One More Reason For Vols Fans To Hate Lane Kiffin, As If They Really Need More

This issue with assistants goes beyond money. Cutcliffe has the same problem that Fulmer had. Neither want assistants who are slimy enough to recruit effectively in the Dirty South.

Dooley was recruiting coordinator under Nick Saban…..

Tennessee gets exactly what they deserve. Fullmer voted Michigan FOURTH !? in the final coaches poll in 1997 (31 future NFL players on the roster !) so they would share the NC with Nebraska, because he was mad Woodson won the Heisman instead of Manning.   Rocky Flop

So what does him being a recruiting coordinator for Saban have to do with anything? That doesn’t gurantee anything at TENN. He didn’t get any good recruits of substance at La Tech, and if he did, it didn’t show on the field!

The issue isn’t whether Dooley can recruit kids to La Tech (Ruston, La — population of 21,000).  Who could?

The bigger issue is what Tennessee was thinking guaranteeing contracts for assistant coaches.  In the end, UT should just have settled their contracts and been done with the whole Kiffin nightmare, allowing Hamilton to hire one of the coaches of his choice.

It might be that Mr. Hamilton’s recent performance should be reviewed by the incoming President.

markmaymustdie:  Are you suggesting Fulmer didn’t recruit the "Dirty South?"  Or that Cutcliffe didn’t in previous incarnations?

Firehawk:   Really man, chill!   If I understand you right, you are obsessing about something that happened in 1997, 13 years ago?

How is Rich Rod working for you bud?

Cutcliffe speaks of his great loyalty, and the author of the article holds him up as an example of the anti-Kiffin, but wasn’t the Duke coach prepared to ditch his school only a few days after Laney ditched the Vols?  How is it different?

firehawk44And some people we southerners are bad at holding grudges…woe.  Regarding, Dooley it may not be a bad hire.  We’ll have to see.  Regarding Hamilton, he needs to go.  He obviously does not have the administrative and contract negotiating skills to be an AD at a big time university in today’s atmosphere of coaches and agents.

Cook: I am pleased that this latest article did not have that "one-to-one Crayola to Jim Beam" ratio/aroma like your last article of debacle so soon after the New Year. In some instances, you actually appeared rational and not totally devoid of content and humor.

I like Johnny Majors; I dislike Fulmer, et al, who were responsible for the Autumn coup d’état while Majors was battling a heart condition. As for Tennessee’s choice: it’s rather incomprehensible as you ‘intimated rather adequately’.

I admire Cutcliff for his body of work, but there’s a youth trend in SEC football. Considering I am not a Tennessee alumnus or fan, I will allow the Volunteer faithful to debate the veritable wisdom or blatant idiocy of the hire.

I do believe they settled; and that seldom bodes well for recruiting—even if the coach does have difficulty growing sideburns without Rogaine facials and Wiccan chants. Vince Dooley was a good coach. Great coaches are seldom found at LA. Tech, even if by spontaneous cognizance or immaculate misconception.

Keep up the good work. See? You did not even require the corked bat or steroid injections; not to mention the Mark McGwire jockstrap around your head.

UT stumbled into the best choice they could’ve made, even if he was their 5th option. He actually took La Tech to a bowl game (something Cutcliffe has yet to do at Duke). Personally, as a Bama fan I am far more concerned about Doolley than I ever was about Kiffin. I knew Kiffin would eventually destroy the UT program and I was looking forward to it. Now they have one of the brightest young coaches in the game and he’s not a lying idiot. Hamilton still needs to get the ax. Anybody who hire Kiffin and give assistant coaches HC contracts doesn’t deserve to be an AD anywhere, let alone the SEC. Eventually, after the hatred I developed during Fulmer and Kiffin regimes subsides, I may actually root for UT when their not playing us. RTR

The advantage Kiffin and his staff brought to UT was that they had a high profile and were recruiting nationally. The only way to keep up that momentum (and they really did have momentum going) was to bring in someone with a national profile.  Dooley is probabably a good young coach, but he is about as far from that as you could possibly imagine.  I’m sure his name was one of the top Google searches this week because no one had ever heard of him. 

