Lady Vols Softball

I think you totally missed the point of the article. She wasn’t saying Ralph was holding back the program, but that after 20 years of coaching alongside her husband as head coach she wondered if she could handle being the sole head coach and making all of the big decisions. If you read the article, her and Ralph had 2 different mentalities, so having the responsibility to create this mentality and culture from her own words and not having Ralph’s input as well. Say what you want, but this team will be extremely different from any other team we have had in the past. We have an actual hitting coach that is not Marc, we explored and landed a handful of quality transfers which has never been done to this extent, players left that in my opinion either held the team back or added no real competition on the bench, and you add the extremely talented, versatile, and powerful freshman class that we have makes for an interesting and promising 2022 season.
I like the hitting coach and style as it’s an upgrade. Word so far is he’s conforming the hitters.
 
I think you totally missed the point of the article. She wasn’t saying Ralph was holding back the program, but that after 20 years of coaching alongside her husband as head coach she wondered if she could handle being the sole head coach and making all of the big decisions. If you read the article, her and Ralph had 2 different mentalities, so having the responsibility to create this mentality and culture from her own words and not having Ralph’s input as well. Say what you want, but this team will be extremely different from any other team we have had in the past. We have an actual hitting coach that is not Marc, we explored and landed a handful of quality transfers which has never been done to this extent, players left that in my opinion either held the team back or added no real competition on the bench, and you add the extremely talented, versatile, and powerful freshman class that we have makes for an interesting and promising 2022 season.

Excuse me for being unconvinced. If your long-time co-HC retires and THEN you immediately make all of these changes and improvements, I logically infer from that he was in the way of making at least some of these important improvements. Otherwise, why didn't they do them before? And then that begs the question as to why they didn't make these changes before if they were trying to have the best program they can have? I'm guessing there's an answer to that, and his name is Danny White.
 
Excuse me for being unconvinced. If your long-time co-HC retires and THEN you immediately make all of these changes and improvements, I logically infer from that he was in the way of making at least some of these important improvements. Otherwise, why didn't they do them before? And then that begs the question as to why they didn't make these changes before if they were trying to have the best program they can have? I'm guessing there's an answer to that, and his name is Danny White.

If you think Danny White gives two craps about any sport not named football, then you haven't paid attention for a single second the last 8 months.
 
If you think Danny White gives two craps about any sport not named football, then you haven't paid attention for a single second the last 8 months.
Unfortunately get football healthy first. I like what White is doing but he’s all in on getting the moneymaker turned around and that’s good long term business for all others.
 
If you think Danny White gives two craps about any sport not named football, then you haven't paid attention for a single second the last 8 months.

Tony Vitello is still the Tennessee baseball coach, with his staff intact, for the next five years. And there have been major additions to the Lady Vois basketball staff. White is setting us up to win in as many sports as we can.
 
That huge contract for Vitello would say otherwise.

Delegated that and almost lost TV because of it.

Deal only got his attention after donors got it higher on his priority list. The administratior that got it done left shortly after. Concerning for the future.
 
Tony Vitello is still the Tennessee baseball coach, with his staff intact, for the next five years. And there have been major additions to the Lady Vois basketball staff. White is setting us up to win in as many sports as we can.

I’m glad you believe that. Ask anyone that has spent more than six months in the building if Danny White cares for one second about any sport other than football.
 
Delegated that and almost lost TV because of it.

Deal only got his attention after donors got it higher on his priority list. The administratior that got it done left shortly after. Concerning for the future.

Oh yay. So we've got another incompetent AD in our midst. Lovely.

I understand football is top priority because it's the main bread winner. WTBS, football is a hot mess and that won't be changing anytime soon. I'm 32 and at this point I don't expect football to be relevant again in my lifetime.
 
DP you sound so bitter. I think Danny White is great for ALL UT sports

Not bitter, just being honest. If he gets football fixed, there will be plenty of resources for the other sports.

Is he Dave Hart bad? Of course not, no one could be that form of disaster. But lost in the football mess was the fact that the rest of the department was running the best it had in decades when the AD change had to be made. The turnover since then in the department has been concerning to a lot of us that have a monetary investment in sports other than football.

I don't live in Knoxville anymore, so football tickets aren't my first priority anymore. I get them, but I only make a minimum donation related to them. I had some larger gifts designated to go to a couple of non-football projects and got calls from new folks at the TN Fund begging me to move them to a football fund. I was met with borderline hostility when I declined to change where I was directing my gifts. It told me a lot about how this group is going to operate.
 
Delegated that and almost lost TV because of it.

