Orange Blazer
You serious Clark?
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2011
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This is from a poster on Volquest. This guy really makes some good points, and I thought Volnation should read it.
"This opinion comes from a 30 year season ticket holder who graduated from UT and worked in the athletic department during Coach Battle's last year and Coach Majors first three years. One of the many great things about an opinion is that time only proves whether the opinion is right or wrong!
1. We are where we are because our football program became lazy, caught up in past success. We didn't want to admit it because we really did like our football coach of 15 or so years, but in retrospect, the program had become tired as evidenced by lack of discipline, lack of vision, lack of intense competitiveness, and lack of commitment to being excellent. Heck, we as fans had become complacent and spoiled as evidenced by lack of travel to bowl games, etc..
2. Our previous athletic director, while a great guy, made a horrible hire to replace our longtime coach. The idea was paritally right - bring in a guy who would recruit more aggressively and bring back the intensity, but the cultural fit was terrible. WE ARE TENNESSEE, and we don't have to be someone else to be successful. Plus, character should be a prerequisite for any hire in any business, and we now see that was sorely lacking.
3. Let's looks at four (4) coaches who have taken over programs and see their early results - Saban @ Mich St - first four (4) years - 6-5-1, 6-6, 7-6, 6-6, then he goes 7-6 @ Alabama in year 1 losing to Louisiana Monroe; Spurrier @ South Carolina - first five (5) years - 7-5, 8-5, 6-6, 7-6, 7-6; Petrino @ Arkansas - first two (2) years - 5-7, 8-5; and John Majors @ Pitt - first three (3) years - 6-5, 7-4, 8-4 & UT first six (6) years - 4-7, 5-5-1, 7-5, 5-6, 8-4, 6-5-1. What do these numbers prove? It is hard to take a struggling program and generate immediate results. It is also hard to be a passionate fan and live through those down years. It is perfectly normal to want to be more successful and question is the program really on track. I recall that lot's of folks questioned whether Coach Majors was really going to be able to return the program to greatness, yet today, you wouldn't find many UT fans who wouldn't say that Coach Majors was a very good football coach. Same with Coach Spurrier - before last year, many thought he was going to retire in frustration with his lack of high level success @ South Carolina, yet who would debate that he is not a very good college coach? Then, there is Saban. Is there a debate about his coaching ability? Yet, he lost 3 games with the defending national champions last year, had four (4) average seasons @ Mich St. & lost to Louisiana Monroe his first year @ Alabama (now a distant memory!).
4. Honestly, none of us know if Derek Dooley's tenure @ UT is going to be as successful as we all hope he will be. I would think that we would all agree that he has been dealt a terrible hand - huge attrition prior to and early after his arrival, NCAA investigation going on during his first 18 months on the job, hired 3 weeks before signing day in 2010, having to play freshman in key positions early, and this year's schedule is brutal with playing the top 3 teams in the West (including the #1 & #2 teams in the country back to back - after losing your starting quarterback). Yet, it appears he is doing many of the right things - restoring discipline and accountability to the program to both the student athletes and staff (does anyone think he will tolerate NCAA rules violations?), restoring expectations of excellence within the program, he gets the culture of our university and state, he is recruiting well (albeit not fabulously), has taken some well calculated risks (fake punts, onside kicks), and he is very well spoken, representing the university very well nationally. He also has made a few tactical errors - hiring Chuck Smith and too many men on the field @ LSU last year ( I was there and I still don't believe that happened! LSU fans were more pissed at their coach after that game and they won!). Dooley has handled that situation and the vast majority of situations with great class (I was also at the Music City Bowl last year).
5. It is not wrong to have high expectations. Crap, nobody enjoys losing consistently to your top rivals. It's no fun at all; however, we need to be realists about our immediate expectations, especially losing our best DB before the season, our quarterback, our best WR, and some would say our best LB. Those are real losses that programs who are stable would have a challenge to overcome.
6. There are areas of improvement - heck, we even looked better in the return game this past Saturday than Georgia. That is saying something when we were struggling to even field a punt last year! I used to be worried silly at each kickoff or punt that we were going to give up a big return, but we appear to have that solved. Without a playmaker on defense, so far, we are better than last year. Our passing game with Bray, is much improved, especially when we had our full compliment of receivers. Our OL pass protection has improved. Darr actually kicked a couple of boomers Saturday night.
