State of Vol Nation

 

Derek Dooley is now settling into what we all hope is  a very long-term job. Initial signs were good. Within a few days, Tennessee hired a pretty well respected receivers coach in Charlie Baggett. Baggett’s list of coached receivers is more impressive than the heralded tailbacks coached by Eddie Gran. Get a load of this: Randy Moss, Chris Carter, Plaxico Burress, Mushin Muhammed, Andre Rison, and Derrick Mason. Come get some. Shortly after, four-star receiver Justin Hunter dropped his nearly six month commitment to LSU and switched to Tennessee. Rumors swirled about Rodney Garner, Kevin Steele,and Dick Bumpas all potentially joining the staff. Word came in that long-time Georgia commit De’rick Rogers was to visit along with Markeith Ambles. Lane Kiffin was all over TMZ with a few blondes (one of which may or may not have been Layla), a lot of booze and a wrecked Lexus (a Wrexus?). We were down, but the resolve in Knoxville was strong.

Just a few days later and things are drastically different. Markeith Ambles is visiting USC and probably will not step foot in Knoxville again before signing day (if ever). Tennessee was very publicly spurned by one of its own when Kevin Steele took his extra 200k and stayed at Clemson. Willie Mack Garza decides to sneak out in the middle of the night like a drunken frat boy who went home with the slump-buster. All of a sudden the sky is falling again.  Well, in my humble opinion, we were never going to assimilate a better, or even an equal staff to the one we lost. Gran and Wilson are both beast recruiters with lots of contacts and very defined areas of expertise (South Florida and Louisiana). James Cregg got rave reviews from everyone I heard talk about him, especially Aaron Douglas. And quite frankly, the work that he did with our offensive line this year is really pretty incredible. 

We also were never going to salvage this recruiting class into the top 5 or 10 that it almost certainly would have been under Kiffin. We’ll never know if guys like Brandon Willis, Michael Taylor, or Ahmad Dixon would have worn Orange or if they would have been any good, but they’re all going to be rated higher than the guys Dooley brings in to replace them.  You can’t go through three almost entirely different staffs in less than two years, then lose your starting quarterback (Crompton), tailback (Hardesty), left tackle (Scott), best linebacker (McCoy), best defensive lineman (Williams), and a once in a decade talent in Berry and contend. No program could withstand that, but when that program has to pull the majority of their recruits from other states it just becomes that much more difficult. 

However, the sky isn’t falling either. Coach Kiffin did a lot of things that hurt this school. Mckenzie and I would be the first to tell you, his statement that he left the university in better shape than when he found it is indicative of the kind of arrogance that fans hate. But he also brought in an influx of talent that the program desperately needed. Janzen Jackson, David Oku, Bryce Brown, Greg King, Eric Gordon, and Marsalous Teague combined with Tyler Bray, Matt Milton, JuJuan James, Corey Miller and the rest of this class gives Dooley the very luxury that Kiffin’s predecessor was so harshly criticized for denying him: a foundation of young talent.

Coach Dooley was asked at his press conference about potentially running a 3/4. His response was something to the effect of, “There’s a lot of different ways to win. 4/3, 3/4 or whatever you want to use. There’s a lot of different ways to win.” If there were ever a time in football where that was true, it is right now. Look at the NFL playoffs for example. The Jets run the ball and have four pro-bowl caliber offensive lineman to go along with an exceptional defense. The Saints have a high flying offense. I can’t name a single member of their offensive line but I can name six of their receivers. In college, Florida runs the spread option, Texas runs a passing spread, Bama pounds the ball. What you run isn’t nearly as important as who is running it and how talented they are. To take that to a bigger scale, there are a lot of different ways to run a succesful program too. You can succeed ala Miami in the early 2000’s or Southern Cal more recently and make no bones about the fact that the school is an NFL factory. Obviously this is style Kiffin tried to bring ot Knoxville, and as John Adams said, it’s not that it didn’t work, it just didn’t work long enough. Or you can succeed ala Alabama or Georgia and preach teamwork, discipline and (as Nick Saban loves to say) “process” and let the results take care of themselves. It’s very difficult, if not impossible, to do both. We found that out the hard way. 

I’m cautiously excited about Dooley. I would feel better if we had a full staff here just before signing day, but under the circumstances Dooley can hardly be blamed. 17-20 in three years is down right unacceptable. But just as I told Fulmer supporters when we fired him just ten months removed from an SEC East Championship (whatever the hell that is) wins and losses don’t measure the entirety of what it means to be a coach. He does come from a strong pedigree, he says all the right things, and (maybe most importantly) he sounds southern as he does it. Right now I’m taking a big wait and see. But I do believe the foundation is there to be built upon and it is still great to be a Tennessee Vol.

