
Boca Vol said:
Good discussion....

Let me ask you this....if UT wins those 3 games is Butch a more proven commodity? It's such a fine line.
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If Butch wins those three games, there are several threads we do not have on this board right now. There is a statement that says, "Winning covers up a lot of deeper issues". When you don't win, those issues come to surface a lot faster.

If we had a better atmosphere, and had been able to get a major coach to come, would we have won those games?

All answers I do not know. Not sure if there is an issue in the school administration, not sure if it really matters.

But I do know that most all of us are frustrated at what we are seeing, and the losses are not explainable with the mantra of youth and inexperience. If the issues were youth and inexperience, they would show up for all 4 quarters, not just 3.

If we are saying the issues stem from coaching, then we need to look at coaching...and also who hired them.
 
#18
#18
OP grasping at straws here. The football team has all the tools in place to be moderately successful. The only thing missing now are the wins.

And that has nothing to do with Cheek or Hart.
 
#19
#19
volfanbill said:
Hart's hires are definite question marks. Can someone explain what Cheek has done wrong as Chancellor of the UTK? His job is not to have a successful football team, that's Hart's job and it trickles down to Jones. Cheek is supposed to run a highly successful, highly educational institution. Cheek's job is to make Tennessee one of the top educational institutions in the country and that's what he's doing. If football players can't meet the standards, that's on the player, not the chancellor of UTK. I'm a big fan of football, but football should never EVER come before the academics of the university.
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Not disagreeing with you at all on that...I do wonder if there is an internal conflict between the two and the two cannot get along or see eye to eye.

The athletic department is/has been self-sustaining and actually giving money back to the University for academics until this whole fiasco started...

One thing I do know, is a strong athletic program puts more money in the academic budget--or at least it did when we were strong athletically.

But, please do not interpret that as athletics > academics. I agree it is a college first. However, when the two departments can work together, I feel it could be a very strong symbiotic relationship where everyone wins.

Making that relationship work and symbiosis is a responsibility of Hart and Cheek, among others.
 
#20
#20
DC_Vol said:
OP grasping at straws here. The football team has all the tools in place to be moderately successful. The only thing missing now are the wins.

And that has nothing to do with Cheek or Hart.
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Probably...but just turning over all the rocks to see what all possibilities could be that is causing this across the athletics department.

As I said earlier.....5-0 start and we are not having any of these threads on VolNation.
 
#21
#21
willinhf said:
Probably...but just turning over all the rocks to see what all possibilities could be that is causing this across the athletics department.

As I said earlier.....5-0 start and we are not having any of these threads on VolNation.
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I agree. It just kills me to see someone pointing to the admin when all one has to do is look at the games. All three losses could have easily been wins.
 
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#22
#22
Boca Vol said:
Were Cheek and Hart given credit for the enthusiasm? No. So why are they now to blame because of ...
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They are getting the blame because they are getting paid a lot of money to make the right calls - meaning hire the right coaches which in programs like ours means those coaches must win at latest in year 3. If it does not happen because of whatever reason someone is going to take the fault and it will obviously never be the fans who always have the right to be overly enthusiastic and wrong (they are not getting paid - their enthusiasm is funding the whole operation so they better be overly enthusiastic - that's a good thing).
 
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#23
#23
You don't fire a Chancellor over a losing football team. That is just silly, particularly with the new structure. Dave Hart is now a Vice Chancellor. They gave him that title and authority to make him fully responsible for athletics due to Cheek's shortcomings there.

I'm all for holding Hart responsible, and I agree DiPietro should intervene. I don't care about Cheek either way, but even suggesting firing the Chancellor over football is beyond ignorant.
 
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#24
#24
volfanbill said:
Hart's hires are definite question marks. Can someone explain what Cheek has done wrong as Chancellor of the UTK? His job is not to have a successful football team, that's Hart's job and it trickles down to Jones. Cheek is supposed to run a highly successful, highly educational institution. Cheek's job is to make Tennessee one of the top educational institutions in the country and that's what he's doing. If football players can't meet the standards, that's on the player, not the chancellor of UTK. I'm a big fan of football, but football should never EVER come before the academics of the university.
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Let's look at this. What is Cheecks job? What is he responsible for?

He is the highest position, reporting to the board, right? Wouldn't that be equivalent to a CEO of a large corporation?

And what is a CEO responsible for? Everything. Yep that's right. The CEO is responsible for everything. It's his job to see that everything is done.

To big for pne person, so he hires people to delegate to. But he is still responsible to ensure that the jobs get done, and down to an acceptable level or standard.

If any part of any job is not getting done to an acceptable level or standard, then he is responsible for getting it rectified. He can do this by making changes, by firings, hires, or by changing the organizational structure. But it is still his responsibility.

Delegation is not abdication. If the CEO is incapable of rectifying substandard performance at any level of the organization, then it's time for him to move on.

Make sense? Understand why ultimately Cheeck is responsible if the athletics department is consistently substandard? Or any department?
 
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#25
#25
Rather painful to read in more ways than one. But I'll admit to chuckling at "Blob" Kesling.

Jones is a suspect. Hart is a person of interest, but not seeing what Cheek has to do with this. But I'm not privvy to the emails or insiderness.
 
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