I am beginning to believe that Dooley

[BanditVol]

I think you are right, assuming he wins out. If I was Dooley, I would be making the following arguments:

1) In 3 years, I have built the most prolific offense in the history of the school;
2) We have issues on defense because our DC and LB coach left the program to return closer to their home in the PAC12;
3) We hired a new DC from Alabama with everyone on board, including Hart, as he gave a wondeful recomendation for the hire;
4) However, it did not work out and I will be addressing this issue after the season;
5) In the meantime, we will work to land Green, North, Bell, and other SEC athletes that this team still lacks, maintain our discipline, and continue to improve our academic progress.

Not saying it will work, but that would be my stance.

And it's not a totally unreasonable one, not at all.

And those of us that are saying this, will hardly tolerate the current situation forever.   Definitely not any longer than this year.  But IMO one year of mediocrity in transition to something better, is acceptable.  Those who argue against that suggest they have no confidence in the future, but a counter to that is "there are no moral losses".  Eight wins is eight wins, I don't care how we get there, and that was my standard in August and I am sticking with it. 

Because as a lot of people tell me...it's all about the W's and L's.  And I don't particularly care who the W's come against.  A W is a W and an L is a L!     

[Stogie Vol]

Sigh.  Well, I haven't made it clear because...feel free to laugh me off the board...if I am right, it gives the people who have been pressing for a change since essentially last December open lines of attack, if in fact, I am correct.

I have no illusions, none whatever, that I affect things at all.  It's just, if I am right, then I think Hart is playing it very intelligently and I don't want to tip his hand.

But go ahead and laugh at my pretension, and I will go ahead and spill the beans.

My hunch is that Hart has been playing for time all along.  The central piece of evidence is the Assistant Coach contracts.  Hart was intimately involved in those, in fact, he is the signature authority, and so he obviously had two years in mind when he signed them!  (in case you didn't read my two posts below, 7 of our ACs have a two year contract through the end of 2013).  Not only is he smart enough to figure out that we might get 2 of our 3 offensive stars back next year, it gives Sunseri a whole year to get his shizzle together.  We might struggle a bit on D this year, but be pretty good next year, probably compete for the East title and get Dooley to his fifth year.  If Dooley fails next year, very easy to pull the trigger and do a re-start with essentially an all new cast on offense in 2014.  Then the fanbase is patient with the new coach.  Or so he thought.  Unfortunately, the Suneri hire is an EPIC FAIL.  But....

All you have to do is look at how the contracts are structured. 

The other piece of evidence is the comments Hart made right before South Carolina.  He basically said he wasn't happy with the performance on the field while mentioning financial difficulties in the AD.  At the time, I thought that meant simply that he was keeping his options open depending on the performance the rest of the way, but he definitely opened the door to either course of action.  Others interpreted this as a sure sign that Dooley was getting fired the Monday after the USCe game, at which I actually LOL'd privately.

Next piece of evidence...his anger at the MSU game.  He desperately wanted Dooley to beat a ranked team, any ranked team, so that his plan could stay on schedule.  When the best chance for that failed, he knew that a shizzlety two months lay ahead.  Wouldn't wanna be him right now!

Final piece of evidence...Revolver actually cued me in to this when he said the Gruden rumors were the most coherent football internet rumors he had ever seen.  I checked around, and completely agreed with that observation.  This suggested to me a deliberate leak by Hart.  Why?  To distract the fanbase!  To give Dooley time to get into November, win 4 in a row, go to a bowl and make it for one more year.  Particularly when I learned that Gruden made $4 million a year at ESPN, there is no way he would contemplate going to a hot seat college job for a relatively small raise.  Would anyone in their right mind?  Which says that the Gruden rumors were never serious to begin with, which says that Hart is still hoping to hold on to Dooley one more year...OR pursue his real target, which could be someone named at the end of the year (Strong would be my choice).

Think about it...this site and others I checked were so giddy with the prospect of Gruden that no one cared we had a game against USCe or bammer.  It pretty much distracted the fanbase for nearly two weeks!  Brilliant move, IYAM.

So that's my hunch, for what it's worth.  Recent leaks about Cheek saying Dooley stays if he wins out only re-enforce my belief in my hunch.

But ICBW...

On the off chance that I got it completely right, I might just be effing Hart up.  But he's a big boy, he can handle it.

Whatever the case, whether Hart has another target in mind or he is willing to keep Dooley another year, primarily for financial reasons, the part that makes me glad is that whatever he is doing, he is taking his time and resisting the urge to "make a splash" or wow the more vocal and impatient part of our fanbase. 

So I am very happy with Hart, at this point in time.

I could be completely wrong about all of the above.  It's just a hunch, that I have held since the MSU game aftermath, but nothing has convinced me yet that I am offbase.
 

Well, that's a heckuva hunch.  I just wish you had provided a bit more detail. 

I do think Hart is going to go all apeshizzle when he reads this.

[Creek Walker]

But IMO one year of mediocrity in transition to something better, is acceptable. 

If only it had been just one year of mediocrity . . .

[VinnieVOL]

Well, that's a heckuva hunch.  I just wish you had provided a bit more detail. 

I do think Hart is going to go all apeshizzle when he reads this.

 

[VinnieVOL]

So let me get this straight.  The Gruden rumors bought Dooley time, and took the heat off him? 

 

[BanditVol]

If only it had been just one year of mediocrity . . .

