Kiffin article about UT; front page ESPN

#126
#126
pasadenavol said:
Pretty impressive that a 1-2 team gets that kind of exposure on the ESPN site. What's the motive? Pressure Pruitt? Embarrass UT? Reunite the fans with Kiffin if things don't work out with Pruitt and/or Fulmer? I don't think Kiffin will ever return to the Hill, especially with Phil on campus, but who would have ever thought the things that have happened with UT Football over the past decade would EVER happen? Certainly not me....

I like the energy Kiffin brought to UT that year. The overall results were kinda meh (7-6), but at least we were competitive with FL and Bama... I think we were all worried he would bring NCAA investigations to UT and he wasn't worth the potential outcome. So many 'what if' thoughts around the Kiffin era.
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What's really crazy about that, he did all that with an Oline made up of a few walk ons and a QB who was pretty bad before Kiffin got there. Compared to what we have now, he looks like a damn miracle worker.
 
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#127
#127
a vol n tears said:
You actually think he had a better team than Pruitt inherited. He had to play 2 walk on o linemen who weighed about 275 lbs each. He had Crompton as QB who had never shown the ability to be drafted. The talent was so bad they were 30 pt underdogs to Florida.
I cannot predict whether he would have been a good or bad coach had he stayed, but his trajectory looked a lot better than CJP currently has. At the time I didn't like his attitude and comments, but to him it was his coaching style to get the team ready. Not seen the team that focused on game days since. I actually think he would be a more successful coach at Tenn now than he would have been before. At least he know how to be a HC and no doubt has a good offensive mind.
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Montario Hardesty, Eric Berry amongst others were what he had to work with. The rest of the roster had receded from the standard that Fulmer had set, for sure but he wasn’t destitute as it’s been narrated. He’d never live up to the image he sold when he was cocky and unproven. We’ve seen the pig since that time, and he doesn’t even try on lipstick. He’s where he belongs imo and isn’t anything to pine for while we see what Pruitt can do.
 
#129
#129
Hacksaw said:
Kiffin was the seed that sowed everything bad that's happened since. He was NEVER going to work out -- anymore than he's worked out anywhere else he's been. Had he stayed, he would have run a dirty program and still ultimately failed. In leaving after one season, he administered the coup de grace to a once-great battleship that was already taking on water.

You can count to a lot of low points since Fulmer's firing, but IMO the hiring of Kiffin is the original sin.
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Perhaps, but there was a lifeboat we could have hopped into after Kiffin left. The move was either to hire Cutcliffe or appoint an interim for 2010 and have a chance to conduct a normal coaching search. Instead they panicked and hired Dooley. We were still only 3 years removed from an SECCG appearance at that point and there was still some sheen on the program. By the end of the Dooley era, the program was more degraded than simply damaged, and I don't even know what to call it today. And it isn't even really Dooley's fault - the poor guy was just in so far over his head, even more than Butch was. He was so ill-equipped to deal with the situation he entered into.

If you use the analogy of a stock chart, the Kiffin debacle was certainly a low point, but we've undoubtedly made a number of lower lows since then. When we do rebound (e.g., Butch's 2013-15 seasons), we can't ever seem to hold the previous low and always break to a new one (e.g., Butch's 2017 season and the subsequent coaching search, the Georgia St loss, etc.).

Kiffin might have been the fire that burned the whole forest down, but there have been chances to put it out before it ever got that bad along the way.
 
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#131
#131
Proud Army Wife said:
Yikes! What happened?
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Soccer accident. LOL

My foot stopped and the rest of me didn’t. Resulted in a spiral fracture. 12 fibula breaks and 6 tibia breaks.

Two plates and 21 screws later —— learned to walk again 6 months later.

I’ll never forget that Ole Miss beatdown. Nov 14, 2009. 😄
 
#132
#132
05_never_again said:
Perhaps, but there was a lifeboat we could have hopped into after Kiffin left. The move was either to hire Cutcliffe or appoint an interim for 2010 and have a chance to conduct a normal coaching search. Instead they panicked and hired Dooley. We were still only 3 years removed from an SECCG appearance at that point and there was still some sheen on the program. By the end of the Dooley era, the program was more degraded than simply damaged, and I don't even know what to call it today. And it isn't even really Dooley's fault - the poor guy was just in so far over his head, even more than Butch was. He was so ill-equipped to deal with the situation he entered into.

If you use the analogy of a stock chart, the Kiffin debacle was certainly a low point, but we've undoubtedly made a number of lower lows since then. When we do rebound (e.g., Butch's 2013-15 seasons), we can't ever seem to hold the previous low and always break to a new one (e.g., Butch's 2017 season and the subsequent coaching search, the Georgia St loss, etc.).

Kiffin might have been the fire that burned the whole forest down, but there have been chances to put it out before it ever got that bad along the way.
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I don't know if Cutcliffe would have come. Maybe the interim-for-a-year thing would've worked. Following Fulmer was going to be a tough job for whoever did it. Short of an established marquee name, the best we could hope for was a caretaker who could keep the program from spinning out of control, stabilize things for a season or two and make the job more palatable for a hire that was more suitable for the long-term. Ironically, someone like Dooley might not have been a bad choice. Instead we got Kiffin, who could have been the stabilizing short-term answer if he wasn't so reckless with the low character recruiting and playing fast and loose with the NCAA rules. And then he ups and leaves, completely undoing whatever good he may have been able to accomplish.
 
