Get off the ledge! Yes, the coach at Duke turned down your gracious offer to clean up the mess left by Lane Kiffin. But let's see the choice through his eyes. He is not getting younger and probably wants his current job to be his last. There are very few places better to retire than the Raleigh-Durham area. At Duke, where he has won nine games in two season--which is unbelievably good for them--he knows that the improvements he has made are enough to keep him employed there for a long time. At Duke, getting to a bowl, any bowl, is the goal. At Tennessee, the aim is higher, much higher. Cutcliffe has already been a head coach in the SEC and was shown the door because he was loyal to his coaching staff. As OC at Tennessee, he was a primary factor in the Vols winning the national championship and enjoyed the run the program had in the 90s. At Duke, he is enjoying a rebuilding process that is just now bearing fruit. He does not seek the limelight but enjoys teaching young men the sport and that is the same at Duke as it is at Tennessee as it is at St. John's in Minnesota. Why leave?
Which puts the pressure back on Tennesee. This is how the Carroll and Kiffin madness is really screwing programs. There are not many coaching candidates left. Hell the MAC has already been raided by a couple of teams. Tommy Tuberville, who was very successful in the SEC, was taken off the board by Texas Tech right before Carroll left for the NFL. The clock is ticking because the dwindling recruiting class is disappearing as we speak. But Tennessee has to get the hire right. Worrying about one class to the point that they rush and make a bad hire will cost them for years to come. Names being considered, supposedly, are Al Golden from Temple and Derek Dooley of Louisiana Tech. They knocked on Jon Gruden's door last year and may do so again. His wife is a former Vols cheerleader. That has to count for something.
First, I disagree with your blaming all of Tennessee's problems on Carroll and Kiffin. The Merry-Go-Round of coaches happens all the time. You're insinuating that what Carroll and Kiffin did is unprecedented and totally shocking.
ReplyDeleteAll schools should be prepared for coaches leaving them. Like any business, they should plan for the future by indentifying candidates for openings that occur.
The other problem is that the same names pop up with every opening. You say that the list of candidates is getting short. that's because schools don't broaden their search. There are tons of great coaches out there. It's just that no one is looking for them.
so spare me the tears for Tennessee.
If you can come up with examples of coaches leaving their big-time programs out of the blue in the middle of January, then I will gladly run a piece on that situation. Even coaches with wanderlust, like Bobby Petrino and Nick Saban, left their programs in December to grab the money offered by the pros. The only one that I can come up with without too much thought was Spurrier at Florida, and that did screw the Gators.
ReplyDeleteYou then offer conflicting statements regarding the Tennessee coaching search. I listed the few coaches that Tennessee had targeted. I never wrote that I would have targeted those guys, nor did I say that the Vols should not broaden their search. With the clock ticking on this year's recruiting class, Tennessee quickly came up with a list of candidates, a list which was smaller due to the number of coaches that have already begun new jobs (Brian Kelly, Tommy Tuberville, etc). I was not crying for the Vols, but stating a fact that there were less available candidates from what would have been their list a month earlier. What would be the point of schools having lists of candidates every day of the year, when that list would always need to be updated? Brian Kelly, for example, was on their list when they hired Kiffin. So presumably they would have gone after him again before Notre Dame beat them to the punch.
And if there are "tons of great coaches out there" then why did USC need to hire Kiffin, under contract at Tennessee? And if there are tons of great coaches out there, why did Tennessee need to always be planning for the future and have some magic list ready?