WhatInVolnation
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2009
- Messages
- 841
- Likes
- 1,354
Texas and Tennessee are both languishing, Tennessee obviously more so than Texas. Texas basically had its Fulmer in Mack Brown who was truly excellent for a long period of time but always was just short of a title but then he, just like Fulmer, finally won one in 2005 and was oh so close again in 2009 but had Colt McCoy get hurt early against Alabama and lose the title game. The wheels came off thereafter for Mack. Kind of like for Fulmer after UT lost the 2001 SEC championship game to LSU. I think the parallels there are striking.
The difference, aside from the benefit of in-state talent, between Texas and Tennessee is how the two are going about getting the ship righted. When Texas came to the determination that Mack could no longer win at the highest levels, Texas fired Mack and hired Charlie Strong. Strong was a hot candidate (perhaps the hottest candidate) at the time but just didn't work out at Texas. Texas didn't sit idle and fired him after three mediocre years. Texas then went out and hired Tom Herman, who was the "IT" candidate at the time. Herman has improved the team from Strong's three years but Texas is dissatisfied with 5-3 in Herman's fourth year. Now, Texas looks like it is legitimately going after Urban Meyer (Rivals.com - Fact or Fiction: Urban Meyer will take the Texas job) despite the cost of it. Texas knows that getting a winner pays for itself. Texas, moreover, is targeting Meyer, who has won three (3) national titles, knowing full well the den of iniquity he left in Gainesville (a program that was coming unglued due to player misconduct by all accounts) under the guise of a health issue after winning two (2) national titles and then, after some time off, went to Ohio State and won one (1) national title and retired again under the guise of a health issue still with the stain of similar issues at Ohio State. And guess what, Texas DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THE MEYER BAGGAGE AT ALL. TEXAS WANTS TO WIN AND WIN BIG AND TEXAS KNOWS MEYER IS THE ONE THAT CAN DO IT.
In a parallel universe, Tennessee fired Fulmer when it came to the determination that he could no longer win at the highest levels. Instead of using its, at the time, prestige and brand power to get the hot candidate, or one of the hottest candidates, Hamilton went with Lane Kiffin. In fairness, Kiffin was probably a good hire. The issue was Hamilton committed an unforgivable gaffe in having a very low buyout even in the early years, which was probably a reaction to having to pay Fulmer a lot of money for his payout. It was absurd, of course, because UT was not going to fire Kiffin without cause in the early years (and for cause should've nixed any buyout) and that contractual fiasco allowed USCw to swoop in and leave us in the lurch after a single year. Rather than bring real money to the table and get a good coach (and also hampered by the timing), UT went cheap and hired Dooley, who was maybe the worst coach UT has ever had, and UT was never even .500 under Dooley. UT then decided to go bargain bin shopping again and we got Butch Jones after getting turned down by other candidates (including Strong) and we all know how that ended. Then, I presume because of Jimmy Haslam, UT decided to focus solely on Greg Schiano for some unknown reason when Dan Mullen was winning big ("big" being adjusted for it being Mississippi State) in Starkville while UF was flirting with Chip Kelly and others. By the time the Schiano fiasco was done, Mullen knew UF would likely be his and he refused UT's overtures as he waited for UF to come calling, which it did. UT then had to hire Pruitt - who, by the way, I think was the best option UT had once the Schiano nonsense occurred because the window for getting Mullen had closed by then and I still prefer Pruitt over the other options at the time. Now, Fulmer somehow has committed another egregious AD gaffe. He extended Pruitt but not in the cagey typical AD extension where the term increases, and maybe even a raise given, but the buyout increases only modestly and any income from another job offsets the payout. No, instead he nearly doubled the payout if UT fires Pruitt AND has no mitigation of the payout clause so Pruitt is just sitting on $12MM. Meanwhile, our nearly broke AD will not fire Pruitt and hire Freeze who we all know could win at UT. Rather than do what is necessary to win, UT and its fans clutch our pearls about the money to buy Pruitt out and about Freeze's baggage, which is admittedly considerable but, I would suggest, not to the level of Meyer's baggage. The notable difference between Meyer and Freeze is, of course, the national titles but not much else.
