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

[VolCalls]

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.

By all indications, Dooley was not only a horrible coach but a horrible person. He’s the primary reason I stopped caring about the program for over a decade, until Heupel came along.

 

[sambronkowitz]

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.

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!

With Dooley, after Kiffin bolted for USC and left us in a bad situation, we kept having coaches pass on us. Instead of naming an interim, I think that Hamilton felt like he was being ridiculed because he kept being told "Thanks, but no thanks". So, he hired Derek Dooley to save face. Dooley was an attorney before he got into coaching. So, he was shrewd in the art of negotiating. He knew how desperate Hamilton was of landing a new coach. He negotiated a deal very favorable to him to agree to become the new Head Coach, even though anyone could see that he would be in over his head at Tennessee.

With Butch, I don't blame Dave Hart, our AD at the time. He tried to get us a good Coach. Gundy was first, and he turned us down to get a raise at Oklahoma State. Then we made an offer to Charlie Strong. He said that he wanted to "Go home and sleep on it." But he used us to negotiate a bigger pay day with Louisville. Then we asked North Carolina Head Coach Larry Fedora. He also passed on us.

We didn't have many more options left. And you can't blame a big-name Coach for leaving their program to come to ours at the time. Dooley decimated the roster and left the cupboards bare. And he also was so incompetent, he didn't even recruit any offensive linemen in his last class. Butch was the best we could get at the time.

Then, with Pruitt, John Currie tried to pull one over us and sneak Greg Schiano in the back door. Unfortunately, he couldn't read the room, and both were met with a huge backlash. So, Currie panicked and reneged on the deal with Schiano. Then the Coaching search turned into a national s**tshow. When Currie got fired, and Fulmer was hired to replace him, we didn't have many options left. So, we ended up with Pruitt.

When Pruitt got canned and Fulmer resigned, we got very blessed with Danny White as the AD and Josh Heupel as our Coach. We truly got very fortunate with them. White has helped turn several of our programs into winners, and Heupel has made us competitive and back into the upper tier of the SEC. They have made UT Football relevant again.

 

[JMSqb11]

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.

I don’t think Strong used us. I think had we paid a tad more, he would have came.

 

[JMSqb11]

With Dooley, after Kiffin bolted for USC and left us in a bad situation, we kept having coaches pass on us. Instead of naming an interim, I think that Hamilton felt like he was being ridiculed because he kept being told "Thanks, but no thanks". So, he hired Derek Dooley to save face. Dooley was an attorney before he got into coaching. So, he was shrewd in the art of negotiating. He knew how desperate Hamilton was of landing a new coach. He negotiated a deal very favorable to him to agree to become the new Head Coach, even though anyone could see that he would be in over his head at Tennessee.

With Butch, I don't blame Dave Hart, our AD at the time. He tried to get us a good Coach. Gundy was first, and he turned us down to get a raise at Oklahoma State. Then we made an offer to Charlie Strong. He said that he wanted to "Go home and sleep on it." But he used us to negotiate a bigger pay day with Louisville. Then we asked North Carolina Head Coach Larry Fedora. He also passed on us.

We didn't have many more options left. And you can't blame a big-name Coach for leaving their program to come to ours at the time. Dooley decimated the roster and left the cupboards bare. And he also was so incompetent, he didn't even recruit any offensive linemen in his last class. Butch was the best we could get at the time.

Then, with Pruitt, John Currie tried to pull one over us and sneak Greg Schiano in the back door. Unfortunately, he couldn't read the room, and both were met with a huge backlash. So, Currie panicked and reneged on the deal with Schiano. Then the Coaching search turned into a national s**tshow. When Currie got fired, and Fulmer was hired to replace him, we didn't have many options left. So, we ended up with Pruitt.

When Pruitt got canned and Fulmer resigned, we got very blessed with Danny White as the AD and Josh Heupel as our Coach. We truly got very fortunate with them. White has helped turn several of our programs into winners, and Heupel has made us competitive and back into the upper tier of the SEC. They have made UT Football relevant again.

Or Hamilton could have simple hired Cut and allowed him to pick his entire staff instead of forcing assistants on the next hire.

Dooley got the job because he was the only one willing to take on assistants under contract.

 

[JMSqb11]

By all indications, Dooley was not only a horrible coach but a horrible person. He’s the primary reason I stopped caring about the program for over a decade, until Heupel came along.

