Self-Imposed Death Penalty

[scvol98]

My thoughts are it was handled in the best way possible. Admission of what would be found out anyway and purging of the individuals responsible was smart. NCAA has taken to punishing the coaches more that the affiliated school (about damn time!) and those now unemployed can be given their "Show Cause" penalty, possibly saving us a year of bowl ban or possibly some scholarships.

 

[1982Alum]

Love how players desert a sinking program AFTER they take illegal favors and in some cases cash payments.

It's all the school's fault, certainly those poor innocent, under age youths can't be held accountable for their deeds.

If they cheat here; they will cheat at the school they transfer to.

 

[sonofUT62]

Stay together for the kids, ladies and gentlemen. We have to show these coaches and these kids this is the place they want to be with as much support possible.

If there’s an OW game, I plan to be as loud as I can. I honestly like Steele and I think more highly of him than most do. I’m personally excited and feel like two huge weights have been lifted off of the program. If good players leave then that sucks, but is just the price of having a Coach/AD who should never have been hired.

 

[Chicago Vols 14]

Death Penalty is serious overkill. Have any you doomsday prophets looked at what the findings of fact and penalties Ole Miss received actually were? Ole Miss was found to have committed 15 Level 1 violations, which included paying players, paying recruits, providing cars and living accommodations for players along with assisting recruits in entrance exam cheating. All of which amounted to the dreaded finding of a lack of institutional control. Their penalties? 2 year bowl ban, $179k in fines, loss of 24 scholarships over 4 years and the forfeiting of their share of SEC Bowl money for a year (around $8 million).

This hardly amounts to the death penalty or the crippling sanctions. A quality coach can over come this and be competitive in spite of this. The challenge for Tennessee is finding said quality coach that and paying him to do the job.

 

[Skippy95]

If there’s an OW game, I plan to be as loud as I can. I honestly like Steele and I think more highly of him than most do. I’m personally excited and feel like two huge weights have been lifted off of the program. If good players leave then that sucks, but is just the price of having a Coach/AD who should never have been hired.

I support Steele so much more than the crap that has been going for the last five years and I especially support the players willing to stick it out for the university. The university made a leadership decision not a popular decision.

 

[VolArmy74]

Death Penalty is serious overkill. Have any you doomsday prophets looked at what the findings of fact and penalties Ole Miss received actually were? Ole Miss was found to have committed 15 Level 1 violations, which included paying players, paying recruits, providing cars and living accommodations for players along with assisting recruits in entrance exam cheating. All of which amounted to the dreaded finding of a lack of institutional control. Their penalties? 2 year bowl ban, $179k in fines, loss of 24 scholarships over 4 years and the forfeiting of their share of SEC Bowl money for a year (around $8 million).

This hardly amounts to the death penalty or the crippling sanctions. A quality coach can over come this and be competitive in spite of this. The challenge for Tennessee is finding said quality coach that and paying him to do the job.

Alabama got 21 for sending boosters with suitcases of cash to recruits and they were already on probation when that happened.

 

[VOLnMiami]

The sad part is Steele's interim tag will be removed and he'll get a sweet long term deal based on a 5-win season. That's just how it works on Rocky Top.

Exactly where do you see 5 wins?...Our roster is completely destroyed right now...We could honestly lose every game next season.

 

[Fightmaker]

We have been sitting in the chair for 20 years. It was about time to flip the switch.

Yep. All appeals are exhausted and the governor isn’t calling.

 

[sonofUT62]

Exactly where do you see 5 wins?...Our roster is completely destroyed right now...We could honestly lose every game next season.

Maybe. But its just as likely that there will be...

1) An increased level of QB play
2) Better play calling with Pruitt not meddling
3)Team unity with some of the malcontents, undisciplined players and one alleged drug dealer gone
4) Better LB play with Felton and Nieds gone and an actual LB guru in Steele
5) an easier schedule

these things could very well even out the defections

 

[Volbrando]

Death Penalty is serious overkill. Have any you doomsday prophets looked at what the findings of fact and penalties Ole Miss received actually were? Ole Miss was found to have committed 15 Level 1 violations, which included paying players, paying recruits, providing cars and living accommodations for players along with assisting recruits in entrance exam cheating. All of which amounted to the dreaded finding of a lack of institutional control. Their penalties? 2 year bowl ban, $179k in fines, loss of 24 scholarships over 4 years and the forfeiting of their share of SEC Bowl money for a year (around $8 million).

