Here We Go Again

First of all I want to say thanks for coming by. Who knows how long I will keep this up. I certainly don't plan on it, but who knows. It has been a long time since I have written anything, but given the recent events in Knoxville I have been sparked to write again for two reasons 1- my buddy drew has a blog going mondaymorningfog.wordpress.com (who talked about the vols) and maybe this will be a guest post, maybe not. 2- yesterday my facebook post sparked a lot of comments- which is good.

Second- an update. Life has been crazy. Nicki and I have been married 2 years- she is the love of my life and I wouldn't be able to make it without her. We live in Athens, and work in Hixson. I am coaching football and baseball and BB is currently a captain on the soccer team as a 7th grader. I love my girls very much and spending time with them is the best part of my day. Our lives are super busy. But everything is good. I heard Casting Crowns new song and while I don't remember all the lyrics I do remember the part that was something like this "While I am swimming in the mystery, my future is your history, because you are already there." So I am thankful to be saved by the all-knowing God. We trust that His timing is perfect, His will is perfect and everything that He does is good and right and He does not make mistakes. We do not know what the future holds, but He does and we are learning to trust Him more.

Finally on to the Vols...

I will start in Nov 2008. After losing to South Carolina our former AD Mike Hamilton panicked and fired the greatest coach we have ever had. Everything that happened after that doesn't matter. He was fearful that we would win the rest of our games (Wyoming, Vandy, and Kensucky) and he would have a fan base split on a coach that in his career averaged 9 wins and an SEC championship game appearance every 3. Given the fact that Big Phil had a top 5 recruiting class coming in headlined by Tajh Boyd (who now leads Clemson, with better stats than any of the QB's on our roster and the QB that our former coach has at USC) but as Shaq says, "Ifs don't exist" so we will never know what might have been. Enter Lane Kiffin. Lane said some things and did some things that made people nervous and he even admitted he had to do what he had to do. However, his time at USC has been rather uneventful- including an already 4 loss season this year facing #1 ND on Saturday. The future was possibly bright on the LaneTrain, but he left for his dream job and I don't blame him. That did mean that we were on our third coach in three years and that is never good- especially in the SEC. So Derek Dooley became that coach.Year One of Dooley was acceptable- for that year. He walked into a bad place at a bad time. He managed to get 8 wins, but was only credited for 6 of them. (I did read something about Dooley since he was fired, and if i could find the source I would link it. It said that the LSU and UNC games of his first year are a pretty good summary of his time. It wasn't entirely his fault, but eventually it kind of was.) But like Shaq says, "Ifs don't exist." So we move on to year two. Obviously we had better talent, but not depth. We still managed to lose for the first time IN MY LIFE to kensucky with a WR playing QB that day that completed 4-6 passes for a grand total of 15 yds. I am pretty confident that I do that. Today in jeans. Left handed. But whatever. We did have some injuries to Justin Hunter and Tyler Bray that crippled us offensively and we wound up with a losing record yet again. At this time I called for the firing of Dooley because to me back to back losing seasons is unacceptable at UT ( a top ten program all time). The powers that be decided to keep him and my support grew as the season went along. I feel that he said the right things, did the right things, but he ultimately needed to win ball games. When you look at our season- a top ten offense, and a bottom ten defense, that is never a good combo. Add to that several crucial late game turnovers and we were toast. I think that switching to a 3-4 had a little do with our D, but not everything.Ask your friends at Georgia how their transition worked out. Our line was good enough to compete and our linebackers were too. Where we hurt was the secondary. Teams didn't run at will on us, they threw on us. Granted we never got much pressure and that is on the DL and LBs but we continually busted coverages/lined up wrong. Oh by the way, do you think an All-American saftey and 2 All-SEC DBs would have made a difference? Yeah me too. Janzen Jackson-drugs, Isaiah Lanier- grades, and Brian Randolph- injury did not play at all this year. Jackson didn't play last year either, but the fact remains he would have been an all world safety as a senior this year. But as Shaq says, "Ifs don't exist" We have talent this time. Our OL was good, our RBs serviceable (which with a pass first offense that is really all we need), QB- talented but suspect, especially in the clutch, WRs other worldly. On special teams we have improved, but that isn't saying much- there is a lot of room for improvement still. I feel like I covered the D above- no need to rehash.

Like I said earlier, the UNC and LSU games sum up the Dooley tenure pretty well. Not entirely his fault, but eventually kind of is. Everything rises and falls on leadership, everything. Dooley was hired to win ballgames. He didn't. I thought that he had a really tough situation and has improved the character and the talent at UT and the next coach will be grateful for it. Ask Nick Saban what he thinks about the players that Mike Shula left him with that he led to a National Championship with. Now I don't think that we will win it all again in two years, but we should be in the top 25.

My fear is that UT fans will not be happy unless we get Gruden. I hope that we get Gruden and there are plenty of other schools that would take him too. Keep in mind, we play at Alabama, at Florida, at Oregon and have home dates with Georgia and South Carolina. Currently all five schools are in the top ten. That is going to be tough sledding no matter who the coach is. IF we lose all of those games (very likely) we simply CAN NOT lose any others and we need to win our bowl game. If we do that and finish 8-5 that would be OK for year 1. It will not be OK for year 2. Or year 3. Or ever. With a 12 game schedule UT should win at least 9 games and year and beat one of the following every year- Georgia, Florida, Alabama. No excuses. That is what we had, that is where we need to get back to. If you are consistently winning 9-10 games a year, you will get a few chances to play for the SEC. Obviously you can't do it with 9 or 10 wins, but if you win that much eventually you will win 11 and play for it all. Everybody knows that if you play for the SEC and win- you get to play for it all.

With that being said. We need to be realistic about who we get. We are not going to convince Pete Carroll or Lovie Smith to leave as a head coach in the NFL to come to UT. We will not get Tony Dungy or Bill Cowher out of the booth. We will not get Bob Stoops, Jimbo Fisher, Dan Mullen, Hugh Freeze, Kevin Sumlin or any other coach in the SEC or at a powerhouse (with one exception-see below). We should not even entertain Bobby Petrino. Peyton Manning will never coach at UT- quit fooling yourself if you think that he is. Why would he come back and ruin his reputation? Ask people older than my father- they will tell you about Johnny Majors the (robbed of a Heisman) player and a national champion coach. Ask people under 30 and to them Majors was the good but not great coach who was at UT before Big Phil. Same principal would apply to Peyton minus the NC as a coach. We will be able to get somebody like Kirby Smart, Charlie Strong, or Josh McDaniels (no thanks to all minus Strong). As much as I would love to reunite the Holy Trinity of UT coaches (Fulmer, Chavis, and Cutcliffe) that is not going to happen. It should but it won't. Our fanbase, as moronic as they are, would never be able to get over that. I would take one of the following: John Gruden- no explanation needed. Bo Pelini- head coach with success and a history with the SEC. Last but not least- my boy Randy Edsall. Dude knows what it takes to build a program and to win. Sound like anything the Vols need right now? Either way, we HAVE to get this hire right. Next year will make it six years since we have played for the SEC title, and 14 since we have won it. Neither are acceptable.

-that's what I think-

PUDGE