Ah yes, Derek Dooley the snake and toxic person lmao…. What a wild take…

 

[LegionnaireOfTheMiserable]

Remember when we collectively sh!t all over Greg Schiano and wound up with Cornbread Gump?

we were so dumb and desperate

Schiano would have also been a horrible hire. Pruitt at least was an unknown and squinting hard enough could make him seem like a Kirby Smart type.

Fans were right to do the Schiano thing and we probably wouldn’t be where we are now without it

 

[LegionnaireOfTheMiserable]

Or Hamilton could have simple hired Cut and allowed him to pick his entire staff instead of forcing assistants on the next hire.

Dooley got the job because he was the only one willing to take on assistants under contract.

I wonder if Cut would take the job so soon after Fulmer was ousted though.

 

[LegionnaireOfTheMiserable]

Ah yes, Derek Dooley the snake and toxic person lmao…. What a wild take…

I was once told by someone who worked directly with the head football coach from the days of Fulmer up to Butch who said Dooley was the most petulant human being she ever worked for and a genuinely bad guy to most everyone but the players.

I also knew a player who begged Dooley for help getting him into rehab due to a pill addiction that started after an injury and Dooley’s response was to tell him to transfer if he wanted help. These were completely independent of one another and came from people who would have had no reason to lie.

 

[JMSqb11]

I was once told by someone who worked directly with the head football coach from the days of Fulmer up to Butch who said Dooley was the most petulant human being she ever worked for and a genuinely bad guy to most everyone but the players.

I also knew a player who begged Dooley for help getting him into rehab due to a pill addiction that started after an injury and Dooley’s response was to tell him to transfer if he wanted help. These were completely independent of one another and came from people who would have had no reason to lie.

I know someone who told me Dooley gave them a winning lottery ticket.

 

[LegionnaireOfTheMiserable]

I know someone who told me Dooley gave them a winning lottery ticket.

Dooley is far too litigious to do that without getting his share

 

[VolCalls]

I was once told by someone who worked directly with the head football coach from the days of Fulmer up to Butch who said Dooley was the most petulant human being she ever worked for and a genuinely bad guy to most everyone but the players.

I also knew a player who begged Dooley for help getting him into rehab due to a pill addiction that started after an injury and Dooley’s response was to tell him to transfer if he wanted help. These were completely independent of one another and came from people who would have had no reason to lie.

Yep. This right here.

 

[EZE]

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.

I think the good news is that Heupel himself has the same expectations.

 

[Volizona]

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.

Chris Pedersen stands out. He was great for two programs and his teams always over performed their talent levels. I would also probably taken about half of these coaches over the 3 pre Heupel

 

[Wahoooo]

If we promote Kippy Brown to HC after Kiffin left, we would not have been in the mess we were in.

I’m not saying Kippy would have been on par to compete with Saban, however what other coach was at the time? I know Gus and Freeze had their moments, but neither was successful in the long run vs Saban.

 

[RandomUTfan]

If we promote Kippy Brown to HC after Kiffin left, we would not have been in the mess we were in.

I’m not saying Kippy would have been on par to compete with Saban, however what other coach was at the time? I know Gus and Freeze had their moments, but neither was successful in the long run vs Saban.

It really would have been interesting to see. Kippy would have busted his butt for sure. And he would have appreciated the opportunity. There was just no way it was going to happen. It wasn't even a remote possibility.

 

[UTFranklinVol]

Schiano would have also been a horrible hire. Pruitt at least was an unknown and squinting hard enough could make him seem like a Kirby Smart type.

Fans were right to do the Schiano thing and we probably wouldn’t be where we are now without it

that doesn't change history. we threw a tantrum and didn't get anything good out of it. we can't even complain the right way.

 

[OrangeBeachVol]

With Dooley, after Kiffin bolted for USC and left us in a bad situation, we kept having coaches pass on us. Instead of naming an interim, I think that Hamilton felt like he was being ridiculed because he kept being told "Thanks, but no thanks". So, he hired Derek Dooley to save face. Dooley was an attorney before he got into coaching. So, he was shrewd in the art of negotiating. He knew how desperate Hamilton was of landing a new coach. He negotiated a deal very favorable to him to agree to become the new Head Coach, even though anyone could see that he would be in over his head at Tennessee.