Calhoun on the Hill?

Troy Calhoun: He looks a little Skip Bayliss-ish to me...

Volunteer fans, I come before you humbled. Like many of you, I spent most of last night glued to my computer surfing the various message boards (I tend to float between Outermonvolia, VolChat and Volquest) and my phone waiting on the first inkling of a coaching hire. At one point Hamilton was in Dallas to talk to Muschamp (or was it a smoke screen for Gary Patterson?) then he was in Colorado to see Troy Calhoun (or was he secretly meeting with Chris Peterson?) then he was in Orlando talking with Mickey Mouse about a 7 year 21 Million dollar deal but evidently it hinged on his ability to bring Donald (Duck, not Chris) in as his defensive coordinator. Bottom line: I’ve got no idea what the hell is going on. I do know that Matt Milton, Corey Miller, and Tyler Bray (three of our freshman already on campus) are not in favor of Calhoun. But before we delve into the bottomless pit of (mostly mediocre) coaches that we seem to be combing through, I want to talk briefly about our last coach…

He fucked us. I’m sorry to be so blunt about it, but there is really no other way to say it. Two mornings ago Mac and I were talking about Kyle Prater. Now were talking about Kyle Wittingham. I watched all of Kiffin’s press conference last night and I will give props to Knoxville reporter Steve Phillips for flying out there to give Kiffin the business. First,there is no doubt in my mind that Orgeron was calling recruits. Matt Milton and several other guys already on campus confirmed as much and Brandon Willis’ dad has a statement about it in today’s USA TODAY. And while the reaction was swift and angry from Vol Nation I found myself feeling a little dirty about being pissed over those calls. Ed Orgeron is what he is, a savage recruiter with very few real morals to speak of, that will do whatever he has to do to get the best players and to win. He’s a mad dog, you let him loose and he just goes. His loyalties don’t mean anything more than just the logo that happens to be on his shirt that day. He used to be wearing our logo, now he’s not.

As for Kiffin…nobody loved him more than I. I totally bought in. He wanted to commit violations in the name of exposure, I’m down. He wants to call out Urban Meyer, even better. I still believe had he stayed that he would have built a winner here. When Kiffin said last night the riots in the streets meant they (his staff) had done something right, I agreed with him. We were getting players, we were showing imporvement, and now the rug has been yanked out from under us at the worst possible time. What sucks is that we all just receieved a reminder that as much as we may love UT, we’re not USC or even the other UT. Coaches will always leave the University of Tennessee’s of the world for the University of Southern California’s of the world. Its just easier to be succesful there and coach Kiffin even acknowledged as much.

That said, regardless of our inability to ever win a meaningful football game again (joooooooke), we are conducting a search for our next coach. Here’s a list of my candidates in order. I did not include Gruden because no one that I know of has spotted him playing golf with Thorton and Haslem yet.

1. Will Muschamp: Exciting young coach that has had success in the SEC. He’s also worked with Lance Thompson and keeping him is going to be a key in salvaging this recruiting class. Reports are that he’s already turned us down, and I wouldn’t be surprised, but he’s still my top candidate.

2. Greg Schiano: Coach of the year in 2006. Has recruited the hell out of southern Florida from Rutgers. Seriously, I don’t understand why he isn’t getting more buzz. He’s had a winning record every year since 2005, has won bowl games the last three years and Rutgers was a legit laughing stock before he got there. Hard nosed guy who recruits and works hard. I would love to have him. One problem is I have heard he could be a candidate should Jo-Pa ever retire (die). He signed an extension in 2007 and makes 1.5 a year. Hamilton calls and bumps it up to three is that enough to pull him?

3. Troy Calhoun: Perception is the only reason he is behind Schiano for me. He’s been at Air Force and they run the triple option. Not because he wanted to, but because when he got to Air Force they had one three-star player and not a man over 300lbs (I cannot back this up with anything verifiable, but I’ve read it more than once and it sounds good). He does have NFL experience having worked with the Broncos and Texans, but his Texans offense in 2006 was 28th in the league…I don’t know. He has won at Air Force which is not an easy thing to do, but in a lot of ways I feel like even with the head coaching experience he is a riskier choice than Muschamp. I really don’t know enough about him to say whether or not I feel like it would be a good hire, but he will have to assure Milton, Bray and the rest of the commits (and fans) that there will be no triple option at UT. Reports this morning appear to have him as the leader, and as of right now there is a real chance he is your next University of Tennessee football coach.

