I've seen too much negativity around here. Some of you all need to go get yourself a glass of milk and stay off forums and social media. I believe the Tennessee football program does NOT need a homerun hire in order to be successful. During our coaching search in 2017, I too had my eyes fixated on a big name coach. I wanted Gruden and I wouldn't settle for any less. When I heard Dan Mullen's name mentioned as a candidate, I was disgusted! What a boring hire that would be! Well... seems to have worked out pretty well with Florida so far. So now that we have found ourselves in a coaching search again, I want to explore the viability of a boring coach:
In order to do that, lets first close our eyes and take a trip with back to the Butch Jones era, specifically the years 2015 and 2016. You all probably remember the 2016 season well. We pull off an immaculate comeback to defeat Florida, we have the hail Mary to stun Georgia, then we turn the ball over 7 times and still manage to take an 8th ranked A&M to double overtime. Our season takes a tumble after that loss and we finish 9-4 after ugly losses to Alabama, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt. Now lets play around with some what-ifs. What if we got back a few of those turnovers against A&M? A win against A&M changes the entire outlook of the season. Even if we still lose to Alabama, I think our team would have kept a high intensity for the remainder of the season with our eyes set on the playoffs. Maybe this additional motivation is all we needed to flip the outcome of the South Carolina and Vandy games? I know this may be a stretch, but Butch Jones was not too far off from greatness.
Looking back at the 2015 season, in hindsight it seems we got even closer to the playoffs than 2016. Our four losses were to Oklahoma, Florida, Arkansas, and Alabama. We lost to Oklahoma in double overtime after allowing them to outscore us 28-7 in the second half. We lost to Florida by 1 point after allowing them to outscore us 21-10 in the 2nd half. We lost to Arkansas by 4 points after having led by 4 at half time. Our fourth loss then came to Alabama in a close 19-14 finish after we allowed Derrick henry to score to take the lead with 2:24 left on the clock.
Now, I am absolutely not trying to praise Butch Jones in any way, shape, or form. The point I am hoping to make is that Butch Jones, despite being incompetent in game script and player development, was able to sniff the college football playoffs. Give us a boring coach in those two seasons who at least knows how to design and adapt a game plan, and those seasons could have been way different. This should be a testament to the University of Tennessee. Somehow, our program can still bring in talent and has the money to put together an elite staff. As long as Danny White hires someone better than Butch Jones, we should be excited. Listen, I want Kiffin to come back too, but I am going to stay positive even if we hire a boring candidate. Hopefully this cheers up some of you doomers and lowers your standards for the head coach hire.
Also, on a side note, here is the experience level of some of the top coaches before they were hired at their current HC gigs:
In order to do that, lets first close our eyes and take a trip with back to the Butch Jones era, specifically the years 2015 and 2016. You all probably remember the 2016 season well. We pull off an immaculate comeback to defeat Florida, we have the hail Mary to stun Georgia, then we turn the ball over 7 times and still manage to take an 8th ranked A&M to double overtime. Our season takes a tumble after that loss and we finish 9-4 after ugly losses to Alabama, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt. Now lets play around with some what-ifs. What if we got back a few of those turnovers against A&M? A win against A&M changes the entire outlook of the season. Even if we still lose to Alabama, I think our team would have kept a high intensity for the remainder of the season with our eyes set on the playoffs. Maybe this additional motivation is all we needed to flip the outcome of the South Carolina and Vandy games? I know this may be a stretch, but Butch Jones was not too far off from greatness.
Looking back at the 2015 season, in hindsight it seems we got even closer to the playoffs than 2016. Our four losses were to Oklahoma, Florida, Arkansas, and Alabama. We lost to Oklahoma in double overtime after allowing them to outscore us 28-7 in the second half. We lost to Florida by 1 point after allowing them to outscore us 21-10 in the 2nd half. We lost to Arkansas by 4 points after having led by 4 at half time. Our fourth loss then came to Alabama in a close 19-14 finish after we allowed Derrick henry to score to take the lead with 2:24 left on the clock.
Now, I am absolutely not trying to praise Butch Jones in any way, shape, or form. The point I am hoping to make is that Butch Jones, despite being incompetent in game script and player development, was able to sniff the college football playoffs. Give us a boring coach in those two seasons who at least knows how to design and adapt a game plan, and those seasons could have been way different. This should be a testament to the University of Tennessee. Somehow, our program can still bring in talent and has the money to put together an elite staff. As long as Danny White hires someone better than Butch Jones, we should be excited. Listen, I want Kiffin to come back too, but I am going to stay positive even if we hire a boring candidate. Hopefully this cheers up some of you doomers and lowers your standards for the head coach hire.
Also, on a side note, here is the experience level of some of the top coaches before they were hired at their current HC gigs:
- Dabo was only a WR coach
- Jason Day was an OC (and had only ever been an OC at previous teams)
- Lincoln Riley was an OC
- Kirby Smart was a DC