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#133
#133
Doberman said:
Soccer accident. LOL

My foot stopped and the rest of me didn’t. Resulted in a spiral fracture. 12 fibula breaks and 6 tibia breaks.

Two plates and 21 screws later —— learned to walk again 6 months later.

I’ll never forget that Ole Miss beatdown. Nov 14, 2009. 😄
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Nothing good ever comes from soccer.
 
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#134
#134
JMSqb11 said:
I think he would say yes 10000% if ever offered a chance to come back here. Obviously Fulmer is here for a long time so it will be his say. However, I would love to know the reasons that aren't 10 years old to legit argue against him. I ask that because he coached here and was an OC for Saban and then moved to FAU. Obviously, we wouldn't want a coach to come to Tennessee from somewhere like FAU, but would be interesting to see the case on paper against him that are current (Last 3-4 years) instead of times when the kids he would be recruiting were 7-8 years old when he was at UT.

I've always wanted a comeback tour with him at Tennessee, but I've also said there has to be a contract that protects Tennessee more than it rewards Kiffin.
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He does indeed appear to be lobbying for a return,which to me is a bigger con than Lyle. I do see him getting a HC job in the SEC at either Auburn or Arky, and perhaps Ole Miss in the future.
 
#136
#136
IPleadInsanity said:
I have always theorized we did get penalized by the NCAA for Kiffins transgressions. I always found it strange that UT had decided to go all in backing Bruce Pearl, suspension bad press the whole deal, then almost at the end suddenly fired him for an insignificant bump (not rehashing this issue). I also found it strange Dooley and our admins came out of the NCAA football inquiry 2 months later with zero penalties after all the things Kiffin pulled in recruiting, 12 potential violations I think. How did we get so lucky?
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Should that have been in blue font?

In all honesty, I think Tennessee has been punished for some of that stuff. It's known as football from 2010-present.
 
#137
#137
Hacksaw said:
I don't know if Cutcliffe would have come. Maybe the interim-for-a-year thing would've worked. Following Fulmer was going to be a tough job for whoever did it. Short of an established marquee name, the best we could hope for was a caretaker who could keep the program from spinning out of control, stabilize things for a season or two and make the job more palatable for a hire that was more suitable for the long-term. Ironically, someone like Dooley might not have been a bad choice. Instead we got Kiffin, who could have been the stabilizing short-term answer if he wasn't so reckless with the low character recruiting and playing fast and loose with the NCAA rules. And then he ups and leaves, completely undoing whatever good he may have been able to accomplish.
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Cutcliffe would have come post-Kiffin if Hamilton let him bring all his Duke assistants. Hamilton said no, so Cutcliffe backed out. I don't know how well Cutcliffe would have done, and if they went the interim-for-a-year before hiring a permanent coach route, I don't know how that coach would have done. However, odds are both would have done better than 4-19 in conference play over the next 3 seasons.

Sadly, the only way I see out of it is just to get lucky with a coaching hire. I don't think we are going to be able to attract a head coach that has already had success at a major program, like Alabama was able to do with Saban. A lot of our fans talk about the need to hire a "proven head coach." The only real "proven head coach" we have ever hired was Johnny Majors, and honestly we probably were able to do that only because he was coming back home. None of the post-Fulmer crowd obviously was proven when they took over, Fulmer wasn't, Battle wasn't, Dickey wasn't, hell, even Neyland wasn't.

We probably have to go the route Clemson did with Dabo - hire a guy with a lack of a track record and has to do learning on the job...but it ends up working out.
 
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#138
#138
tbones0711 said:
He does indeed appear to be lobbying for a return,which to me is a bigger con than Lyle. I do see him getting a HC job in the SEC at either Auburn or Arky, and perhaps Ole Miss in the future.
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Like I said, a contract that protects Tennessee more than it rewards Kiffin. Would be easy to propose, but obviously, Jimmy Sexton would be an issue.
 
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#139
#139
Doberman said:
Soccer accident. LOL

My foot stopped and the rest of me didn’t. Resulted in a spiral fracture. 12 fibula breaks and 6 tibia breaks.

Two plates and 21 screws later —— learned to walk again 6 months later.

I’ll never forget that Ole Miss beatdown. Nov 14, 2009. 😄
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I take it your soccer playing days were over?
 
#140
#140
Neal Boswell said:
What I'd like to know is: What does Fulmer and Doug Mathews have against Pruitt. Mathews has called Pruitt "a punk" on the air, and said that he would never be rehired at U.T. I'd like to know why, ... other than he left Tennessee for his home state?
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It was Kiffin instead of Pruitt.
 
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#146
#146
Nationdom said:
The last 10 years would have had a lot more Ws if Lane had stayed. He knows he made a bad decision. Probably thinks about it at least once every couple days.
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Doubt it. There's worse places than Boca Raton
 
#149
#149
wCCVE.gif
 
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