After that, I don’t really know. Cutcliffe is my worst nightmare as I think it would be the equivalant of Vol Nation reaching out for its warm blankie because it is scared. But Hamilton’s job is very much on the line. I doubt he’s going to trust his future in the hands of David Cutcliffe, and if he does it will have meant that we were turned down by several other coaches. Other candidates being tossed around are Chris Peterson of Boise, Randy Edsall at UConn (Basilio loves him…I could maybe get behind that hire too) Mike Leach (Gag me with a freaking broom handle), and George Quarles (joke). Gary Patterson would be on my list above Schiano, however I read this morning where Hubbs said he had declined to be considered a candidate. He would have made an excellent hire. Who knows where the list goes if the above are not hired. I have a feeling this gets done in the next 24 hours, but if it stretches much more than 72 hours and/or Kippy Brown ends up the head coach then Hamilton might as well pack his bags.

We Are Tennessee

Well, Vol Nation, I feel badly addressing you after such an absence from the blog. Really don’t have an explanation other than to say the blog became more work than we had anticipated and with Jacob and I trying to graduate at some point it just became too much. However, in the wake of this Kiffin mess, I’ve got to write this, for my own sake. Read if you want.

The sky is falling here on the UT campus. I was part of a riot last night for the first time in my life. I saw my fellow students inexplicably climbing statues. One guy threw a road cone and hit a girl in the head. Neyland Stadium was close to being rushed by an angry mob. A few who led the charge made it into the stadium and safely snuck out after the cops arrived. We are just upset, man.

Pride is a factor. We are Tennessee. We aren’t used to being a stepping stone, and that’s exactly what Lane Kiffin has made us. I think it’s that more than any thing. Basically, we’ve been emasculated, because our football program is an absolute mess now. It’s not that we’ve lost Lane Kiffin; it’s the state he left us in. We don’t have a permanent school president right now. Our AD, Mike Hamilton, stuck his neck out to hire LK, and who knows how secure his job is right now. Reports have been circulating all morning about Phil Fulmer having been contacted about becoming AD or possibly the football coach again. All this three weeks before signing day. Shoot me now.

With all that we’ve lost, we need to look at what we have. We have Neyland. We have Peyton. Al Wilson. The Miracle at South Bend. A January night in Tempe. Basically what we have is the past. As Chris Walker said last night, “We are Tennessee today and tomorrow, next year. We are going to be Tennessee no matter what coach is going to be here.” And while it is something, keep in mind that current recruits were in elementry school when we won our national championship. Their image of Tennessee is the mediocrity that we have endured the last ten years. History is great, but we have to create new history.

Opposing fans, if you’re reading this, I’m sure you’re laughing. That’s fine. I really don’t give a rat’s ass what you think. I don’t need you. I don’t need sympathy from anyone. I’m a UT student. I’ve got 20,000 others just like me going through the exact same thing, and a whole state with us. We are Tennessee, and that means exponentially more to me than anything I’ve ever said about Lane Kiffin.

That said, I loved Lane Kiffin. Jacob loved Lane Kiffin. Anybody who read this blog knows. It makes me sick to say it now, but I loved what he was doing. I still believe he would have turned Tennessee into a winner. One of the things I loved about him was his professional approach to the game. With the staff he had, he was that caliber coach. The guy that could throw punches with the Sabans, Meyers, because we are that level of a school. We’ve got the tradition, the history; football is huge here. And with all our fan base has endured over the past few years, we thought we had the guy to get us back to where we want to be.

Oh well.

What Kiffin has done will set us back. We’ll lose tons of recruits. Michael Taylor, Brandon Willis, Delvin Jones, and Calvin Smith have been the first of an eventual list that at worst will contain names like Markieth Ambles (maybe USC, Florida), Jujuan James (Georgia, Alabama, maybe LSU) or Jacquez Smith (LSU) and best case scenario will still contain five to eight more guys. We may not get a good hire this time. We need to make a splash but is that coach really available at this point? Can we get Muschamp? Will a guy like Edsell, Calhoun or Peterson really be enough to satiate a fane base that has seen two head coaches in 14 months? Tennessee football may be down for a while.

But we’ll be back.

At some point, we’ll be back. We’re too good to stay down. There’s too much passion here. Too much pride. Too much love for it all to stay down. Our basketball team just did one of the most remarkable things I’ve ever seen in sports, and there’s no limit in my mind to what Tennessee can be.

