Remember back in 2012 when our biggest targets were Charlie Strong and Mike Gundy?

#26
#26
Rickyvol77 said:
Mike Gundy
Kirk Ferentz
Charlie Strong
James Franklin
Hugh Freeze
Bobby Petrino
Dan Hawkins
Chris Petersen
Rich Rodriguez
Tommy Tubberville
Mike Leach
Scott Frost
Kevin Sumlin
Frank Beamer
Justin Wilcox
Chip Kelly
Kalen DeBoer
Lance Leopold
Dan Mullen
Dave Aranda
Deion Sanders
Tony Elliott
PJ Fleck
Troy Calhoun
Sam Pittman
Dave Doeren
Billy Napier
Tee Martin
Hal Mumme
Mike Norvell
Jimbo Fisher
Guz Malzahn
Bryan Harsin
Alex Golesh


It never fails what the board thinks is a "great coach for UT" in the last 20 years....a bunch of mediocre coaches who haven't won anything that matters..and it's hilarious that Heupel wasn't the most hyped HC but he clears them all easily.
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There are several coaches on that list who would’ve likely done well here - some of them have won conference and national titles. I like Heupel but in your mind what has he won, so far, that matters?
 
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#29
#29
Fatdad32 said:
How in the He double hockey sticks our leadership ever hired Dooley,Jones and Pruitt. Just simply leadership malpractice.

Kuddos to the current leadership at UT it's simply excellent!
😎👍
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The Dooley hire I understand given the timeline that Kiffin left us. It was still a terrible hire, but we needed someone quickly. The Jones one is head scratching, but with his resume at the time, again I get it. The Pruitt one is by far the most egregious, dumbest, most insane hire we could have made. Even with everything going on at the time, we still had people interested, such as Mike Leach. Fulmer should have been fired on the spot for even thinking of the idea.
 
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#31
#31
VolCalls said:
There are several coaches on that list who would’ve likely done well here - some of them have won conference and national titles. I like Heupel but in your mind what has he won, so far, that matters?
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Every freaking game that he has won matters. You can bet your ass every game he has lost matters to everyone.
 
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#35
#35
Savannahbayvol said:
Know i am in the minority bit i think Mullen could have succeded here.
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JG's career would have definitely been different (and better).....

History says when Mullen has a QB for 2-3 years, they tend to develop quite nicely. He was the guy I wanted bigly in 2017 and all Currie had to do was offer a contract that entailed him making a decision before the Florida job came open.

Having to deal with a big buyout from a firing a coach that didn't pan out even though they were qualified would have been a minor bump in road compared to the Schiano Sunday - Pruitt debacle.
 
#37
#37
VolCalls said:
There are several coaches on that list who would’ve likely done well here - some of them have won conference and national titles. I like Heupel but in your mind what has he won, so far, that matters?
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So Heupel is now entering the stage in his stint here were the expectations are to be the best. I think a lot of the fan base was willing to give him multiple "Year Zeroes" after he was the coach willing to take the job on the back of Pruitt's time here. He has succeeded bigly and quickly. Given that the playoff contention floor for a SEC/Big Ten team in most cases will be 9-3, Heupel should be a regular coach in the playoff and we should be running off 10-11 win regular seasons on the regular given how we lucked out with the permanent opponents.

Everyone can see there is a clear void in the SEC right now in the wake of Saban's retirement. Kirby is now the head guy, but who are the head coaches that on his heels? Sark has seemed to be smoke and mirrors. Brian Kelly seems to have possibly turned the corner, but its ugly. Heupel in 5 short seasons is winning at 71% clip at a program that was 15 years of sadness. Cue the outrage, but Lane Kiffin has seemed to have gotten himself in a good groove at Ole Miss also winning over 70% of his games a historical barely above .500 program....

Florida and Bama are reeling..


With this void at the "clear #2" spot in the league behind Georgia, I think the expectation now for Heupel should be closing the gap with Georgia and I would argue we are basically there. Beating UGA in the regular season is nice, but we must make postseason runs. We are now equipped to do that after Heupel rebuilt and energized the program in 3-4 years to where the foundation of the program and AD are rock solid.
 
