List of Coaches that Rejected Us

#29
#29
DiderotsGhost said:
According to Chris Low, here's the list of coaches who rejected us.

James Franklin, Penn State
Luke Fickell, Cincinnati
Sonny Dykes, SMU
PJ Fleck, Minnesota
Tony Elliot, Clemson (OC)

Sorry to say it folks, but as it turns out, a lot of coaches don't want to walk into a situation with NCAA penalties are looming overhead. Other than Franklin, I don't think any of those coaches turn us down in a normal search. Getting a coach of Josh Heupel's quality in this situation is actually pretty good. Compare Ole Miss in 2017 who had to hire Matt Luke.

Overall, I think White did an excellent job in a bad situation. He swung for the fences, struck out a few times, but still hired a quality coach. In the previous coaching searches, we never even tried to land top-tier coaches. We passed on Gary Patterson and Mike Leach in 2008 (both of whom were interested). We never seriously went after Mullen in 2017 and our AD got fired when he went rogue and went after Mike Leach.

Heupel may succeed or he may not, but regardless, I think we'll be in better shape 3-4 years from now. Either Heupel improves us or we're in a better spot to hire a top-tier coach.

Given what has happened over the past month, I think this is actually one of the better case scenarios. At the very least, we got an elite AD. If we're lucky, we got a good HC, as well.

P.S. Glad Sonny Dykes rejected us. I think Heupel is better than Dykes.
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I'm also interested in seeing the list of coaches that would have potentially taken the job that we didn't bother to contact.
 
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#33
#33
VolFreakJosh said:
Tom Herman would have been a better hire than Heupel and he’s currently unemployed.

White botched this hire no matter how hard you try to spin it.[/QUOTE
This hire makes about as much sense as Dooley, Jones ,Pruitt, now let's add Heupel. Big School would have hired him right out of Oklahoma if he was that good.
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#34
#34
ButchPlz said:
They didn't try on Chadwell or Napier? I get Kiffin and Freeze. Can't bring them with the NCAA stuff. But those first two didn't get a check? Absolutely nuts.
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"White cast a wide net through the Parker Executive Search firm and reached out to and/or interviewed several candidates, including Penn State's James Franklin, Cincinnati's Luke Fickell, SMU's Sonny Dykes, Minnesota's PJ Fleck and Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott, among others."

We have no idea who all got contacted. We also don't know how serious White was in perusing the ones he did contact. Pretty much all conjecture and 'sources'.
 
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#36
#36
Chris Low is just speculating like everyone else, he also believed that several others were in discussions about taking the job or contacting assistant coaches. He was in tight with Fulmer
 
#38
#38
ButchBettaBeGone said:
This coach called again to see if we would consider him for the Head Coach position but we didn't pick up the phone ... no more raises for you on our dime while you play us!
View attachment 345768
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The fact that this guy has suckered our administration multiple times tells ya all ya need to know. This man (take a look at him) outfoxes our highest ranking employees.
 
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#39
#39
screenthis said:
"White cast a wide net through the Parker Executive Search firm and reached out to and/or interviewed several candidates, including Penn State's James Franklin, Cincinnati's Luke Fickell, SMU's Sonny Dykes, Minnesota's PJ Fleck and Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott, among others."

We have no idea who all got contacted. We also don't know how serious White was in perusing the ones he did contact. Pretty much all conjecture and 'sources'.
Click to expand...

Search firm Tennessee Vols are using once produced Derek Dooley
 
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#42
#42
If Danny White was the amazing AD that all here have said he is. He wouldnt have all these coaches telling Parker no. He'd go hire someone, period. Thats weak that our top tier guys saved him the rejections and he crawled back down to his former G5 program to go get his boy
 
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#43
#43
DiderotsGhost said:
According to Chris Low, here's the list of coaches who rejected us.

James Franklin, Penn State
Luke Fickell, Cincinnati
Sonny Dykes, SMU
PJ Fleck, Minnesota
Tony Elliot, Clemson (OC)

Sorry to say it folks, but as it turns out, a lot of coaches don't want to walk into a situation with NCAA penalties are looming overhead. Other than Franklin, I don't think any of those coaches turn us down in a normal search. Getting a coach of Josh Heupel's quality in this situation is actually pretty good. Compare Ole Miss in 2017 who had to hire Matt Luke.

Overall, I think White did an excellent job in a bad situation. He swung for the fences, struck out a few times, but still hired a quality coach. In the previous coaching searches, we never even tried to land top-tier coaches. We passed on Gary Patterson and Mike Leach in 2008 (both of whom were interested). We never seriously went after Mullen in 2017 and our AD got fired when he went rogue and went after Mike Leach.

