UTC's David Blackburn says no official contact with UT on job

#252
#252
TennVOLS93 said:
I'd say you're correct haha. But the NCAA has proven to be a joke. If we were 10-12 games a year, they would probably be looking the other way. Would really look away if we were in the playoff hunt.
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well, Ole Miss may find out how big of a joke they are....so i'm not ready to dismiss the fact that while the way it ended for kiffin set the program back, i have little doubt that whenever he would have left, it would have set the program back.

it just got expedited......
 
#254
#254
jakez4ut said:
well, Ole Miss may find out how big of a joke they are....so i'm not ready to dismiss the fact that while the way it ended for kiffin set the program back, i have little doubt that whenever he would have left, it would have set the program back.

it just got expedited......
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agree. was going to be a fall at some point.
 
#255
#255
TNnative said:
Well you are from NC, so you don't hear the gripes of the locals. And though you may be correct in your assertion, you just don't get it.

It may mean nothing up there, but I assure you it means a great deal to the residents of this state.
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I was born and raised in Tennessee. It's an absurd argument to think that a man has to be from the good ole boys club to be a great AD. It's not true. it's OK that Blackburn is a Tennessee guy but that is not the reason that he is a current successful athletic director and will hopefully be one at Tennessee. Wanting a "Tennessee" guy is nothing more than discrimination.
 
#256
#256
LWSVOL said:
agree. was going to be a fall at some point.
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hamilton was just hoping he would be on to greener pastures before it happened....:eek:lol:

at least that's what i like to tell myself....what a gamble.
 
#257
#257
I would love to be wrong on the staff changes, and while I do think there will be some, I don't think it will be the kind of changes that many fans on this board are hoping for. If you go the route of a high priced offensive coordinator, he will more than likely want a multi-year deal similar to what Shoop got but the problem with that is if the football team tanks it on the field and Butch is forced you will three buyouts to pay off instead of one year on Shoop and CBJ's remaining contract. I understand you are probably only talking about 1-2 million more dollars but when you add that on top of Butch's contract as well the salaries for a new staff it begin to add up very quickly. I don't know how many on this board will be satisfied with just possibly a new db coach, S % C coach, and quite possibly a replacement for Thigpen or Gillespie.
 
#258
#258
jakez4ut said:
hamilton was just hoping he would be on to greener pastures before it happened....:eek:lol:

at least that's what i like to tell myself....what a gamble.
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Hamilton is a very nice guy but he was a terrible decision maker in terms of football. I don't necessarily blame him for Kiffin leaving but you have to question the buyout Kiffin had and the enormous buyout Dooley had after never really accomplishing anything. He did not handle the CPF firing very well nor the process to replace him. A very sizeable wedge was driven between the AD, University, and the boosters. I don't know that it's ever fully been removed by any stretch.
 
#259
#259
landscapingvol said:
I would love to be wrong on the staff changes, and while I do think there will be some, I don't think it will be the kind of changes that many fans on this board are hoping for. If you go the route of a high priced offensive coordinator, he will more than likely want a multi-year deal similar to what Shoop got but the problem with that is if the football team tanks it on the field and Butch is forced you will three buyouts to pay off instead of one year on Shoop and CBJ's remaining contract. I understand you are probably only talking about 1-2 million more dollars but when you add that on top of Butch's contract as well the salaries for a new staff it begin to add up very quickly. I don't know how many on this board will be satisfied with just possibly a new db coach, S % C coach, and quite possibly a replacement for Thigpen or Gillespie.
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If Thigpin leaves on his own I don't think I'd be too upset. I haven't been too impressed with him lately. However, we need to pay whatever Gillespie wants to get him to stay, he's been great. I have wondered this about Shoop though - he's widely regarded as one of the best DC's in the country even though he had a rough year. If we replace Butch, I've wondered if the new coach would retain Shoop seeing as how he is one of the better DC's in football. Assuming he bounces back next year, it seems to me like a great thing to inherit a guy like that. Heck, it seems to me like inheriting a guy like Gillespie or Scott would be great too.
 
#260
#260
LWS 2 questions if you have the info, 1 is it true that after Kiffin left I believe, that Chris Peterson had called himself and wanted to interview and was told no by Hamilton that we didn't want a mid major coach? 2 was the supposed riff between Anderson And Blackburn because Blackburn had a coach in mind that he wanted and he roasted Anderson for wanting Dooley.
 
