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Who Tennessee fans wanted as their head coach

Beau Vine

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 53964

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Great stuff from theathletic.com

 

When Tennessee released the treasure trove of emails, texts and phone records surrounding its recent football coaching search last week, it included 2,200 pages of messages sent to now-former athletic director John Currie’s work email address. As expected, most of them came from furious fans hoping to stop the Greg Schiano hire.

Did Currie read all of those emails? Probably not. Well, let’s hope not, because a lot of them were nasty. But I did. Took me almost three hours, but I read ‘em all. Because I wanted to know: Who did these angry, passionate Tennessee fans want as their new head coach? So many of their outraged emails to Currie included their suggestions. Some just yelled who he should hire in the subject line. Others laid out detailed lists of preferences and advice.

Among all those email sent in late November, only eight encouraged Currie to consider Jeremy Pruitt, the man who eventually took the job. And 77 emailers informed Currie he could not hire N.C. State’s Dave Doeren. So what did the rest have to say? Which coaches received the most recommendations from the fan base? After digging through all those emails, here are the results. Lots of sensible candidates on this list. Lots of truly baffling ones, too.

160 votes: Florida Atlantic HC Lane Kiffin

Fan takes: “Could you please go get crazy Lane back? I know it sounds bizarre but he's the man who has the most experience who would come.” … “Lane Kiffin is actually interested in UT and you won’t talk to him?! Yes he left abruptly but it’s Tennessee’s fault for negotiating a crap contract!” … “You might as well bring Kiffin back as you have alienated the entire fan base, at least he can coach and he's not afraid of Saban.” … “With Lane we would be conference champs inside 5 years. Save face, save your job, save our program, call Kiffin!!” … “Hire Kiffin! He could be our Spurrier! Swallow your pride and be the HERO!”

111: USC OC Tee Martin

“A home run hire would be Tee Martin. In my opinion he's the only one left that would unite the fan base.” … “We love Tee! The fans will be behind him 10000%. He is an excellent leader and would recruit with unprecedented success.” … “He knows offense. He knows how to win championships. Bring him home!” … “PLEASE GO GET TEE MARTIN. HE WILL WORK HARDER FOR UT THAN ANY OF THE OTHER PEOPLE YOU'RE CALLING.” … “Go hire Tee Martin and end this damn circus you have caused.”

84: Former LSU HC Les Miles

“Hire Les Miles! This is your opportunity to save face and end this wild week on a high note! He'll probably take it!” … “It makes the most sense. He has the big name, the experience, and the résumé. Most of all, he wants the job. Hire him already.” … “For the love of the football please someone tell John Currie that Les Miles is unemployed and doesn’t have a buyout and he’s interested he also won a national championship in the West!!” … “WHY HAVE YOU NOT CONTACTED LES MILES? IS HIS RECORD TOO GOOD? ARE YOU JUST TRYING TO SABOTAGE OUR PROGRAM ON YOUR WAY OUT THE DOOR?”

30: Former Texas A&M HC Kevin Sumlin (now at Arizona)

“He was let go this season, but I'm here to tell you he is a winning coach, and would fit in nicely in Knoxville. Give him two or three years. and I would bet the farm that he would own the SEC East.” … “Despite his release from A&M, Sumlin will do well at Tennessee. Kids love him and will bring recruits.” … “I believe with the talent we have he is the coach to take us to the next level.” … “Hire Sumlin 2nite.”

23: Oakland Raiders HC Jon Gruden

“Pay the man.” … “Take some of the money for “renovations” and pay Gruden or there is no reason to make any renovations.” … “Like the old saying ‘MONEY TALKS, BULLSHIT WALKS.’ Throw the house at Gruden and who knows.” … “The sad thing about this whole ordeal is that me, a random student, has probably had more conversations with Jon Gruden this year than you have. Seriously, did you say a word to him? My sources, his son, said that you did not reach out to him, and that is a crime against humanity.”

23: Washington State HC Mike Leach

“Bring the pirate flags to UT!!!!” … “Please get coach Leach. Would make us relevant again.” … “Social media is already exploding with excitement over Leach. Don't mess this up anymore than you already have.”

19: Memphis HC Mike Norvell

“Norvell is young! If you're looking for a coach that could have long tenure at Tennessee, consider Norvell.” … “Have you thought of Memphis State’s coach or are you too?proud to ask a Memphis man?”

17: Washington HC Chris Petersen

“No, he may not leave Washington, but has he been seriously approached? Have you offered every possible thing he could want, including a ton of cash?”

15: Louisville HC Bobby Petrino

“Go get Petrino if we're down to Greg Schiano. All he did is ride around on his motorcycle with a mistress.”

