Into the Fire: Searching For Sanity in College Football

Posted by on in

1037TheGame_ALANMICHAEL_658x370_into-the-fire

The search for a new head football coach at the University of Tennessee is going down as one of the most legendary administrative blunders in the history of college athletics. Never has such a high profile job been so hard to fill. Never has such a bumbling administration existed to the point it provided the sports talk universe an entire week’s worth of material like this. There was a new face and a new screw up every single day of the week and as of this writing, Tennessee still has not hired a head coach. Changing coaches in modern day college football is often not easy. We have seen very bad decisions by athletic directors before and we have seen controversial coach searches in the annual coaching carousel, but nothing has ever been as enjoyable to the outsider nor as chaotic as what is going down in old Rocky Top, Tennessee. When it comes to the chaotic coach search of the modern era, the Tennessee Volunteers do not raise the bar, they are the bar.

If you compare any of the really fun college football coaching searches of the last couple decades, you have had some real bizarre and insane moments. From LSU reportedly hiring Tom Herman in the middle of a game against Texas A&M only to end up hiring Ed Orgeron to Notre Dame hiring the liar George O’Leary and forcing him to resign because of inaccuracies on his resume. These blunders by big time football factories were as spectacular as some of their Heisman quality talent on the field. This is nothing new, but the extent to which the madness has gone in Knoxville in 2017 seems to be on an entirely different level; the kind that maybe will eventually teach these schools some kind of lesson.

What can be learned after a school hires a guy who the boosters and fans despise to the point of protest? What can be learned after a once admired college football destination is turned down by a bakers dozen worth of average college football coaches? It should be quite clear to every other college athletic director what you do and what you don’t do at this point. You would have thought they would know by now but these administrations still do not grasp the concept of a tenacious media that will get leaks on your dealings no matter how secretive you may think they are. The concept of social media buzz and backlash is still not totally understood within the walls of the administrations of college football’s most dynamic and innovative programs. Let this moment in Knoxville, Tennessee be that final lesson! Have a plan in place, then double check it, and when you do that, triple check that it is a good plan!

It was inexcusable for Tennessee to not anticipate the anger and disappointment of it’s fans after agreeing to a deal with Greg Schiano. It was laughable that Tennessee thought Mike Gundy was actually considering leaving Oklahoma State to coach the Vols. Everyone knew he took a meeting with them so he could get more money from T. Boone Pickens. It costs a lot to maintain a mullet like that. It was sad to watch Tennessee think Dan Mullen would choose them over Florida and it was even sadder to see them get turned down by the head coach at Duke. Duke football. You though they were one of those schools that only had basketball and lacrosse. As of this writing the latest rumors are that Tennessee is luring Mike Leach away from Washington State. This would be a fantastic move for the media and would for sure spell disaster and disappointment for Tennessee football. With terrible decision after terrible decision sinking Tennessee football further into the abyss, I just hope for your favorite college football team that whomever is in charge is watching this fiasco and finally learning some kind of lesson. While Tennessee searches for a football coach and we all laugh and point, the people in charge of these programs need to search for sanity in the insane world that is modern day college football.

– Alan Michael