7. There are still areas that need to improve - for the life of me, I can't figure out how we have kickers who kick the ball so low on FG's and extra points! To me it is hard to tell if the OL can run block, because we are not where we need to be in terms of having a great running back, but I bet if we had someone with speed, vision and illusiveness, the OL would look better. Remember, without Hunter (and now Bray), defenses can play us entirely differently. With those 2 guys on the field, we actually had a chance to dictate what defenses had to defend. We are missing a couple of difference makers on defense. Someone who can disrupt. We have to play sound and perfect on defense, cause we are not creating fear in opposing offense's based on what we can do to disrupt them.
8. My opinion is that next year is really the first time we can begin to evaluate are we getting back to what we all hope and expect. That doesn't mean we should not have expectations now - we clearly should, it is just that putting those expectations in wins and loses is only going to lead to more frustration. We should expect improvement, continued better recruiting, improved discipline in the program, and the team playing with passion/playing hard. Seems those things are happening. I thought we had an outside shot at maybe 8-4 this year; however, injuries to key players have really altered that potential (what did Derek Dooley do to deserve such horrible luck?). I truly hope we go 6-6 and back to a bowl game (stealing one from either SC or Arkansas would be a bonus). That said, it is dangerous to place our hopes on wins and losses this year.
9. Dave Hart is an AD who knows what success looks like and knows what it takes to get there. He will not be swayed in the breeze by minority opinions, or opinions of those who really don't know what they are talking about. He has been around very successful winning programs and winning coaches. My guess is that Derek Dooley is thrilled to have Dave Hart as his boss, as he knows Hart knows what progress looks like.
Lastly, it is going to be loads of fun when this thing gets turned around. We will all appreciate success more - team & fans. We are just going to have to be patient to get there. I'm not talking just blind patience. Average rational fans will be able to tell if progress is being made in the right direction. I wouldn't speculate on wins next year, but I would bet that we won't be worried if we will get 6 wins to make it to a bowl game. Will we win the East - who knows, but I bet teams won't be excited to play us.
Let's all hang in there and remember - WE ARE TENNESSEE!!!"
"This opinion comes from a 30 year season ticket holder who graduated from UT and worked in the athletic department during Coach Battle's last year and Coach Majors first three years. One of the many great things about an opinion is that time only proves whether the opinion is right or wrong!
1. We are where we are because our football program became lazy, caught up in past success. We didn't want to admit it because we really did like our football coach of 15 or so years, but in retrospect, the program had become tired as evidenced by lack of discipline, lack of vision, lack of intense competitiveness, and lack of commitment to being excellent. Heck, we as fans had become complacent and spoiled as evidenced by lack of travel to bowl games, etc..
2. Our previous athletic director, while a great guy, made a horrible hire to replace our longtime coach. The idea was paritally right - bring in a guy who would recruit more aggressively and bring back the intensity, but the cultural fit was terrible. WE ARE TENNESSEE, and we don't have to be someone else to be successful. Plus, character should be a prerequisite for any hire in any business, and we now see that was sorely lacking.
3. Let's looks at four (4) coaches who have taken over programs and see their early results - Saban @ Mich St - first four (4) years - 6-5-1, 6-6, 7-6, 6-6, then he goes 7-6 @ Alabama in year 1 losing to Louisiana Monroe; Spurrier @ South Carolina - first five (5) years - 7-5, 8-5, 6-6, 7-6, 7-6; Petrino @ Arkansas - first two (2) years - 5-7, 8-5; and John Majors @ Pitt - first three (3) years - 6-5, 7-4, 8-4 & UT first six (6) years - 4-7, 5-5-1, 7-5, 5-6, 8-4, 6-5-1. What do these numbers prove? It is hard to take a struggling program and generate immediate results. It is also hard to be a passionate fan and live through those down years. It is perfectly normal to want to be more successful and question is the program really on track. I recall that lot's of folks questioned whether Coach Majors was really going to be able to return the program to greatness, yet today, you wouldn't find many UT fans who wouldn't say that Coach Majors was a very good football coach. Same with Coach Spurrier - before last year, many thought he was going to retire in frustration with his lack of high level success @ South Carolina, yet who would debate that he is not a very good college coach? Then, there is Saban. Is there a debate about his coaching ability? Yet, he lost 3 games with the defending national champions last year, had four (4) average seasons @ Mich St. & lost to Louisiana Monroe his first year @ Alabama (now a distant memory!).
