For most of his career, the guy was nothing but an incredible servant for Tennessee. Quality player. Quality assistant. Quality coach.
The end comes for him for the same reason it came for the likes of Danny Ford, Pat Dye, and Barry Switzer: an inability to adjust to the changing conditions of the game.
But that doesn't take away what he did for us as a program. His decision to make us a more physical football team after the 1998 Orange Bowl debacle brought us a National Championship the next year. For that alone, he walks with legends in Knoxville.
It was time for him to go. But I think this day should be a day to express gratitude to a guy who played a major role in getting this program turned around after the early 80s and in building it up to national power status after the early 90s.
Is he a shadow of what he used to be? Yes. But this day isn't to celebrate the shadow.
It is to celebrate what he did for us when he was at the top of his game as an assistant and as a head coach.
