How to Hire a New Coach

[Cincydawg]

The long state nightmare at Tennessee is over.

[Drew4UTk]

he's much better than the polarizing Schiano, but still not the 'rock star' hire UT was hoping for.... Still- he's a solid selection.  Mel would have been a solid selection, too.  

no matter- he's the coach, now, and it's time to rally. 

[SLM85VOL]

I'd add to your list...
9.  Don't overpay
10.  Don't guarantee the contract / include a reasonable buy-out for both parties.
That last item is one that A&M struggles with.  

Spot-on Shiner!   Kiffin was a failure at UT because of Mike Hamilton not writing a fail-safe contract. The mistake wasn’t necessarily hiring Kiffin (even though we now know that UT turned down Gary Patterson for Kiffin); it was his contract. Kiffin’s buyout to leave the Vols after one season and take his “dream job” at USC was a paltry $800,000. That was chump change for USC. Kiffin always had USC on his mind, and who could blame him? He had vast ties there and they were desperate. All of the Trojans’ other candidates said, “No, thanks,” and with good reason. Think of where UT would be today if they had hired Patterson with UT’s resources over TCU.  Maybe Fulmer should have hired Kiffin back to UT, but if he did—Fulmer would have had to write the contract up so that Lame Kitten would have to pay UT at least equal dollars (if not more) if he leaves to what UT pays Kiffin if he fails and he would still likely have taken the job. That should have been put into the first contract, but Mike Hamilton is an idiot. Then, put into his contract that Lane will get a major bonus for winning the SEC East and a massive one for winning the SEC championship. That's an incentive bonus. I know how we got here with huge buyouts, but the buyout should be relative to the coach’s worth.  Quit rewarding coaches for failure and reward for success. UT administrators need to retake Public Relations 101 and some business classes.  UT has been pathetic over the last decade because of incompetent ADs.

[OrangeAfroMan]

A&M, Auburn, and LSU want to be positioned when Saban retires, whenever that may be (five years?).

So does Tennessee and UF of course.

We all agree the HC is pivotal, so folks are taking shots.

And one year doesn't make Smart a smart hire, but it looks good now.

Yeah, this is a double-edged thing:
1 - most great hires do very well by year 2, BUT
2 - 2 years isn't enough to judge one way or the other
I'll always mention this when it comes to early returns on HC hires:  Terry Bowden started his Auburn career 20-0.....

[OrangeAfroMan]

So are the UT faithful offended that Gruden is getting back into coaching?  Or do you not even care because it's taking 10 years and $100 million?

[Drew4UTk]

i can't speak for the 'UT faithful' but i can say "good for him" and wish him good fortune... 

even if UT could have lasso'd him, it would have been only a temporary fix- it would immediately stop the bleeding, shore up recruiting, and buy time to prep the solution to carry the program for the next generation.  

Pruitt will be fine- and the characters that caused all the issues at UT have been addressed and put in check- this is going back almost 20 years of BS we've had to contend with... Giving Pruitt the benefit of doubt until proven otherwise, he is by far the better choice than Schiano was, if only because Pruitt isn't a 'haslam' man like Schiano was...as Curry was.. as Hamilton and Hart were... 

[OrangeAfroMan]

The natural question then is if Pruitt is such a good choice, then why was he #16 on their list?

[Drew4UTk]

hold on... didnt say he was great... you did.  

the program is healthier and that has little to do with pruitt.. hell, jones would have better production there now... maybe (not likely) dooley would.  pruitt IS better than schiano one way or the other, and eliminated the 'two master' scheme by avoiding him. 

petersen or patterson were my dream hires..... but pruitt may be capable, too... we'll see. 

[SLM85VOL]

So are the UT faithful offended that Gruden is getting back into coaching?  Or do you not even care because it's taking 10 years and $100 million?

I actually still like the guy and knew that he only wanted a NFL job.  That was obvious to anybody who knew anything about him.  That said, more and more people became enamored with him because Gruden kept the hype up by dangling that possibility of possibly taking the UT job in front of them with his little  innuendos on almost a weekly basis.  He could have easily made it very clear he would not take the UT job, but that didn't serve him.  He's not the first and he won't be the last, but it's kind of hard to convince people now after the fact that you are a big supporter of UT imo.