15: Clemson DC Brent Venables

“Coach Venables has all the qualities and characteristics to be a great head football coach. Mr. Venables reminds me a lot of Kirby Smart. His drive and energy are almost parallel.”

13

Auburn DC Kevin Steele

12

Purdue HC Jeff Brohm, Tennessee AD Phillip Fulmer

11

Duke HC David Cutcliffe

10

Fans who asked to be considered for the job

“I would gladly take the vacant head coaching position at Tennessee. I am flexible on salary and buyout numbers.” … “John, you offered 7 million dollars to a man with a mullet in 2017. I will work for half that, and I can promise you that I won’t back out. Twitter would love me. I have the memes to get this job done. They may be skeptical at first, but my #hashtags will win out in the end.” … “I've not played a down of organized football in my life, but I used to beat my brother so badly in NFL Blitz that he would start crying and telling my mom I was cheating when I wasn't. I always ran a clean program there in my childhood bedroom and would continue to do so at the university I grew up loving and going to games from the age of six.”

8

Alabama DC Jeremy Pruitt (now Tennessee HC), Nebraska HC Scott Frost

“Mr. Currie, I'm asking that you do whatever it takes to hire Jeremy Pruitt for our head coaching job. He has 3 National Championships to his name. If anyone can figure out how to beat Alabama it would be Coach Pruitt.”

6

Former Los Angeles Rams HC Jeff Fisher

5

Mississippi State HC Dan Mullen (now at Florida)

4

Virginia Tech HC Justin Fuente, former Tennessee interim HC Brady Hoke

“Keep Brady Hoke if you're not actually trying to win! He is a lot nicer!”

3

Iowa State HC Matt Campbell, James Madison HC Mike Houston, former Tennessee HC Butch Jones, TCU HC Gary Patterson

“I feel like we should have kept Butch Jones.” … “Why the hell didn't you keep Butch Jones because no one else wants to come.” … “Heck hire Butch back.”

2

LSU DC Dave Aranda, former Arkansas HC Bret Bielema, former Pittsburgh Steelers HC Bill Cowher, N.C. State HC Dave Doeren, Florida State HC Jimbo Fisher (now at Texas A&M), Oklahoma State HC Mike Gundy, former Tennessee QB Peyton Manning, former Florida coach Jim McElwain (now at Michigan), Appalachian State HC Scott Satterfield, Philadelphia Eagles DC Jim Schwartz, former Oklahoma HC Bob Stoops, Furman OC George Quarles

1

Former Baylor HC Art Briles, former Tennessee assistant Kippy Brown, Troy HC Neal Brown, Toledo HC Jason Candle, Georgia OC Jim Chaney, Arkansas DC John Chavis, Florida International HC Butch Davis, Maryland HC D.J. Durkin, high school coach Charles Fant, Minnesota HC P.J. Fleck, former Ole Miss HC Hugh Freeze, HS coach Kwayu Graham, Baltimore Ravens HC John Harbaugh, Austin Peay HC Will Healy, Richmond HC Russ Huesman, Appalachian State ILB coach Dale Jones, New England Patriots OC Josh McDaniels, Harvard HC Tim Murphy, former UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel, Philadelphia Eagles HC Doug Pederson, middle school coach Brent Peel, Green Bay Packers assistant David Raih, former Arizona HC Rich Rodriguez, Ohio State DC Greg Schiano, Stanford HC David Shaw, former South Carolina HC Steve Spurrier, Oregon HC Willie Taggart (now at Florida State), Youngstown State president Jim Tressel, Utah HC Kyle Whittingham, Cal HC Justin Wilcox, high school coach Ricky Woods

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DocZaius

DocZaius 65

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As a Gator fan, I look on Tennessee as a once-great rival, reduced to nothing more than a has-been program that can't seem to get out of its own way.  Vol fans are so delusional, year-in and year-out, it's sad and comical.

I still get a toasty feeling inside when I learn that Florida snatched Mullen out from under them, however:

https://247sports.com/college/tennessee/Article/Tennessee-Vols-coaching-search-timeline-John-Currie-Mike-Gundy-Mike-Leach-Dan-Mullen-Dave-Doeren-116582734

Quote

Interestingly, Currie and Schiano swapped only three messages the night of Nov. 26, also known as the infamous "Schiano Sunday" when the hire was torpedoed by intense public and private resistance.

Currie's first contact was with Mullen. Clint Dowdle, who works for agency CAA Sports, told Currie on the night of Nov. 22 that Mullen wanted to set a time to talk to Currie two days later, the Friday morning after Mississippi State's regular-season finale against Ole Miss on Thanksgiving night.

Currie first contacted Mullen early that Friday morning.