This hardly amounts to the death penalty or the crippling sanctions. A quality coach can over come this and be competitive in spite of this. The challenge for Tennessee is finding said quality coach that and paying him to do the job.

i don’t know all the specifics but from what I hear we are going to have more violations than ole miss

 

[Thorp32]

Rucker tweet is spot on:



Terrifying to think it, but this whole chain of events looks even dumber than the Derek Dooley hire.

There was no reason to fire Pruitt. We could've just kept him thru the end of the 2021 season and made a decision then. No reason he couldn't be fired for cause in December 2021 if he could've in January 2021.

Now, we're stuck in limbo for possibly the entire 2021 season. We have to hire an AD which could take awhile. By the time we do that, it's February or March. Not a lot of coaches are going to want to take the UT job at that time of year. So either we make a terrible hire or we wait till December.

Meanwhile, all of our best players are entering the transfer portal. We're losing Gray, To'o To'o, Crouch, and probably a lot of others.

We can't effectively recruit, so we probably have a lost 2022 class, in spite of it being one of the best years for talent in Tennessee in the entire state's history.

What did we gain by firing Pruitt right now? Why not can Fulmer first, hire a replacement AD in Feb / Mar, then figure things out in November or December?

And does any competent AD really want to walk into this situation? Maybe, since there's a lot more to the job, but everyone knows they'll be judged based on football and little else.

I feel sorry for Kevin Steele. They gave him the interim job to prove himself, but they gave him no cards to play with. He's just a sacrificial lamb; it's a Matt Luke situation, where there's no way to win.

I really hope there's a light at the end of the tunnel and we somehow hire an amazing AD and an amazing HC, but right now, this looks like one of the dumbest maneuvers in college football history. A self-imposed death penalty.

Hate being this pessimistic, but even wearing orange-colored glasses, this looks ugly.

Your post completely skips one important fact. The cash in the McDonalds bags. Do you think Fulmer and the Chancellor should have simply looked away when this cheating was exposed?? No. Cheating Pruitt put UT and its leaders in this position. Boyd and the Chancellor had no other options. If UT had turned a blind eye to this cheating can you imagine the fallout and penalities. Can you say SMU!

 

[amaralfan1]

Exactly where do you see 5 wins?...Our roster is completely destroyed right now...We could honestly lose every game next season.

BGSU, Pitt, South Alabama and Vandy. There will be one surprise victory between USC, UK or Mizzou. If Pruitt could be Auburn in his first year at Tennessee, I have no doubt Steele can beat one of those three.

 

[vol1981]

That was spot on!

a spot on what?

 

[tastycar]

I'll admit I've had my bouts with sky-is-falling on the board from time to time, but we have taken a nosedive since this afternoon.

Let's try to keep it going down the tracks, fellas. We don't need a full-blown derailment at this stage of the game.

 

[VOLnMiami]

BGSU, Pitt, South Alabama and Vandy. There will be one surprise victory between USC, UK or Mizzou. If Pruitt could be Auburn in his first year at Tennessee, I have no doubt Steele can beat one of those three.

Pitt will destroy us and BGST will give us all we can handle...Vandy might be a win and south alabama MAYBE...We won't win but 1 SEC game next season...We got nobody...Everybody is leaving so it will be a super young team...Steele will not be our head coach, We'll have someone in place before the season starts or the recruiting year is going to be an absolute disaster.

 

[Chicago Vols 14]

i don’t know all the specifics but from what I hear we are going to have more violations than ole miss

and I heard Jon Gruden was interested in the Vols head coaching job twice.

 

[lilesrt]

The sad part is Steele's interim tag will be removed and he'll get a sweet long term deal based on a 5-win season. That's just how it works on Rocky Top.

Nail on the head.

