Official Jon Gruden Thread 33

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#4,977
#4,977
Hey El Grande..Just between old original Gruden NS brothers..Do you really believe he's coming this time? I just can't do it till I see that mug walk up to the podium.
 
#4,980
#4,980
jakez4ut said:
he didn't build Tampa Bay.
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He dang sure got 'em over the hump that Dungy couldn't do. Tony got to one NFC title game and lost that. Gruden went all the way 1st season. He had a built in advantage sure because he knew the raiders like the back of his hand but he had to get past the playoffs to take advantage of that. Something Dungy failed to do.
 
#4,984
#4,984
KB5252 said:
That's the obvious angle, was just hoping there was some creativity there I was missing. Because the story makes zero sense.
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oh i thought you were asking him for the obligatory hates us punch line so i gave it to you. But then he doubled down on his story and i have no idea whats going on lol
 
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#4,990
#4,990
3rdDegreeVol said:
My apologies to everyone looking for Gruden news. This isn’t the post you’re looking for. Just skip to the next post. This is my working theory on how and why Gruden to the Hill is coming about. It’s going to be very long post.

For those with a little curiosity, here’s the bottom line up front (BLUF as my Army brethren call it). There is a booster or group of boosters attempting to secure the fruits of UT becoming a Top 25 research school. They’re working to ensure a continued stream of funding from Athletics to Academics by making a splash hire as the head coach and returning UT football to national prominence. You can now skip to the end if you aren’t interested in the gory details.

For those still reading here’s my take on the whole situation. Strictly my own opinion based on what I’ve read and my experience. Let’s start with the booster/Investor group because I think that once you understand what they’re trying to achieve, the roles of the rest of the players and the actions fall into place.

The booster group is leveraging the University’s drive towards becoming a top 25 public research school (top25.utk.edu). While the University has many good and valid reasons for this, the boosters see this as an opportunity to cash in on an increasing amount and quality of research coming from the University. Bubba on several occasions involvement of a (Silicon Valley) venture capital firm (not Castor Ventures). (1)(2) MIT_Beaver outs the reason. Early stage VC firms are interested in the intellectual property rights coming out of the research. (3) The boosters, in conjunction with the VC firm(s?), see this as an opportune time to develop a (binding?) relationship with an up and coming research University that funnels the valuable research results into their portfolios. I haven’t had the time to fully investigate all the players, but MIT_Beaver implies that Charlie Ergen is involved. (4)

Charlie Ergen’s possible involvement I think relates to Dish’s upcoming moves into the wireless connectivity area. Dish owns and continues to buy valuable wireless (cellular) spectrum. The first portion of which requires Dish to build out a wireless network by 2020 supporting narrowband internet of things (NB-IOT). (5) NB-IOT is one part of the proposed 5G specification. A large part of how NB-IOT is implemented is yet to be determined and will require a great deal of research (hint, hint). Dish, not being constrained by a legacy, voice-oriented network, has a tremendous chance to develop a different core network than the legacy carriers. Ergen called it “a blank sheet of paper”.

It sounds like the how this is being accomplished is through a combination of a venture capital firm advised by a MBB type management consulting firm. Together they’ve developed a plan, of which Gruden is a part, to assist the University in reaching its goal while, presumably, the VC firm gets in on the reaping of benefits. Here’s how the other major players are involved, in my opinion.

The football program is viewed as a key revenue source for the University. The Athletic Department already provides quite a bit of funding back to the Academic Department and people have noticed how the success of the Alabama football team has fueled an academic renaissance of the University of Alabama. How do you duplicate that success at Tennessee? By making a big-time splash hire as the new head football coach and give him the resources (monetary and otherwise) to compete with the Alabamas and Ohio States. This leads logically to Jon Gruden due to his connection to and past history with UT. No other coach excites the fan base and makes a national splash like him. You secure his services by making him an offer he can’t refuse (especially in light of ESPN’s well documented financial issues). Bubba says the base is $7.5M (6) but that is the least interesting part of the deal (7) and won’t all be in USD (8). Possibly a stake in the venture capital fund investing in the UT research?

The Athletic Director doesn’t really have much of a role in this. He was given the coach as part of the package deal and does not have a BANTA, although it appears he did do his due diligence and checked. The only real option he had was the timing. It appears that, while the decision to not retain Butch was made early in the season, the plan was to allow him to coach out the rest of the season and resign with a renegotiated buyout. However the performance (or lack thereof) of the team on the field and the Kendrick situation made that position untenable and Butch was let go early. At this point Currie has a replacement and is waiting a suitable amount of time to announce him. This may be due to commitments by Gruden, pressure from certain boosters, a desire to see Butch hired elsewhere, or a combination of some or all of these plus other unknown conditions.

Peyton Manning was brought in to help seal the deal on Gruden as the new head coach and to provide an incentive to accept the deal on the part of the Academic Department in the form of potential fundraising. I think Peyton’s involvement was actually predicated on the football team having a reasonably successful year and needing to provide rationale and support for changing the coach. Events have shown that part was unnecessary.