Hamilton blew this one.  Instead of looking for Mr. Right, he settled for Mr. Right Now.  It might save some of this year’s recruiting class, but it’s woefully short sighted and is going to hurt them for the next 7-10 years.  

I am not a UT fan either but I live in a township outside Memphis and listen to a local sports show which has been jammed with calls from VOL fans. The sentiment seems to be UT did settle for Mr. Right Now….good one tkbone. A guy I work with and I were talking about the coaching carousel and the "available" coaches and why Mike didnt go after one of them. The usual suspects were on the list but we all know several high profile guys already turned UT down. My issue with Mike is because the University was locked in on Lane’s assistants as far as paying them, then David Cutcliffe has to live with Lane’s choices. THe reason given why DC was fired from Ole Miss was because he would fire any of his assistants. If the truth were known it was because DC was not one of the good ole boys in Oxford. We all also know what happened after that firing…ED Oregeron…okay that worked out..not. I think we should however cut Mike some slack. He was in a hurry up but dont make a mistake kind of hiring. I heard this guy interviewed and if he had the resume to back up his responses I would be impressed. To be fair come on its LA Tech. I lived in Louisiana and it is tough to recruit players to La Tech. My neighbors graduated from there and they would agree it Ruston is a hole in the wall. The sports analysts last night predicted Dooley would last longer at UT than Lane Kiffin at USC…time will tell but for VOL fans sake I hope they are right. He does have the pedigree which doesnt always mean he will be as good as his dad but look at Skip Holtz. He has another gig and I think if he continues the way he is going he will land a big time school in the future. South Florida was a good choice for him. Tommy Tuberville would have taken that job if he had not already committed to Texas Tech. So Vol fans take heart this guy may surprise you.

All things considered, this hire was about as good as Tenn. could come up with, and time was becoming a bomb—recruits bleeding away, the program looking more "vulnerable," and weak by comparison to top programs.  I’m no fan of Kiffin, but I think there’s a kernal of truth to the fact that USC was the only job he’d have taken.  He named his son Knox, after all.  But he also knew that winning in the SEC at Tenn. was a helluva Mtn. to climb, pun intended, and that aside from pending NCAA investigations at USC he can reign at Mt. Olympus in the PAC 10.

As for Cutcliffe, it was as much about assistants, money and extreme pressure to win, as it was about loyalty or character—not that he doesn’t possess more than the average Bit Time coach.

firehawk44: Dude!  That little tidbit you mentioned is underreported.  So, too, is the pathetic whining that Nebraska (most notably Scott Frost) did after the Vols rolled over for them.

VolfaninMichigan and cadawg: Yeah, I’ll admit that it’s pathetic, but you try listening to "DANGOLETEAMSPEEDSLOWHIOSOUTHERNFOOTBALLALWAYSBEST" a few thousand times and you’ll understand.  Aside: The RichRod saga, which is certainly partly the fault of Mr. Rodriguez, is a complicated issue and one where blame (for a bare upperclass cupboard… look at the ‘09 draft and watch the details for ’10 and ’11) can’t be easily assigned.

The more I study the hire, the more I like it.  I think Cutcliffe is a good man, but I don’t necessarily think he is the right guy for UT right now.  Dooley has a much better track record than many would have us believe.  He is no Kiffen, and I mean that in the best way.  For anyone to insinuate that it is a bad thing to have a father that was a successful HC is silly.  Neither of the Kiffen’s has had any success as a HC.  Monte has only ever been a DC at best.  Lane’s best year was one game over .500.  Dooley led LaTech to its first bowl victory in 30 years, and was the recruiting coordinator at LSU when he helped Saban land two top classes.  So, not only can he recruit, but he can coach.  And, I can guarantee he will not have six secondary violations in a year.  People cracked on Auburn last year with their hire, but Auburn got it right.  So did Tennessee.

Don’t blame LK.  That hiring is all on UT.

Who knows, but Cutcliffe said in a local media interview that the whole thing "felt dirty" as he considered his recruits and the fact some had already enrolled early.  He cited finishing what he started.  Said he wasn’t looking for a job and that the whole thing blew up very quickly.  He commented that even if he had the opportunity to take his Duke staff with him, he still didn’t like the way it felt and was committed to finish what he started at Duke. Timing was just all wrong.  I didn’t want him to leave Duke b/c I think he has a chance of becoming one of those legendary coaches if he stays healthy and keeps improving the program to the point it gets to be repetitively competetive. 
 