So here’s your pick me up, Vol fans. Times are dark right now, but you don’t have to look very far to see an example of a program overcoming devastating NCAA sanctions and their coach skipping out in the middle of the night for a “better job”. Alabama, once on the verge of the death penalty, is now the best college football program in the country. And they are in a position to remain so for a very long time. Things will get better Vol fans. From Memphis to Savannah, Union City to the ‘Boro, Nashville to Lexington, Shelbyville, Columbia, Chatt-town, McMinnville, and all of EAST TN, sing it with me…..

Rocky Top, you’ll ALWAYS be, home sweet home to me….

WE ARE TENNESSEE

A Busy Week in Hoops News

The past few days have been as exciting as any for hoops fans, as the fall signing period ended on Wednesday and the team tipped off against UNC Asheville on Tuesday.  To prevent myself from wearing out my thesaurus in an attempt to describe the team’s immaculate play in Tuesday’s 124-49 win, I will share a few facts and statistics that should paint an appropriate picture of how the game went down.

Vols Land King of New York (City)

It has been a big day for Tennessee hoops, and the team hasn’t tipped off in tonight’s matchup against UNC Asheville.  The Vols received a LOI from Trae Golden, a four star guard who has been committed to the Vols for some time.  Golden is one of many Georgia products to commit to the Volunteers in the past few years.  Vol fans have also been anxiously awaiting a decision from two New York recruits, Jayvaughn Pinkston and Tobias Harris.  Pinkston, a four star prospect, is scheduled to sign with a school and make his announcement tomorrow, and Harris, a five star, will sign tomorrow and announce on Thursday.  The ink is not on the paper yet, but sources have leaked that Pinkston, known as the “King of New York,” will sign with the Vols tomorrow, ending part one of the suspenseful week for the Volunteer faithful.  Pinkston’s decision was fairly predictable due to a late unofficial visit to Tennessee in October. The Empire State’s top recruit, Tobais Harris, is a different story.  I’ve never seen a recruitment as unpredictable as his.  I could honestly see him going to any of his schools of interest, Syracuse, West Virginia, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Kentucky, Maryland, and Tennessee.  The experts report that he is a Syracuse and Tennessee lean, but the Harris camp has kept very quiet.  Nonetheless, if the Vols land Harris, the 2011 recruiting class could be Tennessee’s best class ever.

Tennessee/Austin Peay

The Vols finally tipped off the 2009-2010 basketball season Friday night, which provided Vol fans with a refreshing opportunity to root for their beloved Vols without hearing the words armed robbery, pellet gun, Toyota Prius, or more recently, Dexter McCluster. The team opened their season looking very similar to last year’s team, but with noticeable improvements, a few fresh faces, and a lot of excitement.

just sad

As bad as it pains me to write this post, I feel like I should write it. Any time something like this happens, most peoples’ first reactions are just that, reactions. I’ve let it simmer for a little while so I can be as rational as possible. A lot of you guys will probably disagree with me; that’s just the nature of the beast, but I ask you to read this with an open mind.

it’s your campus

Anybody can be a Tennessee fan; there are few requirements. Really, all you have to do is love Bluetick coonhounds and a unique shade of orange called PMS021. I might also add that you should know whether corn grows on Rocky Top or not, and maybe that you should be familiar with girls that are half bear, the other half cat. It helps if you’re from the state of Tennessee. I would strongly contend that no town in the state, Memphis included, cheers for any team more than the Vols. How many other big-time college football programs have that kind of stranglehold on their state? By my count, there are a possible five: Penn State, Georgia, Nebraska, Arkansas, and LSU. This one of my favorite things about our state, that no matter where you go in Tennessee, you’re in Big Orange Country. If you’re a Vol from West Tennessee like me (731 whut, whuuut) you might have never even sniffed UT’s campus. Then again, you might have spent hours upon hours here as a student. With this thought in mind, I’ve snapped a few autumn images around campus and compiled them here for your viewing pleasure. Every individual UT fandom is a beautiful thing, so soak these in however you will.

a beastly coaching staff

Photo: Amy Smotherman Burgess, KNS

Tennessee’s coaching staff has been celebrated from its earliest moments by both fans and the media. For several different reasons, the staff has a sort of star quality. For one, there’s the obvious appeal of Lane Kiffin coaching with his father (shades of Junior Griffey knocking back-to-back dingers with Senior).

a very nice looking 5-4 squad

I suspect there are very few Tennessee fans unhappy with the Volunteer football team right now. In nine games this season, Kiffin’s boys have done what was rationally expected of them. They’ve been competitive against good teams, they’ve beaten similar ones and pounded lesser ones. The UCLA and Auburn losses still sting and it’s frustrating to think that the Vols are that close to being a nationally ranked 7-2 contender. Still, look at the progress.