So, where we are is we count our pennies and clutch our pearls in Knoxville and have a misplaced arrogance in Tennessee being too good for someone like Freeze because he cheated to recruit and called escorts with Ole Miss phones. Meanwhile, Texas is going to go hire Meyer, despite all of his notable transgressions. The end result will be Texas will win a national title within the next five years and we will be bargain bin shopping in 2021 after Freeze has headed elsewhere, likely Auburn, and we will just wander the hinterlands of college football forever.
The difference, aside from the benefit of in-state talent, between Texas and Tennessee is how the two are going about getting the ship righted. When Texas came to the determination that Mack could no longer win at the highest levels, Texas fired Mack and hired Charlie Strong. Strong was a hot candidate (perhaps the hottest candidate) at the time but just didn't work out at Texas. Texas didn't sit idle and fired him after three mediocre years. Texas then went out and hired Tom Herman, who was the "IT" candidate at the time. Herman has improved the team from Strong's three years but Texas is dissatisfied with 5-3 in Herman's fourth year. Now, Texas looks like it is legitimately going after Urban Meyer (Rivals.com - Fact or Fiction: Urban Meyer will take the Texas job) despite the cost of it. Texas knows that getting a winner pays for itself. Texas, moreover, is targeting Meyer, who has won three (3) national titles, knowing full well the den of iniquity he left in Gainesville (a program that was coming unglued due to player misconduct by all accounts) under the guise of a health issue after winning two (2) national titles and then, after some time off, went to Ohio State and won one (1) national title and retired again under the guise of a health issue still with the stain of similar issues at Ohio State. And guess what, Texas DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THE MEYER BAGGAGE AT ALL. TEXAS WANTS TO WIN AND WIN BIG AND TEXAS KNOWS MEYER IS THE ONE THAT CAN DO IT.
In a parallel universe, Tennessee fired Fulmer when it came to the determination that he could no longer win at the highest levels. Instead of using its, at the time, prestige and brand power to get the hot candidate, or one of the hottest candidates, Hamilton went with Lane Kiffin. In fairness, Kiffin was probably a good hire. The issue was Hamilton committed an unforgivable gaffe in having a very low buyout even in the early years, which was probably a reaction to having to pay Fulmer a lot of money for his payout. It was absurd, of course, because UT was not going to fire Kiffin without cause in the early years (and for cause should've nixed any buyout) and that contractual fiasco allowed USCw to swoop in and leave us in the lurch after a single year. Rather than bring real money to the table and get a good coach (and also hampered by the timing), UT went cheap and hired Dooley, who was maybe the worst coach UT has ever had, and UT was never even .500 under Dooley. UT then decided to go bargain bin shopping again and we got Butch Jones after getting turned down by other candidates (including Strong) and we all know how that ended. Then, I presume because of Jimmy Haslam, UT decided to focus solely on Greg Schiano for some unknown reason when Dan Mullen was winning big ("big" being adjusted for it being Mississippi State) in Starkville while UF was flirting with Chip Kelly and others. By the time the Schiano fiasco was done, Mullen knew UF would likely be his and he refused UT's overtures as he waited for UF to come calling, which it did. UT then had to hire Pruitt - who, by the way, I think was the best option UT had once the Schiano nonsense occurred because the window for getting Mullen had closed by then and I still prefer Pruitt over the other options at the time. Now, Fulmer somehow has committed another egregious AD gaffe. He extended Pruitt but not in the cagey typical AD extension where the term increases, and maybe even a raise given, but the buyout increases only modestly and any income from another job offsets the payout. No, instead he nearly doubled the payout if UT fires Pruitt AND has no mitigation of the payout clause so Pruitt is just sitting on $12MM. Meanwhile, our nearly broke AD will not fire Pruitt and hire Freeze who we all know could win at UT. Rather than do what is necessary to win, UT and its fans clutch our pearls about the money to buy Pruitt out and about Freeze's baggage, which is admittedly considerable but, I would suggest, not to the level of Meyer's baggage. The notable difference between Meyer and Freeze is, of course, the national titles but not much else.
So, where we are is we count our pennies and clutch our pearls in Knoxville and have a misplaced arrogance in Tennessee being too good for someone like Freeze because he cheated to recruit and called escorts with Ole Miss phones. Meanwhile, Texas is going to go hire Meyer, despite all of his notable transgressions. The end result will be Texas will win a national title within the next five years and we will be bargain bin shopping in 2021 after Freeze has headed elsewhere, likely Auburn, and we will just wander the hinterlands of college football forever.
