Displaced_Vol
Well-Known Member
Every thing about it. Christ we can't help but make ourselves a laughing stock.
Mid year extensions for both Fulmer & Pruitt, followed not long after by the start of the internal investigation apparently.
The info leaked in the middle of the final game of the season. In sharp contrast to the way Florida handled their own internal investigation I might add. Over the course of a month its nothing but rumors along with the news that UT hired the coach killers at Bond, Schoeneck & King. So at that point the writing is on the wall but lets let everything twist in the wind for a few more weeks. .So next comes a hiring freeze, that can't be good. But in the middle of a hiring freeze we bring on Kevin Steele. Gee that seems odd...but OK. Now he's an interim head coach. You know what's not good for recruiting and building programs... interim coaches.
I just watched the presser, they fired 9 coaches/assistants and according to the chancellor, they fired Pruitt because he should have known better. Maybe he should, I still haven't heard anyone report the violations. Maybe it was hookers in the dorms just like Louisville. Maybe it was stuff that half the football programs in the country engage in but never get caught. Amarius Mims and Eric Gray are all I heard. Will Wade can get caught on wire taps talking about payments to players and he can stick around no problem, all I've heard about JP is that his assistant coaches got caught doing wrong and he should have known better. Maybe there is more to his involvement. If there is why not share that now when you fire him? If the allegations and violations are serious enough to warrant the head coach being fired, that was probably obvious enough weeks if not months ago, dragging it out like this has made everything worse. And if what they said in the presser is correct, in that it was all the fault of assistants and he should have had more control, you can full on expect he's going to sue the university for his buyout. If he was dragging around bags of cash ok, he's fired for cause and he doesn't have much of a case but I fully expect he's already talking to lawyers. But its cool we're only expecting a 40 million dollar shortfall this year.
Fulmer deciding to retire may sound like he's doing something noble but its not. As hard as it is going to be to get a coach how hard is it going to be to get a quality AD? Our ADs have been a huge part of our problem, and now we have basically said to anyone taking that job, "if you don't get the football coach right then you're gone too".
Now who do we get? Who wants it? Is Gus a better coach than JP, yeah he is but what is UT going to offer him that Auburn didn't in order to be a successful coach on the terms of what we were 20 years ago. You think he's interested in building a program? Is it going to be Freeze? Because he brought Liberty to some sort of national prominence when they play the school of the deaf and blind half their schedule? He's certainly got baggage but all they've said on this presser is that you have to win with integrity so I don't think that puts him at the top of the list.
As much as it might irritate me to have all these bammers and gators on here point out we're not a top 10 program, they're exactly right. 110% right. One because we're not very good at football and also because upper management and handling of the program is a disaster. How in the hell you gonna cheat and go 3-7?
To JP's ability as a coach, I wasn't sold on that but I did not believe he should have been fired this year solely on football reasons alone. Was he going to help get this program going in the right direction I don't know but I believed he deserved one more year as HC. Everybody likes to point out how he loses games by a larger margin than Dooley and that's true, but I also remember when Bama wanted to beat everybody 7-0. Its not the same game and we are further behind than we were in 2010. We are living in deja vu land and this constant cycling of coaches and ADs puts you further behind because you recruit 17 year olds and every other coach in the country is going to point out what a zoo UT is... This weekend the media office put out videos on social media of JP welcoming the early enrollees to the program. After they had the info on Friday that they were going to fire him. Are you kidding?? People all over that program, that town and the UT media all play a role and we can't get out of our own way.
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