With Butch, I don't blame Dave Hart, our AD at the time. He tried to get us a good Coach. Gundy was first, and he turned us down to get a raise at Oklahoma State. Then we made an offer to Charlie Strong. He said that he wanted to "Go home and sleep on it." But he used us to negotiate a bigger pay day with Louisville. Then we asked North Carolina Head Coach Larry Fedora. He also passed on us.

We didn't have many more options left. And you can't blame a big-name Coach for leaving their program to come to ours at the time. Dooley decimated the roster and left the cupboards bare. And he also was so incompetent, he didn't even recruit any offensive linemen in his last class. Butch was the best we could get at the time.

Then, with Pruitt, John Currie tried to pull one over us and sneak Greg Schiano in the back door. Unfortunately, he couldn't read the room, and both were met with a huge backlash. So, Currie panicked and reneged on the deal with Schiano. Then the Coaching search turned into a national s**tshow. When Currie got fired, and Fulmer was hired to replace him, we didn't have many options left. So, we ended up with Pruitt.

When Pruitt got canned and Fulmer resigned, we got very blessed with Danny White as the AD and Josh Heupel as our Coach. We truly got very fortunate with them. White has helped turn several of our programs into winners, and Heupel has made us competitive and back into the upper tier of the SEC. They have made UT Football relevant again.

Good post Fulmer coaching history summary, and correct. UT got a number of coaches big raises and extensions during that period. We were the laughing stock of CFB.

 

[perico]

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.

They both sucked and were both massive weinerheads.

 

[perico]

Ah yes, Derek Dooley the snake and toxic person lmao…. What a wild take…

Dooley sucked as a person as well. Ask anyone who worked in the AD at the time. He would yell at staff if a wastebasket wasn’t in the right place and basically treated people like dirt and beneath him.

 

[perico]

I wonder if Cut would take the job so soon after Fulmer was ousted though.

He did accept our offer. The hangup was that Hamilton wouldn’t let him hire his own assistants.

It was even announced on ESPN that Cutcliffe had been hired as our coach.

 

[sjt18]

I do. But here's the thing and Bama is probably facing it now. When you have a great or even good coach at a program that expects results and you lose them... you are probably going to wander in the wilderness for a while. You can obviously self-sabotage as UT did with some of its hires. You can also hire guys who in some other circumstance or school might be successful but cannot overcome the challenges at your school.

There are no OJT type jobs in the SEC. There are few if any opportunities to slowly build a program and roster from Vandy type talent to UGA level talent. You come in in high gear and prove you can coach... or you don't the talent or time to grow. Just a cruel reality but "time" and patience aren't things you can afford if you want to compete in the SEC. Results breed results.

There weren't a lot of people jumping up and down when UT hired Heupel. Many if not most considered him just another guy in a growing list of middling (up and coming) coaches that would probably fail and be fired. I think he is a great coach but he also hit UT at the right time with the right opportunities.

DeBoer (who is interestingly also from SD) went from playing for a NC two years ago to having people openly discussing his buyout. You can say Bama needs more patience but what does that get them? If they lose games that look like possibilities right now- UGA, UT, Mizzou, OU, Auburn, LSU, and even Vandy... do those recruits stay with a coach who is probably on his way out? Bama cannot really afford to be patient. They're surrounded by programs with a lot of recruiting pull.

That ramble is to say this. When you go from stable to unstable, there are no guarantees for when you'll see success a year or how deep the valley will be. UT's was long. UT's was deep.

PS- Clemson looks like they're on this precipice too. And you have to like the work UT has done in NC if Dabo is gone... and maybe even with in state players.

 

[sjt18]

He did accept our offer. The hangup was that Hamilton wouldn’t let him hire his own assistants.

It was even announced on ESPN that Cutcliffe had been hired as our coach.

In retrospect one of the dumbest in a whole line of dumb decisions. Cut might have brought NC's back to UT.

 

[HeuperDrive]

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.

I mean, a lot of the coaches on here are good coaches who could’ve done well here. Little bit too broad of a brush imo.

Like, I hardly see how Frank Beamer, the man who turned Virginia Tech into one of cfb’s best programs for a while, was “mediocre” and never won “anything that matters”. That’s like saying Bill Snyder was mediocre. Chris Petersen, who took Washington to the CFP and had multiple 10+ win seasons at Boise State, was mediocre? Lance Leipold, who has completely turned Kansas around, is mediocre?

You took this a bit too far lol.