Just before noon on Saturday, Nov. 25, Mullen messaged Currie: "Good luck today. Talked with Peyton last night. Look forward to seeing you tomorrow."

According to the messages, Currie told Dowdle to sent Mullen a memorandum of understanding, and the two appeared to have contact scheduled for 11 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 26, but his last message to Mullen on the night of Nov. 25 -- "So tomorrow work?" -- went unanswered.

Mullen was hired on Florida's coach that Sunday.

 

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closetojumping

closetojumping 62131

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25 minutes ago, Mikegundy'sMullet said:

That coaching search was a rare instance where the administration and the fan base camr together ax one to comically fuck everything up. 

 

Here's the thing though - Pruitt is going to win at Tennessee and is a better fit than damned near every other coach mentioned in the above article of insanity. It helps, of course, that Pruitt is going to cheat his fucking ass off, but he'll win nonetheless. They're signing JUCOs to fill gaps and then they're going to cast a wide net on recruits and play the SEC game. They basically self-induced swimming through a river a shit to come out smelling like a rose.

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Mikegundy'sMullet

Mikegundy'sMullet 64

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5 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Here's the thing though - Pruitt is going to win at Tennessee and is a better fit than damned near every other coach mentioned in the above article of insanity. It helps, of course, that Pruitt is going to cheat his fucking ass off, but he'll win nonetheless. They're signing JUCOs to fill gaps and then they're going to cast a wide net on recruits and play the SEC game. They basically self-induced swimming through a river a shit to come out smelling like a rose.

Absolutely. They just landed him after they ran out of incompetence, though. 

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Bill Lumbergh

Bill Lumbergh 7168

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From the search process, I thought it was just Tenessee's AD that was incredibly dumb. 

Now I see they're just representing their fanbase. 

So many reasonably good options with such little interest, so many unreasonably horrible options with such high interest. 

I'm amazed they didn't get into a bidding war with asu for Herm, based on this list. 

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DocZaius

DocZaius 65

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54 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Here's the thing though - Pruitt is going to win at Tennessee and is a better fit than damned near every other coach mentioned in the above article of insanity. It helps, of course, that Pruitt is going to cheat his fucking ass off, but he'll win nonetheless. They're signing JUCOs to fill gaps and then they're going to cast a wide net on recruits and play the SEC game. They basically self-induced swimming through a river a shit to come out smelling like a rose.

 

Pruitt will be okay, but he's not going to turn that program around overnight, even with some good JUCO signees.  There's just too much regional competition (Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Clemson, Florida) for high school recruits for a program that's been in the shitter for so long.  As much as it pains me to say it, Georgia is going to dominate the SEC East for at least a couple of years (hopefully, Florida will rise up again to take them down).

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Vertigo

Vertigo 20257

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21 minutes ago, Surly Bevo said:

All these folks wanting the Mullett...you would think he had won something more than one B12 championship 7 years ago.

Gundy at a blue blood program would be problematic. The man can coach, and he knows how to recruit to his system perfectly. Once he can bump up his roster by 1 star per player he would be in business. 

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Pods

Pods 7522

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29 minutes ago, Player said:

Only one vote for the Chief? Gee, I wonder where that vote came from. 

 260AC9D1-22B6-431C-8FB0-79604B0705F5.JPG

 

 

5 minutes ago, Big_kat said:

Did Chief Jr have stroke? What's with the slumped right eye?

 

 

They accidentally mirrored the photograph. He's always had it on his left. Here's an old image. 

 

Tell-her-how-you-feel.jpg

Edited by Pods
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Mikegundy'sMullet

Mikegundy'sMullet 64

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24 minutes ago, Surly Bevo said:

All these folks wanting the Mullett...you would think he had won something more than one B12 championship 7 years ago.

I know. It's super fucking easy to recruit four and five star athletes to come play football in Stillwater, Oklahoma. I can't figure out what the guy is doing wrong as a coach. 

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Clintonaldo

Clintonaldo 2570

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2 minutes ago, Mikegundy'sMullet said:

I know. It's super fucking easy to recruit four and five star athletes to come play football in Stillwater, Oklahoma. I can't figure out what the guy is doing wrong as a coach. 

He is definately a good coach and I think it was stupid to go after him the second time and I never believed for a minute he was coming. 

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closetojumping

closetojumping 62131

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10 minutes ago, Mikegundy'sMullet said:

I know. It's super fucking easy to recruit four and five star athletes to come play football in Stillwater, Oklahoma. I can't figure out what the guy is doing wrong as a coach. 