The Academic Department gets increased funding and other resources to help them with their goal of becoming a top 25 public research school. They also get a built in outlet for the results of the research in the form of a relationship with the VC firm. In exchange, they’ve agreed to give up some of the control they had over the Athletic Department. This helps the Athletic Department become more competitive and increases the revenue stream from Athletics.
The Haslams are probably the only losers in this whole scenario. Their influence on the University is being minimized. This is probably to ensure there is no interference, intentional or otherwise, with all the other arrangements. I’m not into the politics of the situation but it wouldn’t surprise me if there weren’t personal reasons behind it as well if some of the speculation about past power struggles is true.

MIT_Beaver basically laid out his role for us as an influencer. His job was to help develop the strategy (it’s unclear on whether in whole or in part) and serve as the public influencer. He’s using VN and the Vol fan base to increase public pressure on the University to ensure that all aspects of the deal are approved.
Bubba appears to be part of the venture capital team arranging things. His posts indicate knowledge of the details and indicates his own involvement (9).

(1) Official Jon Gruden Thread XX
(2) Official Jon Gruden Thread XXI
(3) Official Jon Gruden Thread XXV
(4) Official Jon Gruden Thread XXVI
(5) Dish: We already have RAN vendors for our NB-IoT network | FierceWireless
(6) Official Jon Gruden Thread XX
(7) Official Jon Gruden Thread XX
(8) Official Jon Gruden Thread XX
(9) Official Jon Gruden Thread XX
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Very nicely done (IMO). I'm sure the participants can point out any discrepancies.

The only thing I would change would be your assessment of Peyton Manning's role and the impact it may have.

I would offer the following options relative to his role.
It could be any one of these; a combination; or none at all.

Observation: MIT mentioned in one of his earlier posts that (I am paraphrasing) Peyton had stepped up (or would step up) and taken one for the team in closing the deal.

1. Peyton agreed to support Bill Haslam in (a) any political endeavor or (b) any run at replacing Joe DiPietro as President of UT; [This provides a get for the Haslam side of the equation]

2. Peyton agreed to replace JG at ESPN's MNF; [This might mitigate any contractual obligations for both ESPN and JG]

3. Peyton agreed to take over JG's Corona spokesperson contract; [This helps mitigate any contractual obligation may have.]

4. Peyton agrees to take over operation of JG's FFCA operation.

JM thoughts.
 
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#4,992
#4,992
Lmao they are getting axes anyway.

The only people who watch MNF for gruden are those volnation looking for signs he done with ESPN
 
#4,993
#4,993
To my surprise Jimmy Hyams admitted today that he thinks UT has reached out to Gruden and he admitted Gruden flirted with the job in 2012. Previously Jimmy had said there was no UT/Gruden stuff in 2012 and last week he said absolutely 0 chance UT was involved with Gruden this time. Tonight he simply said he didn't personally believe Gruden would say yes, and that he'd flirt again but not commit. Then he mentioned Doug Marrone as a dark horse and I gtfo.
 
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#4,994
#4,994
musolfmj said:
Why you think Jon Gruden is really a good fit for Tennessee. Some of us are not as sure as you. And please, the first one who says, "Duh, he won a Super Bowl." goes to the end of the line. Specifics most appreciated. Point-counterpoint encouraged.
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In the short-term, he provides UTAD with instant credibility in a sport where we have become a Tulane-like laughing stock.

For the current players, he offers leadership and a track record of development and success when his ownership isn't siphoning money away from his team to fund a soccer club in Manchester. Instant buy-in from those who have been beaten down by Saugatuck High School's Number 1 Trumpet.

For future players, he gives them a reason to take another look at a program that was increasingly devolving into a bottom-feeder that was a last-resort rather than an end destination.

For fans, he would represent an essential truth: that someone at Tennessee gets what this program is about and where it should be in the conference and nationally. That will have a direct benefit upon Tennessee's ability to fund this latest stadium project.

When he has been given real support from his superiors, John Gruden has been an tremendous success. His offensive skill-set is beyond question. His abiity to adapt to talent at-hand, whether it was with the offense-oriented Raiders or the defense-led Bucs, is obvious. In the short-term, we would see an instant impact on these present Tennessee players as Gruden actually uses the talent he has on the roster to its best advantage.

Where he has faced trouble coincides with the moment the Glazer family leveraged themselves to purchase Manchester United. The abiity to attract quality free agents dried up at the same point star players showed their age. By the time he left Tampa, the Bucs' payroll was in decline and dropping.

As long as the support is there, and I'm talking the same support Dickey and Elam provided Fulmer in the 1990s, John Gruden will be successful.

There are no sure things in this world, especially in the long-term. Gruden's ability to succeed could hinge upon actions taken on the academic side we have yet to see (we saw that with Fulmer). But in the short-term, at a time we desperately need a real, tangible boost in morale at home and credibility in the college football world as a whole, John Gruden would provide everything we need at the right time and place.
 
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