#261
#261
landscapingvol said:
Hamilton is a very nice guy but he was a terrible decision maker in terms of football. I don't necessarily blame him for Kiffin leaving but you have to question the buyout Kiffin had and the enormous buyout Dooley had after never really accomplishing anything. He did not handle the CPF firing very well nor the process to replace him. A very sizeable wedge was driven between the AD, University, and the boosters. I don't know that it's ever fully been removed by any stretch.
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oh, it's still there. the dissention among the ranks is part of the issue we have right now, the old guard vs. the new, Hamilton didn't do himself many favors, and was force fed Dooley, as no one trusted him at the controls anymore. rightfully so.

another reason why we need some really strong leadership in that building, and further proves LWS's point, that he'll have a lot of work to do.
 
#262
#262
jakez4ut said:
oh, it's still there. the dissention among the ranks is part of the issue we have right now, the old guard vs. the new, Hamilton didn't do himself many favors, and was force fed Dooley, as no one trusted him at the controls anymore. rightfully so.

another reason why we need some really strong leadership in that building, and further proves LWS's point, that he'll have a lot of work to do.
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Yep 100% correct but there are some boosters who may never fully comeback after the fulmer firing and the subsequent Kiffin/Dooley fiasco. You convince them to buyout fulmer and replace him with a coach after promising an "exhaustive" search that had no real experience. It is very fractured hence my trepidation about productive wholesale changes
 
#263
#263
UT has had 3 former Presidents plus Cheek who have done little to supervise athletics and it's hard to imagine that will continue. One flew his girlfriend around on State plane and made questionable expenses with State money, another send romantic emails to another UT employee on State email, and one's wife got in a bad argument with a big donor's wife in Nashville area. Cheek had the Title 9 lawsuit with nationwide publicity tied to athletics for a period of time. Hard to believe the new UTK president will turn all over to a preselected AD and tell him to do whatever as long as he can get donor money above what in budget.
 
#264
#264
CPA said:
UT has had 3 former Presidents plus Cheek who have done little to supervise athletics and it's hard to imagine that will continue. One flew his girlfriend around on State plane and made questionable expenses with State money, another send romantic emails to another UT employee on State email, and one's wife got in a bad argument with a big donor's wife in Nashville area. Cheek had the Title 9 lawsuit with nationwide publicity tied to athletics for a period of time. Hard to believe the new UTK president will turn all over to a preselected AD and tell him to do whatever as long as he can get donor money above what in budget.
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Inept doesn't even begin to describe it
 
#265
#265
And the state legislature was on Cheeks case for months with the gender neutral pronouns and decision not to celebrate Christmas with Christmas parties.
 
#266
#266
landscapingvol said:
Yep 100% correct but there are some boosters who may never fully comeback after the fulmer firing and the subsequent Kiffin/Dooley fiasco. You convince them to buyout fulmer and replace him with a coach after promising an "exhaustive" search that had no real experience. It is very fractured hence my trepidation about productive wholesale changes
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it's shared. and all that to say...there's a lot more to it than just get rid of butch, which i'm not opposed to btw.

i'm just not blind to the rest of the picture.:thumbsup:
 
#267
#267
discontent523 said:
LWS 2 questions if you have the info, 1 is it true that after Kiffin left I believe, that Chris Peterson had called himself and wanted to interview and was told no by Hamilton that we didn't want a mid major coach? 2 was the supposed riff between Anderson And Blackburn because Blackburn had a coach in mind that he wanted and he roasted Anderson for wanting Dooley.
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1) I've never heard anything to make me believe Peterson made a run at the job here.

2) I'm not certain on what the rift between the two were. I haven't heard what Anderson wanted at the time. Big Jim was in favor of Dooley..

I've said in hindsight, the best move UT could have made was to make Kippy the interim coach for a year. The brass rushed to make a decision which turned out to be a very bad decision
 
#269
#269
LWSVOL said:
1) I've never heard anything to make me believe Peterson made a run at the job here.

2) I'm not certain on what the rift between the two were. I haven't heard what Anderson wanted at the time. Big Jim was in favor of Dooley..

I've said in hindsight, the best move UT could have made was to make Kippy the interim coach for a year. The brass rushed to make a decision which turned out to be a very bad decision
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Don't know Mr. Anderson but I do know that big Jim not little Jimmy had little respect for few people in the Hamilton regime. Maybe that had something to do with and hopefully that has changed? Hamilton rushed nearly every hire
 
#270
#270
landscapingvol said:
Kiffin had zero qualifications to be the head coach at UT and you know this. Kiffin was hired for expediency to keep the recruiting class halfway together that Fulmer had already done much of the work on. You can dismiss the fact that other West Coast programs passed on Kiffin as well as every other NFL team but that doesn't somehow make your point true. The Haslams, Jim and his son whom he handed the company to you act as though Jimmy achieved his success separate and apart from Big Jim, have been the dominant boosters for UT for decades. Is Charles Erdogen a big time player? I am sure he is. I do not know the man. As far as Bob Shoop goes, yes he was given a large salary but that does not make up for the years that UT was behind in coordinator salaries as compared to the rest of the SEC. You cannot cherry pick coaches here or there and claim that it is somehow the norm.