He's in a good spot at OSU. I wouldn't want the guy at Texas. He's a choking clown against the sooners and I expect OSU to go back to getting its ass beat by Texas very soon as well. OSU has the appropriate amount of mediocre expectations and lack of ego to keep him there winning 8-10 games but really not impacting anything nationally, basically ever. So cheers, man, he's all yours. 

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Clintonaldo

Clintonaldo 2570

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Just now, Pods said:

Tennessee should have hired the pirate. 

Yeah, they let a good thing get away. I believe I posted that someone close to Leach was excited about it. Leach thought the chaos was good as he could do things his way. He faxed in his shit signed at 8 am but it was declined as Currie was hours away from getting fired. 

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Gengs1

Gengs1 2583

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Nobody has a worse coaching search then UT, maybe LSU comes in second getting a dl coach.

as far as Mullen is concerned, I think he will do well at UF and wasn’t a spectacular hire, I mean who can win at Muuu state and he did the best he could there. 

if he can the athletes at UF he will do pretty good, recruiting will determine how well he does. 

 

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Doc Sam Beckett

Doc Sam Beckett 5781

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16 hours ago, closetojumping said:

Here's the thing though - Pruitt is going to win at Tennessee and is a better fit than damned near every other coach mentioned in the above article of insanity. It helps, of course, that Pruitt is going to cheat his fucking ass off, but he'll win nonetheless. They're signing JUCOs to fill gaps and then they're going to cast a wide net on recruits and play the SEC game. They basically self-induced swimming through a river a shit to come out smelling like a rose.

 

Yeah, I'm pretty surprised that Pruitt was able to come into that shit show, and still land a top 20 recruiting class. Should be fun to see who can out-sec the other between him and Kirby. 

 

 

15 hours ago, Clintonaldo said:

Lol at Florida laughing at anyone 

 

Hell, glad to see you are still alive brotha! I thought for sure during the Vols coaching search abortion that you were gonna go on a daiquiri bender and be found in a pool of your own vomit. 

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Clintonaldo

Clintonaldo 2570

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5 hours ago, Doc Sam Beckett said:

 

Yeah, I'm pretty surprised that Pruitt was able to come into that shit show, and still land a top 20 recruiting class. Should be fun to see who can out-sec the other between him and Kirby. 

 

 

 

Hell, glad to see you are still alive brotha! I thought for sure during the Vols coaching search abortion that you were gonna go on a daiquiri bender and be found in a pool of your own vomit. 

I tried to die but fucked it up. I’m just here for the lulz at this point. I will say Pruitt just wants to coach and Botch wanted to be a head coach. I have no idea how good he will be but it’s nice to have someone that actually played the game and wasn’t in the fucking marching band. 

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SmartAsset

SmartAsset 5

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On 3/26/2018 at 3:07 PM, DocZaius said:

As a Gator fan, I look on Tennessee as a once-great rival, reduced to nothing more than a has-been program that can't seem to get out of its own way.  Vol fans are so delusional, year-in and year-out, it's sad and comical.

Sounds familiar.

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hpslugga

hpslugga 4039

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On 3/26/2018 at 2:04 PM, Beau Vine said:

84: Former LSU HC Les Miles

“Hire Les Miles! This is your opportunity to save face and end this wild week on a high note! He'll probably take it!” 

I've gotta say, that's the first time in 15 years I've seen "Les Miles," "save face," and "high note" used in the same line.

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Machinator

Machinator 32097

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I guess this will suffice as the Tennessee thread for now.

Connelly previewed them today: https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2018/7/30/17566318/tennessee-football-2018-preview-schedule-roster

Their schedule is absolutely brutal. They get WVU as their big OOC game, and then from mid-September through October they play Florida, at Georgia, bye, at Auburn, Alabama, and at South Carolina. There is a chance they enter November with just two wins.

Quote

Tennessee doesn’t boast the overall returning production you would hope for, following a youth movement, and because the fall was so drastic last year, the Vols are projected only 79th in S&P+ this year. I could see something closer to a top-50 performance with the right breaks, but either way, the goal is simply reaching a bowl. UT is a projected favorite in three games and a one-possession underdog in four others. Getting to six isn’t impossible.

A secondary goal: don’t lose your morale during a ridiculous midseason stretch — at Georgia (No. 6 in S&P+), at Auburn (No. 5), Alabama (No. 2), and at South Carolina (at No. 35). UT gets Charlotte, Kentucky, and Missouri at home after that run and could go anywhere from 1-2 to 3-0 in that stretch.

Pruitt was not Tennessee’s first, second, third, etc., choice for the job. Despite the fact that his hire fits a profile (former Saban assistant) that has failed plenty of times, there’s obviously potential.

There is also, for a short time, a low bar. If Pruitt beats Florida or scares a heavyweight while going about 5-7, it’ll be considered a step forward.

 

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