Todd Raleigh's gameplan.

#1

fryeguy93

Rufus X. Sarsaparilli
Joined
Dec 11, 2009
Messages
9,386
Likes
23,385
#1
Todd Raleigh's gameplan was simple.

#1 Tear down the program and get rid of those he perceived was dead weight or had bad attitudes on filed and in classroom

#2 Build the team up "the right way or Raleigh Way"


He was OBVIOUSLY far better at #1 than he was #2.

The problem....I don't know if Raleigh knows what the right way or Raleigh way is/was. He obviously coached under "the Genius" during the 90s when the bats were lively and never adjusted to a pitching/defense/small ball game.

Additionally, in his lust to "tear down" he got rid or chased off or annoyed the snot out of some guys who weren't bad influences or bad guys.

In this day and age, you can't tear down a team completely. He took a sledgehammer to a team when a finishing hammer would have sufficed.

Raleigh then was poorly prepared for this job. His media appearance confirmed all his weaknesses. He had one year as low-level assistant at a big school and that was before college baseball was anywhere near the deal it is now.

He communicated poorly with his team. He communicated poorly with the media. He communicated poorly withe the fans.

You would like to think the athletic department would have spotted these weaknesses and put one of their more experienced PR and SID guys with the program in year one to help but they did not.

Now Todd Raleigh likely has the experience requisite to run a big time program, but the baggage (relationships, record, conflicts) keep him from recruiting any top players.

During the interview with Hamilton, I suspect Raleigh wowed Mike with his gameplan. I'm not sure when step #1 was supposed to end and #2 was supposed to begin but it seems that it was to be between year 4 and 5 or later.

Again, if Todd Raleigh's dismissal is announced Sunday or Monday I will not cheer. Having no coach gets us not closer to being a quality consistent program.

However, if a new coach is announced in 1-2 weeks then I will likely be pissed. Why? Because hiring a new coach during conference tourneys and before during the first NCAA weekend will mean we hired another mid level coach who has already been eliminated from tourney play.

Mike Hamilton needs to hire a coach on or after June 8. Anytime before means we either settled or rushed into another bad hire. It's summer. Recruiting is largely over although we could steal some JUCO guys in summer.
 
#3
#3
I thought you were going to say:

1) Call your selected moving agent. Set a date for the agent to visually survey your home and prepare an estimate.

2) Do you want to do any of the packing -- or will you have it done by our experienced packers? Your agent will be happy to discuss packing services with you.

3) Notify the post office that you are moving. An online Change of Address form is available on the United States Postal Service Web site.

4) Prepare a list of friends, relatives, business firms and others who should be notified of your move.

5) Cancle services such as cable, lawn, utilities, etc..

Finally some other steps you could take:
• Have a "garage sale" or use an online auction service to dispose of unwanted items.
• Donate unwanted clothing (UT clothing) or household goods to charitable organizations.
• Begin to use up supplies of canned goods, frozen foods and other household items. Buy only what will be used before moving.
 
#4
#4
This thread should be called "Todd Raleigh's Retirement Plans" because that is the only thing he should be worrying about at this point.
 
#5
#5
Todd Raleigh's gameplan was simple.

#1 Tear down the program and get rid of those he perceived was dead weight or had bad attitudes on filed and in classroom

#2 Build the team up "the right way or Raleigh Way"


He was OBVIOUSLY far better at #1 than he was #2.

The problem....I don't know if Raleigh knows what the right way or Raleigh way is/was. He obviously coached under "the Genius" during the 90s when the bats were lively and never adjusted to a pitching/defense/small ball game.

Additionally, in his lust to "tear down" he got rid or chased off or annoyed the snot out of some guys who weren't bad influences or bad guys.

In this day and age, you can't tear down a team completely. He took a sledgehammer to a team when a finishing hammer would have sufficed.

Raleigh then was poorly prepared for this job. His media appearance confirmed all his weaknesses. He had one year as low-level assistant at a big school and that was before college baseball was anywhere near the deal it is now.

He communicated poorly with his team. He communicated poorly with the media. He communicated poorly withe the fans.

You would like to think the athletic department would have spotted these weaknesses and put one of their more experienced PR and SID guys with the program in year one to help but they did not.

Now Todd Raleigh likely has the experience requisite to run a big time program, but the baggage (relationships, record, conflicts) keep him from recruiting any top players.