4. Honestly, none of us know if Derek Dooley's tenure @ UT is going to be as successful as we all hope he will be. I would think that we would all agree that he has been dealt a terrible hand - huge attrition prior to and early after his arrival, NCAA investigation going on during his first 18 months on the job, hired 3 weeks before signing day in 2010, having to play freshman in key positions early, and this year's schedule is brutal with playing the top 3 teams in the West (including the #1 & #2 teams in the country back to back - after losing your starting quarterback). Yet, it appears he is doing many of the right things - restoring discipline and accountability to the program to both the student athletes and staff (does anyone think he will tolerate NCAA rules violations?), restoring expectations of excellence within the program, he gets the culture of our university and state, he is recruiting well (albeit not fabulously), has taken some well calculated risks (fake punts, onside kicks), and he is very well spoken, representing the university very well nationally. He also has made a few tactical errors - hiring Chuck Smith and too many men on the field @ LSU last year ( I was there and I still don't believe that happened! LSU fans were more pissed at their coach after that game and they won!). Dooley has handled that situation and the vast majority of situations with great class (I was also at the Music City Bowl last year).
5. It is not wrong to have high expectations. Crap, nobody enjoys losing consistently to your top rivals. It's no fun at all; however, we need to be realists about our immediate expectations, especially losing our best DB before the season, our quarterback, our best WR, and some would say our best LB. Those are real losses that programs who are stable would have a challenge to overcome.
6. There are areas of improvement - heck, we even looked better in the return game this past Saturday than Georgia. That is saying something when we were struggling to even field a punt last year! I used to be worried silly at each kickoff or punt that we were going to give up a big return, but we appear to have that solved. Without a playmaker on defense, so far, we are better than last year. Our passing game with Bray, is much improved, especially when we had our full compliment of receivers. Our OL pass protection has improved. Darr actually kicked a couple of boomers Saturday night.
7. There are still areas that need to improve - for the life of me, I can't figure out how we have kickers who kick the ball so low on FG's and extra points! To me it is hard to tell if the OL can run block, because we are not where we need to be in terms of having a great running back, but I bet if we had someone with speed, vision and illusiveness, the OL would look better. Remember, without Hunter (and now Bray), defenses can play us entirely differently. With those 2 guys on the field, we actually had a chance to dictate what defenses had to defend. We are missing a couple of difference makers on defense. Someone who can disrupt. We have to play sound and perfect on defense, cause we are not creating fear in opposing offense's based on what we can do to disrupt them.
8. My opinion is that next year is really the first time we can begin to evaluate are we getting back to what we all hope and expect. That doesn't mean we should not have expectations now - we clearly should, it is just that putting those expectations in wins and loses is only going to lead to more frustration. We should expect improvement, continued better recruiting, improved discipline in the program, and the team playing with passion/playing hard. Seems those things are happening. I thought we had an outside shot at maybe 8-4 this year; however, injuries to key players have really altered that potential (what did Derek Dooley do to deserve such horrible luck?). I truly hope we go 6-6 and back to a bowl game (stealing one from either SC or Arkansas would be a bonus). That said, it is dangerous to place our hopes on wins and losses this year.
9. Dave Hart is an AD who knows what success looks like and knows what it takes to get there. He will not be swayed in the breeze by minority opinions, or opinions of those who really don't know what they are talking about. He has been around very successful winning programs and winning coaches. My guess is that Derek Dooley is thrilled to have Dave Hart as his boss, as he knows Hart knows what progress looks like.
Lastly, it is going to be loads of fun when this thing gets turned around. We will all appreciate success more - team & fans. We are just going to have to be patient to get there. I'm not talking just blind patience. Average rational fans will be able to tell if progress is being made in the right direction. I wouldn't speculate on wins next year, but I would bet that we won't be worried if we will get 6 wins to make it to a bowl game. Will we win the East - who knows, but I bet teams won't be excited to play us.
Let's all hang in there and remember - WE ARE TENNESSEE!!!"