There has yet to be a year of mediocrity.  The last three years have been shizzle, actually.  You might qualify 2009 as mediocre, but then you have two MISERABLE seasons in a row.

So mediocrity, defined as 8-5 and a bowl win, is a significant improvement over 5-7 and losing to Kentucky, regardless of what anyone says about style points or quality of victories.  A W is a W! 

[Creek Walker]

See, this is why message boards should probably be banned. The AD put a lot of work into this plan to trick the fan base into accepting Dooley for one more year. He pissed off a bunch of people at him and his boss Cheek in the process, had every freakin' sports media professional in East Tennessee chasing down sources, had Mrs. Gruden's old cheerleading buddies milking her for info and pushing it to twitter and Facebook . . . and then some guy way too inquisitive for his own good derails the whole freakin' thing.  

[BanditVol]

So let me get this straight.  The Gruden rumors bought Dooley time, and took the heat off him? 

 

No Vinnie.   They were real.   Gruden is really going to give up a $4 million a year gig on Monday Night Football, one of the softest, most cushy jobs in the world, to come to Knoxville and try to satisfy...people like you.

 

Now THAT would be     

But to answer your question...they bought HART time.  Not Dooley. 

That's my hunch, I hope it continues to amuse you.  You know I don't take this stuff personally.  So I invite all to mock it.  We'll see how accurate it ends up, I guess.

[Creek Walker]

There has yet to be a year of mediocrity.  The last three years have been shizzle, actually.  You might qualify 2009 as mediocre, but then you have two MISERABLE seasons in a row.

So mediocrity, defined as 8-5 and a bowl win, is a significant improvement over 5-7 and losing to Kentucky, regardless of what anyone says about style points or quality of victories.  A W is a W! 

I guess the difference between you and I is that I really don't give a rip about a 55-48 win over a mid-level Sun Belt team. As long as we're 0-5 in the SEC, it's a miserable season. As long as Neyland Stadium is 40% red on the third Saturday in October, it's a miserable season.

[BanditVol]

I guess the difference between you and I is that I really don't give a rip about a 55-48 win over a mid-level Sun Belt team. As long as we're 0-5 in the SEC, it's a miserable season. As long as Neyland Stadium is 40% red on the third Saturday in October, it's a miserable season.

Rigghhhht.  But coming close to beating uga and USCe on the road, when it was WIDELY PREDICTED that they would dog whip us.  "There are no moral victories".

Ya can't have it both ways....

A W is a W and an L is an L.

You can look at the close and vomitous win over Troy and say you have no confidence in the future and I can look at the close calls vs. uga and USCe and say "hey, maybe we beat them next year", but it doesn't change the results of the games. 

And we have not had 8 wins since 2007, style points be dazammed.

[Black Diamond Vol]

Rigghhhht.  But coming close to beating uga and USCe on the road, when it was WIDELY PREDICTED that they would dog whip us.  "There are no moral victories".

Ya can't have it both ways....

A W is a W and an L is an L.

You can look at the close and vomitous win over Troy and say you have no confidence in the future and I can look at the close calls vs. uga and USCe and say "hey, maybe we beat them next year", but it doesn't change the results of the games.  

And we have not had 8 wins since 2007, style points be dazammed.

But see, that's the thing.  There's no consistency with Dooley's teams.  They can show great improvement one week, get the fanbase all excited, and then shizzle the bed the next week.  When we almost beat LSU in DD's first year, we all thought that he was next great UT coach.  He was going to build up this roster and have us loaded for bear by...2012. Yet here we sit at 0-5 again.  And it goes from week to week, too.  We played UGA this year closer than anyone expected.  A lot of people (including myself) dared to believe that maybe, just maybe, we had finally turned the corner.  But then in the very next game, they pull a no-show in the first half against MSU.  The only thing consistent about this team is that when they face an opponent with a pulse, they WILL find a way to lose.  They may get blown out, they may play them close, but the bottom line will always be the same.  

[VinnieVOL]

No Vinnie.   They were real.   Gruden is really going to give up a $4 million a year gig on Monday Night Football, one of the softest, most cushy jobs in the world, to come to Knoxville and try to satisfy...people like you.

 

Now THAT would be    

Not as loco as you thinking that you're "effing Hart up" by spilling the beans on his elaborate scheme here on VTTW.  

So, now that it's pretty much certain Gruden isn't coming you are going on record of saying how ridiculous it was all along.  On top of that, you now declare it is happening just as you suspected all along, even though you never said so before now.  Right.

[BanditVol]

Not as loco as you thinking that you're "effing Hart up" by spilling the beans on his elaborate scheme here on VTTW.  

So, now that it's pretty much certain Gruden isn't coming you are going on record of saying how ridiculous it was all along.  On top of that, you now declare it is happening just as you suspected all along, even though you never said so before now.  Right.

I thought the hiring of Gruden was  ridiculous only when I heard how much he currently made, and frankly I don't recall when that was - probably a day or two before we played bammer.  When I heard that, it added to my belief that my hunch was correct, but I formed the opinion in between the MSU and USCe game. 

And what I thought was incorrect prior to that was not that Gruden would be hired, but that Dooley would be fired right after USCe.  I am on record below at least twice stating this opinion prior to us playing USCe.

And yes, the reason I didn't want my hunch "revealed" is because I have so much faith in it that I do think I have "exposed" Hart.  Which I freely admit is open to ridicule.   

[Quasi EVol]

 

[BanditVol]

 

[VoLynteer]

Every person here is bat shizzle crazy...myself included.