Buy/Sell

[Go Budaw]

You absolutely must face him twice in that given year -- then if you manage to pull off a miracle -- you get to look forward to two games against Urban, Dabo, etc with a team that is totally beat to hell by Alabama.

You realize there is a very good chance Bama won’t make the SECCG this year, let alone every year for the next 3 or 4 which is how long it will take to rebuild UT into a contender (if it ever happens). Plus, Saban’s days are numbered. He may be gone by the time it takes to complete that rebuild.

 

[engie]

They've been in contention exactly once in the last 20 years since they won it in 98(in 2001). 98 was their only actual championship since 1935. They aren't the only show on TV every Saturday anymore and none of the kids being recruited now remember when they were. They have lost 11 straight to Bama by an average margin of 26 points. They are 14-32-1 against Bama post-integration. They are 8-25 against Florida since integration and it's looking very likely to see a Chip Kelly to Florida situation.

It is possible if they are finally fed up enough to make a $10mil elite hire like Michigan did with Harbaugh and can get back into contention on that hire. The above example is the best "sure thing" example in a similar situation that I can think of. A guy who has already been blown up by Urban a couple of times with another one coming and has not yet truly been in contention for championships although I think he is close and was bit by the injury bug/graduations really hard this year before bouncing back next year. Tennessee is unlikely to get anyone that is that much of a sure thing anyway. But they are very similar situation to Michigan prior to that hire. With a much harder road to a national championship since it leads through Kirby Smart and Saban(2x) rather than basically just going through Urban at the end of the year.

 

[Go Budaw]

They've been in contention exactly once in the last 20 years since they won it in 98(in 2001). 98 was their only actual championship since 1935. They aren't the only show on TV every Saturday anymore and none of the kids being recruited now remember when they were. They have lost 11 straight to Bama by an average margin of 26 points. They are 14-32-1 against Bama post-integration. They are 8-25 against Florida since integration and it's looking very likely to see a Chip Kelly to Florida situation.

It is possible if they are finally fed up enough to make a $10mil elite hire like Michigan did with Harbaugh and can get back into contention on that hire. The above example is the best "sure thing" example in a similar situation that I can think of. A guy who has already been blown up by Urban a couple of times with another one coming and has not yet truly been in contention for championships. They won't get anyone that is that much of a sure thing anyway. But they are very similar situation to Michigan prior to that hire. With a much harder road to a national championship.

All of the above is what you should have led with. Those are way more valid reasons why it is difficult to win there than how many times they have to play Bama.

 

[engie]

All of the above is what you should have led with. Those are way more valid reasons why it is difficult to win there than how many times they have to play Bama.

It all plays into the same story. You are right -- I was guilty of attempting to oversimplify initially. I just don't think anyone looks at them as an elite job. Or if you want to say, since they are technically a legitimate national title contender on paper and historically that they are an elite job, they are the worst/most difficult job in that category nationally. There's a reason no one avenges losses to Saban in that title game. Also a reason no one has managed to make it back to see them again since he built the Bama monster. He ends their seasons before they get that chance.

Maybe they actually pull off this Gruden thing how some of their message boards are claiming, he brings Tee Martin back, they recruit their asses off nationally, and can compete. But personally I also wouldn't be surprised to see them actually end up drastically overpaying for a "sexy" hire that is actually less proven than Butch Jones was at the time. That job has been turned down by a metric 17 ton of coaches from schools traditionally considered worse jobs than UT in the last decade. I can think of a half dozen or more off the top of my head and I didn't follow those searches particularly closely.

 

[thekimmer]

Yes, very true about fanbase expectation....

Sell.

Toughest in the country? No.

One of the toughest in the SEC? Sure. Their program is nowhere near where it once was but in their fanbase's eyes it is a premier job. Tough to recruit to, and tough to live up to expectations there. I think it's a coaching graveyard.

Its a double edged sword. Other places with recruiting challenges tend to understand this and allow it to adjust expectations at bit. UT is in a place with awful local recruiting base but just happens to be a populous state in which they monopolize and happens to be crazy about college football. So you have millions of football crazed fans pouring money into a program with poor results. Good situation for a coach's bank account. Bad situation for his long-term career aspirations.

The two absolute worst one-two punch hiring blunders perhaps ever made was to can Phil and then turnaround and hire Lane Kiffen. I think they perceived Phil's west coast strategy was eroding a bit, panicked and stabbed Phil in the back the same way they did his predecessor. They then turned to Kiffen in a desperate attempt to maintain their ties to west coast recruiting as he supposedly had that but then it exploded in their faces big-time when Kiff left the way he did for USC and that nuked an already tenuous pipeline.