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#38
#38
VolCalls said:
Maybe, but he would’ve been much better off than what we ended up with. He thumped Florida in the Sugar Bowl at Louisville and went 12-1 the following season. None of our last three coaches could’ve done that.
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Louisville was perfect for Strong, a weaker ACC and a lot of his transfers (pre NIL & easy transfers) were great athletes and marginal students from Florida schools were he had a pipeline.
 
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#39
#39
KTrain said:
Louisville was perfect for Strong, a weaker ACC and a lot of his transfers (pre NIL & easy transfers) were great athletes and marginal students from Florida schools were he had a pipeline.
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He actually got started on a good path there. I'm still shocked some of these smaller schools haven't experimented by just going and rounding up a bunch of Florida 3 star recruits on their rosters... Florida 3 star recruits in mid major schools are like 4 and 5 star Florida recruits in SEC/Big Ten schools.

Strong would have been perfect for us as he could have gotten by being a defensive minded coach because at the time, the evolution of offenses in the SEC weren't quite there yet. Going to Texas was a debacle because the Big 12 was still run and gun.
 
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#40
#40
JMSqb11 said:
He actually got started on a good path there. I'm still shocked some of these smaller schools haven't experimented by just going and rounding up a bunch of Florida 3 star recruits on their rosters... Florida 3 star recruits in mid major schools are like 4 and 5 star Florida recruits in SEC/Big Ten schools.

Strong would have been perfect for us as he could have gotten by being a defensive minded coach because at the time, the evolution of offenses in the SEC weren't quite there yet. Going to Texas was a debacle because the Big 12 was still run and gun.
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MEH.
Charlie Strong is a lifetime 51-50 coach without Teddy Bridgewater as his QB.
Probably would have been better than Dooley or Pruitt, but that is a low bar.
 
#41
#41
miket4god said:
MEH.
Charlie Strong is a lifetime 51-50 coach without Teddy Bridgewater as his QB.
Probably would have been better than Dooley or Pruitt, but that is a low bar.
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You're citing his W/L record with Texas that was a job that fit for him, but was a job nonetheless you do NOT turn down if ever offered.

Would have been better than Butch as well who was worse than Dooley. Dooley was just a bad coach. Butch was a guy who spent a few seasons to build good will and trend up only to tear it all down his last year and go after the fans. Butch is the one who people should harbor ill will towards.
 
#42
#42
JMSqb11 said:
You're citing his W/L record with Texas that was a job that fit for him, but was a job nonetheless you do NOT turn down if ever offered.

Would have been better than Butch as well who was worse than Dooley. Dooley was just a bad coach. Butch was a guy who spent a few seasons to build good will and trend up only to tear it all down his last year and go after the fans. Butch is the one who people should harbor ill will towards.
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I'm citing his entire head coaching career, including TX, minus the years with Teddy Bridgwater.
I think having Teddy as a QB in the pitiful Big East football conference made Strong look a lot better than he really was.
 
#43
#43
miket4god said:
I'm citing his entire head coaching career, including TX, minus the years with Teddy Bridgwater.
I think having Teddy as a QB in the pitiful Big East football conference made Strong look a lot better than he really was.
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He would have had easier recruiting for his type of ball here compared to run and gun in the Big12. Especially knowing he'd be recruiting against Florida in Florida.

The one coach of that entire search who had an ax to grind with our rivals and we let him walk. Dave Hart largely gets let off the hook but he really was a moron.
 
#46
#46
adam.vol said:
All of this Charlie Strong and Mike Leach reminiscing just goes to show how everyone in TN had given up on playing for championships. We were so beat down that we would have just settled for beating Florida or Bama once every 4 years.
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It’s entirely possible that either of those coaches coulda got us in the mix. Especially Leach, who got more outta less everywhere he coached. He mighta knocked the top out of it at UT…but we’ll never know.
 