Deal only got his attention after donors got it higher on his priority list. The administratior that got it done left shortly after. Concerning for the future.
Where was he going to go? He never got offered a job that would be better than or equal to the job he has. If he had been offered the LSU job as many feared, he’d be in Baton Rouge today no matter what UT offered.
 
the rest of the department was running the best it had in decades

Really? Only two years removed from the debacle of Holly Warlick? Nothing whatsoever done about the creaky Lindsay Nelson Stadium? Track and swimming? UT once was a national powerhouse in those sports. Softball was stuck in neutral. The ONLY thing that was running better than in decades was men's basketball under Barnes.
 
2023 kids are a few hours away from getting calls. It'll be interesting to see how the needs are fulfilled with this class due to a large 2022 class and the portal addressing needs over the summer with a few that have 2-3 years.

Catcher
Pitcher - LHP
Speed/OF
MI/UTL
 
Deer Park you seem very conflicted. You are upset that White puts all his attention to turning around FB and ignores the other sports but then admit: 'Not bitter, just being honest. If he gets football fixed, there will be plenty of resources for the other sports". Sounds to me like his priority when hired was to get FB fixed for the reasons you say. Everything else will then have the $ to take care of itself. What's wrong with that? FB has always been the $ driver.
 
Deer Park you seem very conflicted. You are upset that White puts all his attention to turning around FB and ignores the other sports but then admit: 'Not bitter, just being honest. If he gets football fixed, there will be plenty of resources for the other sports". Sounds to me like his priority when hired was to get FB fixed for the reasons you say. Everything else will then have the $ to take care of itself. What's wrong with that? FB has always been the $ driver.

Sure, but by that logic, the other sports will have to wait 3-4 years for football to be "fixed" to get what they need today/ If it's 3-4 years before the baseball and softball stadiums are addressed, Vitello will be gone and SPL will be even lower on the SEC pecking list than it already is. He's not going to attract a track coach next year when he has to fire Alford-Sullivan next year if Tom Black Track still has no plan to upgrade from being one of the worst in the conference and no indoor facility even on the long-term drawing board. If you tell a donor that gave six figures to the planned revamp of the outdoor tennis facility that they just aren't going to do that project anymore, then that person is going to think hard about whether he wants to give anything else.

There's nothing wrong with "fixing" football first. It should be the priority of any AD with a struggling football program. But to call up donors that have thousands committed to non-football projects and to not only ask them to re-direct those funds, but to provide pushback when you decline shows me where the priority is. And that's fine. But I'm not moving my money from needed facility upgrades at other sports to help Danny White tear out a couple thousand seats and put in another jumbotron at Neyland.

If he wants to do that, that's fine. But those things won't help football win a single game. A new hitting facility at softball will. Doubling the seating at baseball will. Functional locker rooms at tennis will. That's why I give my money to those type of projects, not vanity improvements at football. I told my Tennessee Fund rep five years ago to not call me about the Neyland project until they're ready to tear out the east side that still looks like it's 1950 and I'll stand by that. I'll just keep spending that money on my Braves season tickets and drive over to Truist after work 50 or 60 times a year instead.
 
Sure, but by that logic, the other sports will have to wait 3-4 years for football to be "fixed" to get what they need today/ If it's 3-4 years before the baseball and softball stadiums are addressed, Vitello will be gone and SPL will be even lower on the SEC pecking list than it already is. He's not going to attract a track coach next year when he has to fire Alford-Sullivan next year if Tom Black Track still has no plan to upgrade from being one of the worst in the conference and no indoor facility even on the long-term drawing board. If you tell a donor that gave six figures to the planned revamp of the outdoor tennis facility that they just aren't going to do that project anymore, then that person is going to think hard about whether he wants to give anything else.

There's nothing wrong with "fixing" football first. It should be the priority of any AD with a struggling football program. But to call up donors that have thousands committed to non-football projects and to not only ask them to re-direct those funds, but to provide pushback when you decline shows me where the priority is. And that's fine. But I'm not moving my money from needed facility upgrades at other sports to help Danny White tear out a couple thousand seats and put in another jumbotron at Neyland.

If he wants to do that, that's fine. But those things won't help football win a single game. A new hitting facility at softball will. Doubling the seating at baseball will. Functional locker rooms at tennis will. That's why I give my money to those type of projects, not vanity improvements at football. I told my Tennessee Fund rep five years ago to not call me about the Neyland project until they're ready to tear out the east side that still looks like it's 1950 and I'll stand by that. I'll just keep spending that money on my Braves season tickets and drive over to Truist after work 50 or 60 times a year instead.

How does one earmark money for specific projects? I normally just donate without stating a preference. I hope you persevere through all the grief you get from 2 or 3 posters here. They are just jealous LOL.
 

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