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Thank You To Former Athletic Director John Currie
- Thread starter Volfan1000
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Too many of our ADs have been facilities geeks. Not enough of them have been anywhere close to requirements as personnel evaluators.
I give Currie credit for being able to make the kind of call on this sport that Dr. Dougherty made when he replaced a
modestly-successful M.B. Banks with a first year assistant line coach.
Long-term, this is a hire that can do for baseball what the Neyland hire did for the football program. In the short-term, Vitello has most certainly had a Neyland-level impact on this program.
In a world where the money matters, making a transformational change giving your athletics program another potential revenue-generator lifts all boats and certainly is a massive plus in the win column for the man who was able to make that happen.
I give Currie credit for being able to make the kind of call on this sport that Dr. Dougherty made when he replaced a
modestly-successful M.B. Banks with a first year assistant line coach.
Long-term, this is a hire that can do for baseball what the Neyland hire did for the football program. In the short-term, Vitello has most certainly had a Neyland-level impact on this program.
In a world where the money matters, making a transformational change giving your athletics program another potential revenue-generator lifts all boats and certainly is a massive plus in the win column for the man who was able to make that happen.
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And honestly, it seems like last year's baseball run sparked something across UT athletics. That was followed by Heupel exceeding Year 1 expectations...fans are really excited about football and recruiting there has momentum. The basketball program is rolling and will be good again next year. UT fans are very excited across the board right now, but it seems like it started in April-June with this baseball program's exciting run.
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While I don’t disagree that Hamilton was the beginning of the end of Tennessee football the two clowns and Phil afterwards made horrible hires in multiple athletic positions. I love Fulmer but Pruitt tarnished his legacy. Tony V is great but any thought that Currie foresaw this type of success is ridiculous. He hired him for his potential. Oh and I have a list Dave Hart…….don’t get me started.
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Currie's biggest mistake was not having a plan B behind Schiano, thinking that the Haslam touch would prove golden on that firestorm, particularly in light of the constant shakeup and lack of success with the Browns. The Fulmeristas and Fulmer himself poisoned the well on the remnants of the coaching search and bamboozled Bev Davenport into letting Fulmer back on the payroll with zero athletic department experience and a one way ticket to the NCAA infractions committee.
Hopefully, that sordid dysfunctional period is behind us, possibly replicating itself in other places like Auburn and LSU.
Hopefully, that sordid dysfunctional period is behind us, possibly replicating itself in other places like Auburn and LSU.
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chuckiepoo
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Nike delivered Rick Barnes to Tennessee on a silver platter, after Texas hit the eject button, with new money going into the Nike apparel agreement the July after Barnes hit the payroll earlier that year. Hart had nothing to do with the Barnes hire other than asking where he needed to sign the contract.
Handsome Dave was anxious to get the Donnie Tyndall mess behind him, so he wrote a more than two million a year check without asking a lot of questions, as that amount was well in excess of what he was planning on spending. Hart refused to engage a search firm to assist after he left Cuonzo out to dry, stating he had played basketball at Florida State, he knew how to hire a basketball coach, leaving us Donnie "GO Vals" as Hart's panic hire.
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chuckiepoo
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I thought doing that merely put him on thin ice with the fan base. Not that it wasn't deserved...
What I thought put him over the edge was going rogue and meeting with Coach Mike Leach without anyone at the university knowing about it.
What I thought put him over the edge was going rogue and meeting with Coach Mike Leach without anyone at the university knowing about it.
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chuckiepoo
The hire comes as somewhat of a surprise, given that many fans wanted VFL Chris Burke or even former assistant Ash Lawson. But as we’ve seen with Currie, he seems to make moves that people don’t see coming.
Although Vitello has never been a head coach at this level, he does seem to have potential. He’s a fairly young guy and has shown the ability to recruit at an elite level. In terms of actual coaching and managing, that’s yet to be seen. Currie is going against the grain and it’s kind of refreshing to see. For now, we’ll all just have to take the wait-and-see approach with this hire.
Although Vitello has never been a head coach at this level, he does seem to have potential. He’s a fairly young guy and has shown the ability to recruit at an elite level. In terms of actual coaching and managing, that’s yet to be seen. Currie is going against the grain and it’s kind of refreshing to see. For now, we’ll all just have to take the wait-and-see approach with this hire.
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chuckiepoo
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