Message No. 2 to Tennessee Fans

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.

Vols Nation Awareness Day

Okay, Tennessee fans. Your coach has dumped you for the West Coast. You want to hire the best coach available to replace the bum and money is no object. So you target Will Muschamp over at Texas, offering to triple his salary. Everyone wants a raise, right? And Muschamp must be getting tired waiting for Mack Brown to retire, right?

Well Vols Nation, I have something to explain to you. Tennessee has great college football traditions and is a wonderful place to work (I assume). But leave Texas? Are you crazy? There are elite programs in college football and then there are THE ELITE programs in college football. Texas, thanks to its ownership of a majority of superstar recruits from its fertile home state, great support and excellent tradition, is one of a select few. Ohio State, which rules the Buckeye State, is another. Florida, Alabama, Penn State and maybe LSU and USC are in the discussion. But not one of them--not even Florida or Alabama--presents such an ideal situation for a head coach. For one thing there is his eventual salary, if he proves to be successful in Austin. With help from the donations of some fatcat alumni, Texas will begin paying Mack Brown $5 million per year. Muschamp himself makes $1 million to be an assistant. Secondly, Texas pours a lot of money into facilities. If Muschamp wants something he will get it. Third, without lifting a finger Muschamp can lock up half of a top ten recruiting class by signing his pick of the best kids from the state. By September when the rest of the top programs are backstabbing each other to get an agreement from the latest hotshot linebacker, the Longhorns already have 24 kids signed and can focus on the actual football season. And how often do you think Mack Brown has to leave Texas to lock up a big recruit? Then there is the competition for media and other forms of publicity. The state is on board with that. And finally there is the schedule, which consists of Oklahoma at a neutral field plus a few other solid programs mixed in with some scraps. In the past five regular seasons, Texas was an underdog three times total, twice to Oklahoma. In other words, coaching Texas is the best job in all of football--pro or college.

As for Tennessee? The facilities and pay are there, of course. But of the 24 kids Kiffin et al signed for this year, only one was from in-state. Kiffin's staff had to work ten times as hard as Mack Brown's, with similar results. And competition? Florida and Georgia are annual guarantees and the SEC West powers come in and out of your schedule. Again, it is not even close. Tennessee was a dog more times last year than Texas has been for the past five years. To quote our favorite punching bag, Lane Kiffin, it is a no brainer for Muschamp to stay where he is in Austin.