Dooley is innocent of the bonehead decisions of Hamilton, who is the one who needs to walk.  Give Dooley a chance…kick Hamilton to the curb!

The VOLS are being cursed because of Phil Fulmer.  That fat bastard voted Michigan #4 in the coaches poll in 1997.  I hope he chokes on chicken bone. The

Next thing, y’all are going to have Kiffin on the grassy knoll.  Anything else you want to blame on him?

I think Dooley is a good hire.  Louisiana Tech is not someplace you can go and have tons of immediate success — a small, rural school in the WAC recruiting against the SEC and BXII and playing half your games way out west.  He was, however, an integral part of the LSU championship program under Saban — especially as a recruiter.  I think he is going to do well in Knoxville.

At least give the guy a chance first.  Dooley I mean.  Scream at him when he fails.  Hey, at least he finished 2nd in something, which is better than Kiffin has done so far….

No choice, but to  wait and  see  what happens. At least Kiffin is USC’s problem now and Dooley understands and values our traditions. If  people knew how lightly or shabbily UT traditions were treated under Kiffin, everyone would have wanted him gone. Josh McNeil was right, Kiffin is a snake.

And why would we blame Lame for this?  I’d love to lay anything and everything at Lames feet but this was squarely more ineptitude from the AD.  Funny, I thought we were the only team with ubelievably poor management from that department.  Fortunately, that is ASU’s problem now.  Tear em down Kev!

It’s a good thing Brian Cook doesn’t choose UT’s coaches for us. Cutcliffe is just the sort of coach Tennessee’s rivals would like us to have – Phil Fulmer redux(albeit with a slimmer waistline). The Vols will be better off having a young buck like Dooley with fire, rather than doughnuts, in his belly.

I hope Dooley is gone faster than Kiffin.  Whether or not it was "respectful" for Kiffin to leave the way he did is irrelevant as to whether or not he was a good coach.

Lane Kiffin took a team that looked terrible the previous year and turned them around in one year.  He put together a great staff, and was doing an awesome job at recruiting.  I wish the AD had made some sort of attempt to keep him, once the USC job became open.  THAT WAS THE ONLY TEAM Hamilton had to be concerned about and he knew it, and what did the dummy do… nothing.  and that is SEC EGO.  "oh no he’d never leave the SEC and UT to go elsewhere"  Seriously… the SEC is not the end all be all of college football.  The SEC is just another conference.  Definately a top-tier conference no doubt….but i digress.

Lane Kiffin was an awesome coach and UT should’ve done anything to keep him.  He had a style that was really great for recruiting, he was about to build an empire.  It sucks this all had to come to an end because Pete Carroll wanted to have a couple more years in the NFL. 

I am a fan of UT, but i’m not delusional sec worshiping drone who is gonna bash Kiffin for going to a currently stronger program in an equal conference (and who was definately doing very well considering the previous year)…
I would MUCH rather have Kiffin than whoever this guy is… the son of whoever.  This smells of a Krapthorpe type hire… Krapthorpe style coaches can take a top 3 team and take em to well look at U of L… he ruined them in a year… then added to it two more years.

I say give doodoohead dooley a year… and if it’s not an improvement on Kiffin’s year… fire him, find someone else.  Of course Hamilton is an idiot… so who knows. 

Why was Mike Leach not considered?  That would’ve been great!

At anyrate… there’s no reason to be surprised at Kiffin leaving… especially when the AD knew this could happen and did nothing really.  We should be quite surprised at this subpar hire though.

"Your lottery winner is Derek
Dooley, who’s the head coach of a school so obscure that he’s his own
athletic director. (How did I do this year, boss? Well, I
do declare that was the most scintillating four win season I have ever
seen!)"  lmao that is funny

that sums it up all right there.

I really think it would’ve been better to get Fulmer back when they had the chance.  Maybe they should hire him as AD.  AD definately seems to be the weak spot there.

Well Imma close my eyes and cross my fingers and hope something good happens next year… or hope something devestating doesn’t happen at least!