Heupel may succeed or he may not, but regardless, I think we'll be in better shape 3-4 years from now. Either Heupel improves us or we're in a better spot to hire a top-tier coach.

Given what has happened over the past month, I think this is actually one of the better case scenarios. At the very least, we got an elite AD. If we're lucky, we got a good HC, as well.

P.S. Glad Sonny Dykes rejected us. I think Heupel is better than Dykes.
Click to expand...

I wish we had made Chadwell reject us.......I'm highly suspicious that UCF may hire Chadwell to replace Heupel.
 
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#44
#44
VolBricks said:
My problem is I do not see
Gus Malzahn
Lane Kiffin
Hugh Freeze
If I am making the phone calls I start with those 3 and let them turn me down. All 3 are winners in the SEC, some have baggage (Kiffin, Freeze) but all are capable of being good quality coach for us.
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Lane Kiffin is not a winner in the SEC. He is average and we dodged a bullet by not offering him
 
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#45
#45
DiderotsGhost said:
According to Chris Low, here's the list of coaches who rejected us.

James Franklin, Penn State
Luke Fickell, Cincinnati
Sonny Dykes, SMU
PJ Fleck, Minnesota
Tony Elliot, Clemson (OC)

Sorry to say it folks, but as it turns out, a lot of coaches don't want to walk into a situation with NCAA penalties are looming overhead. Other than Franklin, I don't think any of those coaches turn us down in a normal search. Getting a coach of Josh Heupel's quality in this situation is actually pretty good. Compare Ole Miss in 2017 who had to hire Matt Luke.

Overall, I think White did an excellent job in a bad situation. He swung for the fences, struck out a few times, but still hired a quality coach. In the previous coaching searches, we never even tried to land top-tier coaches. We passed on Gary Patterson and Mike Leach in 2008 (both of whom were interested). We never seriously went after Mullen in 2017 and our AD got fired when he went rogue and went after Mike Leach.

Heupel may succeed or he may not, but regardless, I think we'll be in better shape 3-4 years from now. Either Heupel improves us or we're in a better spot to hire a top-tier coach.

Given what has happened over the past month, I think this is actually one of the better case scenarios. At the very least, we got an elite AD. If we're lucky, we got a good HC, as well.

P.S. Glad Sonny Dykes rejected us. I think Heupel is better than Dykes.
Click to expand...
Did not want
 
#46
#46
MSrivervol said:
If Danny White was the amazing AD that all here have said he is. He wouldnt have all these coaches telling Parker no. He'd go hire someone, period. Thats weak that our top tier guys saved him the rejections and he crawled back down to his former G5 program to go get his boy
Click to expand...
You can't force top shelf head coaches to walk into a sh*tstorm like the one currently surrounding the Tennessee football program and backing up a truck full of $$$$$ isn't going to work this time.
 
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#48
#48
landscapingvol said:
Chris Low is just speculating like everyone else, he also believed that several others were in discussions about taking the job or contacting assistant coaches. He was in tight with Fulmer
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I actually think Chris Low is dead-on accurate. I think Danny White used him to get the word out on who he went after, without publicly acknowledging that our new head coach wasn't always his top choice.

Because publicly, that's what you gotta say if you're the AD, right? This guy, this one who is now our head coach, he's precisely the coach we need and exactly who we wanted. You have to support your new coach publicly.

But at the same time, Danny White is aware the fan base and public know better. They know, and they're loudly wondering who he went after first, who turned down the job. Danny's own self-interest forces him to find a way to prove that he wanted more, that he shot higher.

So he leaks the list to a trusted reporter who has always been fair to the SEC programs, including and possibly most especially Tennessee. Chris Low.

And voila, this list appears.

I think it's probably dead-on accurate, and right from the horse's mouth.

And incidentally, for the folks giving @Stoerner Fumbles grief, this Chris Low list vindicates his source as well. Looks like everything he described did actually happen. Those giving Stoerner grief owe him an apology, it seems.

Go Vols!


p.s. The one thing this list doesn't answer is how much effort went into each of these possible hires. On the face, a simple list makes them all seem kind of co-equal. But that's not necessarily so. Some of them may have been nothing more than a brief phone call to gauge interest, no offer ever made or even discussed. Others might have been a multi-day full-court press. And others somewhere in between. We'll probably never know that element of the coaching search, but I'll trust Stoerner's friend as he described it: hard, hard push on Franklin for 3 or 4 days...shifting in the last day or so to Elliott...and then on to Heupel. The others were perhaps just phone calls or relegated to a booster to contact.
 
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#49
#49
I don't believe this at all. I'm leaning more on Heuple was the guy all along and maybe feelers were put out there just because....
 
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