Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

To start with 5 of 10 or 15 hot seats, before leading into the main point:

Goskingslingbury (Texas Tech): The Raiders 3-0 start doesn't have the locals taking their finger off the trigger just yet, especially with a potential homerun hire in TT Alum Dave Aranda, formerly Wisconsin's DC and now at LSU, long overdue for a HC position.

Fedora (UNC): Even during the 2015 division winning season, NC lost their token two games they should'n't've; and the overall mediocrity isn't the fault of recruiting - Fedora can't keep assistants. I'd keep Fedora around for the sake of stability if this cheating scandal doesn't shake out in UNC's favor.

Mora Jr (UCLA): Just a shame how much is going to waste with Rosen at the helm. Their defense - 124th nationally & 525 yds allowed/game - is a batting order that gives its ace pitcher (Rosen) zero run support. The transaction of paying for Mora Jr's buyout AND hiring a new coach will run about $20,000,000 of public money.

Orgeron (LSU): No, I doubt Orgeron will be canned after this season, but LSU's AD is certainly up for the next Eichorst-ing after botching the Jimbo Fisher hire and letting down the fan base with the slapstick hire of a guy that averaged 3 wins/season at Ole Miss.

Jimbo (FSU): Jimbo's post-Jameis Winston editions are getting worse and worse. Specifics include inexcusably bad OL play especially given how well they recruit lineman, underachieving defenses that show no unity, and this year there is no running game.

All in all I can picture the days of long contract extensions and early firings slowly coming to an end, starting with California's always cash strapped higher tier education system already asking why so much money has to keep going into coaching football, even though the funding is segregated. UCLA's AD is praying for a sixth win just to half-ass justify keeping Mora Jr for another year of whittling down the enormous buyout. Where ADs go wrong isn't in initially hiring coaches for 2-3 million/season; it's in the wishful contract extensions that expose to risk too much public funding for the public to keep ignoring.

Who are the coaches who might move, or move up, or come in from the press box to take all these open positions?

The Vandy coach might be an option for some, despite the 59-0.

I don't know about Mike Bobo at Colorado State now.

Gruden to Tennessee = Harbaugh to Michigan.  Yes, it would be an upgrade, and yes they'd probably be one of the 3 best teams in the SEC year-in, year-out, but he ain't going to beat Saban.

They could hire Bill Belichick, or Vince Lombardi or Bear Bryant's ghosts, and they still can't beat Saban.  The guy has an absolute stranglehold on CFB.

Gruden to Tennessee = Harbaugh to Michigan.

Do ya think the Vol fans would be happy with 3rd place division finishes?

The Vols of course are cross division paired with Alabama, which is a tough draw of late.

Their goal should be to compete each year for the division championship and then take a shot at the SEC CG and make a NY6 bowl game every 3-4-5 years or so.  Whoever they get better be able to recruit out of state.

Quote from: 847badgerfan on September 27, 2017, 08:52:23 AM

Quote from: 847badgerfan on September 26, 2017, 02:43:28 PM

Do ya think the Vol fans would be happy with 3rd place division finishes?

Saw Butch Jones attacking the media this week.

That right there tells you he's done.

Tennessee fans have higher expectations for their team than you do, CDawg.

They wanna be what Bama is today. I'm too far removed from the situation to tell whether that is reasonable, or if it's more likely that they will be what Bama was 10 years ago.

The Vols of course are cross division paired with Alabama, which is a tough draw of late.

Their goal should be to compete each year for the division championship and then take a shot at the SEC CG and make a NY6 bowl game every 3-4-5 years or so.  Whoever they get better be able to recruit out of state.

I don't think the 3rd place division finishes thing would make them happy at all but that is partially because at present their Division is terrible.  The worldwide leader had the SEC-E as the #5 slot in the Bottom Ten this week.  In this year's SEC-E simply being competent would get them to at least second place.  

Having Bama as their cross-division rival hurts but I agree with Cincydawg:  Their aim should be to be competitive in the SEC-E.  Even if they never win an SECCG that should still get them to NY6 with some regularity and if they get enough shots at Bama in Atlanta they are bound to win one eventually aren't they?  

I don't know that they can though.  I have a theory that essentially everybody being on national TV every week has made life for teams without a strong home recruiting base a lot more difficult.  I think this is a big part of the reason for the relative struggles of teams such as Nebraska, Tennessee, and Michigan.  

Additionally, I think that Tennessee faces another problem that is probably an even bigger issue.  They are now surrounded by reasonably competitive teams.  Tennessee had at least eight wins every year from 1985 through 2004 and won the first BCS Title game in 1998.  The top of the mountain (Rocky Top) for them was 1995-1998 when they went:

• 11-1 in 1995 with a road loss to Florida as their only blemish.  
• 10-2 in 1996 with a close home loss to eventual NC Florida and an inexplicable loss to Memphis.  
• 11-2 in 1997 with and SEC Championship and a loss to NC Nebraska in the Orange Bowl (BCA, this was pre-BCS)
• 13-0 in 1998 with an SEC Championship and a BCS Title game win over Florida State.  

Looking around Tennessee in that era:

• VaTech was decent but UVA wasn't so there wasn't much recruiting competition in Virginia.  
• Kentucky was Kentucky and nobody thought much of Louisville yet so there wasn't much recruiting competition in Kentucky.  
• Mizzou was a middling B12 team at best so there wasn't much recruiting competition in Missouri.  
• Arkansas was a middling SEC team at best so there wasn't much recruiting competition in Arkansas.  
• The two Mississippi schools were the two Mississippi schools so there wasn't much recruiting competition in Mississippi.  
• Alabama was in the midst of a protracted down period and Auburn was not much better so there wasn't much recruiting competition in Alabama.  
• Georgia was pretty good by the end of that era but a middling team earlier and GaTech was worse so there wasn't much recruiting competition in Georgia.  
• Clemson was generally a middling ACC team and USCe was generally an SEC-E bottom feeder so there wasn't much recruiting competition in South Carolina.  
• UNC had a couple of good years in there but they were mostly a middling ACC team while NCST was worse so there wasn't much recruiting competition in North Carolina.  

There isn't enough talent in Tennessee for the Volunteers to be consistently competitive on homegrown talent alone.  It the mid-to-late 90's they had a MUCH easier time stealing talent from surrounding states.  To get back to those heights today they probably need a coach who can recruit nationally.  

So, Butch Jones. I wonder how much longer.