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#47
#47
JMSqb11 said:
So Heupel is now entering the stage in his stint here were the expectations are to be the best. I think a lot of the fan base was willing to give him multiple "Year Zeroes" after he was the coach willing to take the job on the back of Pruitt's time here. He has succeeded bigly and quickly. Given that the playoff contention floor for a SEC/Big Ten team in most cases will be 9-3, Heupel should be a regular coach in the playoff and we should be running off 10-11 win regular seasons on the regular given how we lucked out with the permanent opponents.

Everyone can see there is a clear void in the SEC right now in the wake of Saban's retirement. Kirby is now the head guy, but who are the head coaches that on his heels? Sark has seemed to be smoke and mirrors. Brian Kelly seems to have possibly turned the corner, but its ugly. Heupel in 5 short seasons is winning at 71% clip at a program that was 15 years of sadness. Cue the outrage, but Lane Kiffin has seemed to have gotten himself in a good groove at Ole Miss also winning over 70% of his games a historical barely above .500 program....

Florida and Bama are reeling..


With this void at the "clear #2" spot in the league behind Georgia, I think the expectation now for Heupel should be closing the gap with Georgia and I would argue we are basically there. Beating UGA in the regular season is nice, but we must make postseason runs. We are now equipped to do that after Heupel rebuilt and energized the program in 3-4 years to where the foundation of the program and AD are rock solid.
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Good analysis. I agree wholeheartedly.
 
#48
#48
JMSqb11 said:
I still stand by my stance that Charlie Strong would have been a rockstar hire here had we simply offered him enough money for him to not go back to Louisville to "mule it over" for 24 hours. Once he backed out and decided to stay, we panicked and rushed into hiring Butch who's only suitor was Colorado.


That was one of the main reasons he did not take the job. He was never embraced at Texas and the donor class there was on the fence with him from day 1.

Strong had an axe to grind with one of our big rivals at the time, Florida.
Strong had extensive in roads with Florida high schools for recruiting and could have likely gotten Bridgewater to transfer
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Strong very likely would have been better than Butch
 
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#49
#49
I remember how disappointed I was when Gundy turned us down. Then when Charlie Strong seemed interested, I was like "I will settle for Charlie Strong. He'd be a good fit." Then he also used us like Gundy did to get a bigger pay day in Louisville. Then when Larry Fedora of North Carolina said, "Thanks, but no thanks", I knew that if a coach like Fedora who wasn't as big of a name as Gundy or Strong would even pass on us, I was like, "S**t, we're in big trouble now."

Truthfully, in hindsight, I don't blame them guys for passing on us. Dooley totally screwed the pooch roster wise as we were thin with depth, especially not recruiting any offensive linemen in the 2012 signing class. Before getting canned, Doolittle turned us into a giant s**tshow.
 
#50
#50
VolCalls said:
Good analysis. I agree wholeheartedly.
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rocketskates said:
Dooley was the beginning of the end. Kiffin bolted, Hamilton (RIP) panicked and made probably the second worse hire in Tennessee history after Pruitt. Dooley knew that we were desperate and negotiated a nice deal for himself. He always knew that he was in over his head but took advantage of the situation. I can't blame him, but I still despise him for it. Should've just made Thompson the interim, sucked it up for a year and targeted a real coach while the job was still desirable.
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I agree we should've had an interim for the 2010 season. But from what I heard, it was supposed to have been Kippy Brown that would have been the interim if we went that route. As far as Mike Hamilton (RIP) goes, I don't get why he panicked and went after a snake in the grass like Dooley instead of naming an interim.

We would've been really bad in 2010, but the Head Coaching job would, like you said, still be a desirable one for a really good coach or a good up-and-comer. But I think that with all the other candidates saying no to us, Hamilton felt like people were laughing at him for not being able to hire a new Coach to replace Kiffin and felt that he had to in order to save some face.

Dooley did study law and was an attorney before going into coaching. He also knew that Hamilton was desperate to get a new Coach. So, he knew how to negotiate a deal very favorable to him and not to UT, even though even he knew he was ill equipped for a job like Tennessee.

Speaking of Doolittle, there was a friend of mine I used to work with that he was a student at UT while he was still the Coach. He said that he could not only not stand Dooley as a coach, but as a person. He said that Dooley came across as a real arrogant a**hole.
 
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