 

[ABINGDON VOL FAN]

No one touched Ole Miss after they canned Hugh without paying him his buyout too.

You mean the NCAA? I’m not familiar with all the details.

Edit: Nevermind, I guess you meant the Coaches.

 

[lilesrt]

I'd rather deal with a self imposed death penalty, than one the NCAA gives us...

So you’d rather shoot yourself than be shot by someone else?

 

[99gator]

Your post completely skips one important fact. The cash in the McDonalds bags. Do you think Fulmer and the Chancellor should have simply looked away when this cheating was exposed?? No. Cheating Pruitt put UT and its leaders in this position. Boyd and the Chancellor had no other options. If UT had turned a blind eye to this cheating can you imagine the fallout and penalities. Can you say SMU!

You fire Pruitt in December. You get a coach hired in December.

I know the Administration is incompetent, but you should always have a list of 10 names ready at all times.

If the coach dies in a car accident, you should have a list ready to go

 

[CornbreadVol]

The cancerous football program has bled into our other sports as well. Just look at what happened to our #6 ranked basketball team last night against an unranked Florida team missing their 3 best players. We are Tennessee.

 

[sonofUT62]

You mean the NCAA? I’m not familiar with all the details.

Edit: Nevermind, I guess you meant the Coaches.

No I think he’s saying that our paying the buyout or not paying won’t affect interested coaches. That OM paid Freeze and still had to settle for Luke.

Edit: I re read the post and I was actually wrong.

 

[ABINGDON VOL FAN]

This may have been discussed already. Do the players hitting the transfer now have to sit out a year and do they have a chance for a waiver if UT is hit with sanctions before next fall season? What about the players who applied for the portal before 1/1/21. Do they automatically get to play in the fall of 2021?

 

[GreyWolf1129]

Pitt will destroy us and BGST will give us all we can handle...Vandy might be a win and south alabama MAYBE...We won't win but 1 SEC game next season...We got nobody...Everybody is leaving so it will be a super young team...Steele will not be our head coach, We'll have someone in place before the season starts or the recruiting year is going to be an absolute disaster.

You may be right, but the die has been cast.

Personally, I think the '21 team bests the 3 wins of this past season. Maybe by double. So we'll see.

Go Vols.

 

[ptgrbn]

Rucker tweet is spot on:



Terrifying to think it, but this whole chain of events looks even dumber than the Derek Dooley hire.

There was no reason to fire Pruitt. We could've just kept him thru the end of the 2021 season and made a decision then. No reason he couldn't be fired for cause in December 2021 if he could've in January 2021.

Now, we're stuck in limbo for possibly the entire 2021 season. We have to hire an AD which could take awhile. By the time we do that, it's February or March. Not a lot of coaches are going to want to take the UT job at that time of year. So either we make a terrible hire or we wait till December.

Meanwhile, all of our best players are entering the transfer portal. We're losing Gray, To'o To'o, Crouch, and probably a lot of others.

We can't effectively recruit, so we probably have a lost 2022 class, in spite of it being one of the best years for talent in Tennessee in the entire state's history.

What did we gain by firing Pruitt right now? Why not can Fulmer first, hire a replacement AD in Feb / Mar, then figure things out in November or December?

And does any competent AD really want to walk into this situation? Maybe, since there's a lot more to the job, but everyone knows they'll be judged based on football and little else.

I feel sorry for Kevin Steele. They gave him the interim job to prove himself, but they gave him no cards to play with. He's just a sacrificial lamb; it's a Matt Luke situation, where there's no way to win.

I really hope there's a light at the end of the tunnel and we somehow hire an amazing AD and an amazing HC, but right now, this looks like one of the dumbest maneuvers in college football history. A self-imposed death penalty.

Hate being this pessimistic, but even wearing orange-colored glasses, this looks ugly.

You folks realize that Plowman was likely coached by counsel to admit the wrongdoing phrasing it such that the malfeasance were committed by the football staff and in no way represent the actions of the university. I believe this leads the NCAA to focus the penalties on the coaches and being more merciful on the university. I think the Penn State scandal showed the NCAA what not to do in the future. Don’t penalize the innocent for the sins of the guilty.