Knox-a-rue
Never Forget the Hobnail Boot Game!
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I agree with Thamel on CBJ here. I'm not previously familiar with Thamel. His knowledge of Currie exceeds mine but his words are encouraging from the standpoint of looking at the Tennessee football program over the next several years.
The section on Tennessee:
"2) Tennessee athletic director John Currie would best be described as a hardline pragmatist. Currie is the opposite of emotional or reactionary. Put it this way: Currie wouldn't have hired Bill Stewart after winning the Fiesta Bowl as an interim coach as West Virginia administrators once did.
So the weekly predictions that Tennessee will fire Butch Jones soon after emotional losses or listless victories are really just knee-jerk fodder and clickbait. Currie wanted nothing more than Jones to succeed upon arriving in Knoxville, and it would go strongly against Currie's nature to execute a mid-season firing.
That said, Jones' tenure at Tennessee can now be reduced to a timing issue. It's going to happen, but not likely until deep into the season or immediately after it ends. The Vols lost 15-9 to South Carolina on Saturday to fall to 0-3 in the SEC. It marked their second loss this season on the final play of a game.
Tennessee didn't score a touchdown for the second consecutive week, as Jones' inability to find a competent offensive coordinator will go down as one of his biggest failures in Knoxville.
Tennessee's SEC losses clearly illustrate Jones' failings. The last-second losses to Florida and South Carolina reinforce the notion that Jones struggles in-game on the sideline. (Tennessee blundered the clock on its final possession, failing to spike the ball and wasting seven seconds). The Georgia game reminded Tennessee fans just how far they are from contending in the SEC East, never mind the league.
There's little advantage to firing Jones now. Currie spent his final years as Kansas State's athletic director preparing to someday replace Bill Snyder, a common-sense approach when your coach is in his 70s. Few athletic directors have worked harder over the years networking with up-and-coming coaches, getting to know established ones and generally navigating the intricate football coaching market. The aura of mystery that's surrounded the end of Snyder's tenure at Kansas State forced Currie to have a real-time understanding of the nuances of the coach hiring space. In other words, Currie is as prepared to hire a new coach as any athletic director and won't be starting from scratch.
After Tennessee gets blown out at No. 1 Alabama on Saturday to fall to 0-4 in the SEC, don't expect Currie to react. The end is coming for Jones, just not as fast as some may like."
The full article on yahoo sports here:
10 Takeaways: Pac-12 the biggest loser in a day of college football chaos
The take-away, I would say, is to keep a cool head. Support the team. Treat CBJ with some degree of respect as his time here is winding down and have confidence in Currie selecting a good replacement.
CBJ likes to talk about 1% better. And I think he really improved the program for the first 3 years - something I'm thankful for - but I dont think we are even 1% better since the 2015 season. I think we reached the plateau phase of CBJ's tenure two years ago. I think Currie knows it and hopefully we can get back to national relevance by the end of the 2019 season. Hopefully.
After all, this program has a lot of resiliency...
The section on Tennessee:
"2) Tennessee athletic director John Currie would best be described as a hardline pragmatist. Currie is the opposite of emotional or reactionary. Put it this way: Currie wouldn't have hired Bill Stewart after winning the Fiesta Bowl as an interim coach as West Virginia administrators once did.
So the weekly predictions that Tennessee will fire Butch Jones soon after emotional losses or listless victories are really just knee-jerk fodder and clickbait. Currie wanted nothing more than Jones to succeed upon arriving in Knoxville, and it would go strongly against Currie's nature to execute a mid-season firing.
That said, Jones' tenure at Tennessee can now be reduced to a timing issue. It's going to happen, but not likely until deep into the season or immediately after it ends. The Vols lost 15-9 to South Carolina on Saturday to fall to 0-3 in the SEC. It marked their second loss this season on the final play of a game.
Tennessee didn't score a touchdown for the second consecutive week, as Jones' inability to find a competent offensive coordinator will go down as one of his biggest failures in Knoxville.
Tennessee's SEC losses clearly illustrate Jones' failings. The last-second losses to Florida and South Carolina reinforce the notion that Jones struggles in-game on the sideline. (Tennessee blundered the clock on its final possession, failing to spike the ball and wasting seven seconds). The Georgia game reminded Tennessee fans just how far they are from contending in the SEC East, never mind the league.
There's little advantage to firing Jones now. Currie spent his final years as Kansas State's athletic director preparing to someday replace Bill Snyder, a common-sense approach when your coach is in his 70s. Few athletic directors have worked harder over the years networking with up-and-coming coaches, getting to know established ones and generally navigating the intricate football coaching market. The aura of mystery that's surrounded the end of Snyder's tenure at Kansas State forced Currie to have a real-time understanding of the nuances of the coach hiring space. In other words, Currie is as prepared to hire a new coach as any athletic director and won't be starting from scratch.
After Tennessee gets blown out at No. 1 Alabama on Saturday to fall to 0-4 in the SEC, don't expect Currie to react. The end is coming for Jones, just not as fast as some may like."
The full article on yahoo sports here:
10 Takeaways: Pac-12 the biggest loser in a day of college football chaos
The take-away, I would say, is to keep a cool head. Support the team. Treat CBJ with some degree of respect as his time here is winding down and have confidence in Currie selecting a good replacement.
CBJ likes to talk about 1% better. And I think he really improved the program for the first 3 years - something I'm thankful for - but I dont think we are even 1% better since the 2015 season. I think we reached the plateau phase of CBJ's tenure two years ago. I think Currie knows it and hopefully we can get back to national relevance by the end of the 2019 season. Hopefully.
After all, this program has a lot of resiliency...
