I know it's hard for all of us to be patient. We've all become millennials when it comes to coaching changes/searches. We want/demand news and we want it now.
Currie probably hasn't done anything enough here at UT to earn all of our trust but the simple fact is that he's the guy running the show. No matter what any of us on the board say, Currie knows more about what is going on in that program than any of us. And though I don't know him personally, everyone I've talked to said he is one of the most competitive people they know and doesn't tolerate horse$hit. And it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to see what's going on in the program now is horse$hit.
I've been looking around the interwebs for some stuff on Currie and I thought this was something our fanbase should see. This was written by Pete Thamel a couple weeks ago:
2) Tennessee athletic director John Currie would best be described as a hardline pragmatist. Currie is the opposite of emotional or reactionary. Put it this way: Currie wouldn’t have hired Bill Stewart after winning the Fiesta Bowl as an interim coach as West Virginia administrators once did.
So the weekly predictions that Tennessee will fire Butch Jones soon after emotional losses or listless victories are really just knee-jerk fodder and clickbait. Currie wanted nothing more than Jones to succeed upon arriving in Knoxville, and it would go strongly against Currie’s nature to execute a mid-season firing.
Tennessee didn’t score a touchdown for the second consecutive week, as Jones’ inability to find a competent offensive coordinator will go down as one of his biggest failures in Knoxville.
Tennessee’s SEC losses clearly illustrate Jones’ failings. The last-second losses to Florida and South Carolina reinforce the notion that Jones struggles in-game on the sideline. (Tennessee blundered the clock on its final possession, failing to spike the ball and wasting seven seconds). The Georgia game reminded Tennessee fans just how far they are from contending in the SEC East, never mind the league.
There’s little advantage to firing Jones now. Currie spent his final years as Kansas State’s athletic director preparing to someday replace Bill Snyder, a common-sense approach when your coach is in his 70s. Few athletic directors have worked harder over the years networking with up-and-coming coaches, getting to know established ones and generally navigating the intricate football coaching market. The aura of mystery that’s surrounded the end of Snyder’s tenure at Kansas State forced Currie to have a real-time understanding of the nuances of the coach hiring space. In other words, Currie is as prepared to hire a new coach as any athletic director and won’t be starting from scratch.
After Tennessee gets blown out at No. 1 Alabama on Saturday to fall to 0-4 in the SEC, don’t expect Currie to react. The end is coming for Jones, just not as fast as some may like.
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Now, we can argue all day whether there is an advantage or not to firing Jones now. I lean towards yes, but only because I want to know for sure that he's gone. But I'm giving Currie the benefit of the doubt. And I hope he's running the show. Not Haslam. Not Ergan. Not Anderson. Those guys got rich because they were very good in their line of business. But just because you know the satellite TV market doesn't make you great at managing hedge funds, the education system or athletics.
As much as I want to hear what's going on, I'm glad there is little to no info. Because that means there are less people involved and Currie is running the show. Again, I'm sure there are people that weren't enamored with his choice as AD. But he is AD, and he's the one person in the department right now that is qualified to head up the search. The bits and pieces that we've heard (Fulmer & Peyton being involved, for example), tells me he's putting together a team much in the way a coach puts together a team. We hired a guy that is supposed to be good at this sort of thing. Let him do his job.
Currie probably hasn't done anything enough here at UT to earn all of our trust but the simple fact is that he's the guy running the show. No matter what any of us on the board say, Currie knows more about what is going on in that program than any of us. And though I don't know him personally, everyone I've talked to said he is one of the most competitive people they know and doesn't tolerate horse$hit. And it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to see what's going on in the program now is horse$hit.
I've been looking around the interwebs for some stuff on Currie and I thought this was something our fanbase should see. This was written by Pete Thamel a couple weeks ago:
2) Tennessee athletic director John Currie would best be described as a hardline pragmatist. Currie is the opposite of emotional or reactionary. Put it this way: Currie wouldn’t have hired Bill Stewart after winning the Fiesta Bowl as an interim coach as West Virginia administrators once did.
So the weekly predictions that Tennessee will fire Butch Jones soon after emotional losses or listless victories are really just knee-jerk fodder and clickbait. Currie wanted nothing more than Jones to succeed upon arriving in Knoxville, and it would go strongly against Currie’s nature to execute a mid-season firing.
Tennessee didn’t score a touchdown for the second consecutive week, as Jones’ inability to find a competent offensive coordinator will go down as one of his biggest failures in Knoxville.
Tennessee’s SEC losses clearly illustrate Jones’ failings. The last-second losses to Florida and South Carolina reinforce the notion that Jones struggles in-game on the sideline. (Tennessee blundered the clock on its final possession, failing to spike the ball and wasting seven seconds). The Georgia game reminded Tennessee fans just how far they are from contending in the SEC East, never mind the league.
There’s little advantage to firing Jones now. Currie spent his final years as Kansas State’s athletic director preparing to someday replace Bill Snyder, a common-sense approach when your coach is in his 70s. Few athletic directors have worked harder over the years networking with up-and-coming coaches, getting to know established ones and generally navigating the intricate football coaching market. The aura of mystery that’s surrounded the end of Snyder’s tenure at Kansas State forced Currie to have a real-time understanding of the nuances of the coach hiring space. In other words, Currie is as prepared to hire a new coach as any athletic director and won’t be starting from scratch.
After Tennessee gets blown out at No. 1 Alabama on Saturday to fall to 0-4 in the SEC, don’t expect Currie to react. The end is coming for Jones, just not as fast as some may like.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, we can argue all day whether there is an advantage or not to firing Jones now. I lean towards yes, but only because I want to know for sure that he's gone. But I'm giving Currie the benefit of the doubt. And I hope he's running the show. Not Haslam. Not Ergan. Not Anderson. Those guys got rich because they were very good in their line of business. But just because you know the satellite TV market doesn't make you great at managing hedge funds, the education system or athletics.
As much as I want to hear what's going on, I'm glad there is little to no info. Because that means there are less people involved and Currie is running the show. Again, I'm sure there are people that weren't enamored with his choice as AD. But he is AD, and he's the one person in the department right now that is qualified to head up the search. The bits and pieces that we've heard (Fulmer & Peyton being involved, for example), tells me he's putting together a team much in the way a coach puts together a team. We hired a guy that is supposed to be good at this sort of thing. Let him do his job.