During the interview with Hamilton, I suspect Raleigh wowed Mike with his gameplan. I'm not sure when step #1 was supposed to end and #2 was supposed to begin but it seems that it was to be between year 4 and 5 or later.

Again, if Todd Raleigh's dismissal is announced Sunday or Monday I will not cheer. Having no coach gets us not closer to being a quality consistent program.

However, if a new coach is announced in 1-2 weeks then I will likely be pissed. Why? Because hiring a new coach during conference tourneys and before during the first NCAA weekend will mean we hired another mid level coach who has already been eliminated from tourney play.Mike Hamilton needs to hire a coach on or after June 8. Anytime before means we either settled or rushed into another bad hire. It's summer. Recruiting is largely over although we could steal some JUCO guys in summer.

That might not be entirely true. I can think of two coaches in the professional ranks who would jump at the opportunity if offered. Also, the JUCO route might be the quickest way back to respectability. JUCO is a great place to find quality, mature players that can help in a hurry, but can do so only if the talent evaluator knows his ___ from a hole in the ground.
 
#6
#6
I think people will be pleased with the hire.

Well, baseball people will be.

People are either idiots or just too young to remember Delmonicos last year (are they 18? 19?) when they act like Hamilton should have hit a home run with the last hire...
 
#7
#7
That might not be entirely true. I can think of two coaches in the professional ranks who would jump at the opportunity if offered. Also, the JUCO route might be the quickest way back to respectability. JUCO is a great place to find quality, mature players that can help in a hurry, but can do so only if the talent evaluator knows his ___ from a hole in the ground.

Again, if we hire someone fast and if it's a JUCO guy without big conference experience or a pro coach with no college experience then I will be pissed.

Nothing you said changed my mind.

In case you don't recall, we hired a pro coach before and it was a bigger failure than Raleigh but thankfully ended faster.

The only real choices are:

(1)Head coach from mid-major school with consistent success even in post season over at least 3+ seasons
(2) Head coach from big school (perhaps up north or west) who we can steal with big money.
(3) A top assistant at perennial top-10 major program

I see no circumstance outside these three that would make me happy. No MLB assistant coach. No former Vol.

If we hired what you suggested then rebuilding would take another 4 years at least and only after this coach proved us wrong.

Hiring Chris Burke, hiring Rick Honeycutt, hiring Mike DiFelice, hiring Alan Cockrell would all make me unhappy as none of these guys have had a successful career of any sort as a college coach.

I expect more from my program than to hire some guy off street because he attended school here for 2 years 30 years ago. But hey, you may different. You may like to hire, work for or work with guys who got their job through cronyism.

The ultimate basis for hiring someone should be their resume and not who they know.

There are no Vol alumni that I know who are fully qualified and ready for this job. NONE!
 
#8
#8
Hamilton is not a "only Vol connections" type AD.

They did like a candidate with Vol connections though there are concerns about his education.

They are interested in a guy out west.

We will pay up to bring in someone high quality to a money losing sport.

It is funny, many people who agree with me politically in opposing redistribution and the long term dependence created by welfare are completely great with our sports system that sees tons of people get money to play sports that cannot exist with massive subsidy.

I am still bitter about Title IX. It ended a strong wrestling program at UT and mens soccer so women could be recruited to get money to try rowing for the first time....total BS.

If equality is what is striven for, put all the scholarship money as a pool and eliminate mens and womens sports, just have "sports".
 
#9
#9
Again, if we hire someone fast and if it's a JUCO guy without big conference experience or a pro coach with no college experience then I will be pissed.

Read more carefully before rant. What I said is JUCO players would be a good way to find a quick fix to our glaring talent shortfall, but only if the person evaluating the talent knew what he was looking for.

Thanks.
 
#10
#10
Rick Honeycutt (who has told me directly he would take the job in an instant) and Alan Cockrell would both be terrific hires.
 
#11
#11
I find it hard to believe that we will hire someone before the NCAA meetings. If I was a big time coach, I'd want to know for sure that the guy that hired me will be there. That takes place June 10th and 11th. The CWS will be the next week and hopefully the guy we're after is still in it to win it. I think it's possible it could be before the 18th if we're talking about MLB guys.

FWIW I'm with Fry...I think we need to get a proven college head coach. What do I mean by proven? Regularly wins 40+ games and is in the CWS most years. This mind set of making it to Hoover on occasion needs to be replaced with always making it. We should be in the top 8 of the league every year.
 
Advertisement



Back
Top