This program is at a crossroads. Many have already stated as much, but itÂ’s not hyperbole to say that another bad hire now, and specifically a bad hire meaning an inept coach, could put the ninth-winningest FBS program in the grave. It really could put us in a spot from which we would never recover.
The fan apathy might start subtly at first: perhaps only 90,000 for the first home game next September rather than a packed house. But as the reality gradually sets in that we did indeed once again pay a top-tier-level salary to a mid-tier-level coach who will always get owned in the SEC, the empty seats will multiply. And as the mediocrity moves into its second decade, the four- and five-star recruits will become a distant memory; actually defeating ranked opponents, rather than playing them close now and then, will become a distant memory. Subsequent coaching searches will always start out with groans and laughs from the rest of the country because theyÂ’ll wait in chuckling anticipation for us to hire yet another loser because thatÂ’s all we can get. 4-8 will have long since been eclipsed as the worst season in our history.
There will be more cursive As and gators and black-and-red Gs on car bumpers than there will be power Ts. Fans of other teams, when they move here, will openly mock us, living here right among us, and tell us how weÂ’re not a top program anymore and never will be (oh, wait, that already happens now - happened today on 102.5). WeÂ’ll be roundly mocked for thinking weÂ’re Vanderbilt in academics and not having either their level of scholarship or football achievement because their football team will have dominated us for a decade and more.
At the point that the revenue no longer justifies even the thought of hiring a premier coach, the administration will resign themselves, perhaps happily, to no longer bothering to try, and no one will protest because the greatness of years past will be such a distant memory that it no longer even seems to have any connection to the football program now. Students will see the football team as a running joke rather than a source of pride and the heart of the school; theyÂ’ll attend games only because they didnÂ’t get invited to do anything else that Saturday. Fans will no longer travel from other states, or even other sections of the state to watch the games; the stadium will be downsized for more efficient maintenance and so we donÂ’t look ridiculous the rare times weÂ’re shown on a national TV network. As the quality of recruits dips more and more, and the product drifts further and further away from the Neyland standard, the stadium will be downsized again as more and more fans walk away permanently.
It may indeed be too late. The national media, if they are to be believed, would tell us that we brought this on ourselves; and not a one of them who has said this doesnÂ’t know in his or her heart that theyÂ’re being disingenuous. Many of us have already bought into their lie, and now we feel that somehow we must resign ourselves to our fate.
Until the moment that a contract is signed, there is still hope. Is it ridiculous to demand what is right a second time, just because the first time others disagreed with you? Do we care at all what the media think of us eight months from now when we take the field with the worst team in our history because we let ourselves be cowed into accepting the foolishness and faithlessness of people being paid millions to work in our interest? Will the mediaÂ’s approval mean anything to us five years from now when the football program is truly dead and buried?
Right now, as of this moment, this is still one of the most lucrative football programs in the nation. Right now, while it still matters, half of all the money donated to UT each year, or two-thirds or three-fourths, being pulled would effect change, and it would do so in a hurry. For that to happen, of course, a handful of money boosters who up until now appear to be at peace with letting the program be burned to the ground, would have to decide to take a stand, and thousands or tens of thousands of other smaller donors would have to join them.
Would it be a drastic action? Of course it would. Does the moment we find ourselves in warrant drastic action?
This is very simple: the football program, as of this moment, makes enough money for the university to make it eminently and inescapably doable to get one of the very top coaches in the country, right now, for this job. Mike Gundy, not before but after the firestorm of Sunday, by all accounts very seriously considered leaving his alma mater and the only school he has ever been a head coach at, for this position. We could get a top-level coach, even now, if our administration had it communicated to them that their immediate employment futures depended on it, and that they had better spend the money and pull no stops to do it. If they have $340 million to renovate the stadium they most certainly can spend the money to get us out of our Mike Price moment.
The vast, immeasurable difference, at least as of this moment, between where Alabama found themselves eleven years ago and where we find ourselves now is that they were not being obstructed from within from correcting the very bad situation they found themselves in. As of right now, multiple people who are paid a lot of money to represent, and fight for, the best interests of this university are seemingly doing everything they can to betray that trust as viciously and sloppily as possible. I by myself have no power at all to change the situation; most of you reading this, as individuals, have little power. We do have substantial power if we act together. And, there are those select individuals here and there that, should they happen to read this, most definitely have the power to change the situation.