2016: Jones 8th in SEC in pay
2015: Jones 9th in SEC in pay
2014: Jones 11th in SEC in pay
2013: Jones 11th in SEC in pay
2012: Dooley 10th in SEC in pay
2011: Dooley 10th in SEC in pay

2016: Barnes 5th in the SEC in pay
2015: Barnes 4th in the SEC in pay
2014: Tyndall 5th in the SEC in pay
2013: Martin 5th in the SEC in pay

Basketball numbers are a bit skewed due to being woefully behind Kentucky, and the rest of the SEC pretty much ignoring basketball outside of Florida or Vandebilt.
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Again I ask, what west coast programs passed on Kiffin before we hired him? I listed the west coast jobs that were open. There were only two Pac 12 jobs open, one wasn't actually open and we outbid the other school that wanted him. What part of that isn't true?

You act like Jim Haslam is our only major booster. Not even close. Historically he has been, but there are at least 10 other people that are currently in the same annual giving class that he is.

In each coaching search, it has been made very clear to the administration that they have whatever money they need to hire the best coach they can. But paying Butch Jones $5 million a year doesn't make him a better coach. The money we offered Charlie Strong was higher than he got as a raise from Louisville. It was in the same scale as what he got from Texas a year later.
 
#271
#271
landscapingvol said:
Yep 100% correct but there are some boosters who may never fully comeback after the fulmer firing and the subsequent Kiffin/Dooley fiasco. You convince them to buyout fulmer and replace him with a coach after promising an "exhaustive" search that had no real experience. It is very fractured hence my trepidation about productive wholesale changes
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The major boosters (500k+/yr) that got mad after the Fulmer and Kiffin deal are already all back in the fold giving at their prior levels. Most stayed away less than a year, the rest came back when Hamilton left. All, that is, except for the one that lost all of his money in a ponzi scheme he helped create.
 
#272
#272
DeerPark12 said:
The major boosters (500k+/yr) that got mad after the Fulmer and Kiffin deal are already all back in the fold giving at their prior levels. Most stayed away less than a year, the rest came back when Hamilton left. All, that is, except for the one that lost all of his money in a ponzi scheme he helped create.
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I guess you need to take that up with them but no they are not all back in the fold as they once used to be that is a silly assertion.
 
#273
#273
DeerPark12 said:
The major boosters (500k+/yr) that got mad after the Fulmer and Kiffin deal are already all back in the fold giving at their prior levels. Most stayed away less than a year, the rest came back when Hamilton left. All, that is, except for the one that lost all of his money in a ponzi scheme he helped create.
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Oops.
 
#274
#274
LWSVOL said:
we were a total wreck at that point. It is a big reason we have struggled for the last 8 years.
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As an alum and long time contributor to UTK, my perception of the executive administration and BOT is that, over the years, they have done little, to no, executive deveopment and/or executive transition planning. From the leadership positions at the top all the way down to the head coaching positions. If they do have one, it has been poorly developed and executed. And they have been too arrogant and self-absorbed to accept any contructive suggestions from any of us that are not in the big $$ club.
 
#275
#275
DeerPark12 said:
Again I ask, what west coast programs passed on Kiffin before we hired him? I listed the west coast jobs that were open. There were only two Pac 12 jobs open, one wasn't actually open and we outbid the other school that wanted him. What part of that isn't true?

You act like Jim Haslam is our only major booster. Not even close. Historically he has been, but there are at least 10 other people that are currently in the same annual giving class that he is.

In each coaching search, it has been made very clear to the administration that they have whatever money they need to hire the best coach they can. But paying Butch Jones $5 million a year doesn't make him a better coach. The money we offered Charlie Strong was higher than he got as a raise from Louisville. It was in the same scale as what he got from Texas a year later.
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So, again I will ask "if" they have whatever money they need to hire the best coach they can then why is it that we generally end up with coaches that are on the lower end of the pay spectrum? I have never suggested paying Jones 5 million he is not worth it but I am suggesting that if you were to offer a coach with a decent resume 5-6 million we wouldn't be settling for the Kiffin, Dooley, Jones' of the World. It's funny we want to be an elite program but we want to do it on a middle of the road SEC budget. We are generally behind the curve on salaries not ahead of it. You can't say on one hand that all resources are available but we just "couldn't" do any better than our 5-6 best option. We generally come in on the cheap side with offers.
 
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