By the end the program had fallen so far that it took Majors a while to get it built back up.

Part of the problem was that it was Majors building it up.  Like him or not, and I never really did.  He was too inconsistent for me, and we all know at least partially why    , but he did build the program into a perpetual top 25 team, year in, year out, that almost always competed for the SEC...at least from 89 on, anyway.

Favorite son or no, he wouldn't get the time nowadays.

That having been said I will entertain any offers to start a Center for Football Research at UT. Our first project will entail a detailed looked at porous defense.

How high will the calculators go? 

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8579380/steve-spurrier-says-alabama-crimson-tide-beat-nfl-teams

Not to be taken seriously, but fun to talk about

But are they PAID more than an NFL team?   I say no.   

It's happened before Bill Battle played for Alabama and was an assistant for the Bear. David Cutcliffe also went to Alabama

So did Ken Donahue

All good answers, and expected, given how bad we are.

They pretty much have to shut someone out to impress me.  That would imply better tackling and fundamentals, but above all, COVERAGE.

We have at least held the last three teams we played to below their season average in rushing offense, but have been killed through the air. 

Troy has a decent QB, so.....

Let me say right off the bat, that "Nothing, they suck" is a valid answer.

But here is what I say:

Shut out one or two opponents, hold the others under their season scoring average - VERY impressed

Hold all four remaining opponents below 20 and two below 10 - SOMEWHAT impressed, but only by contrast to the rest of the season

Hold all four remaining opponents below their season average - relieved, because maybe we have some talent no matter who the coach(es) is/are next year

Holding all remaining teams to close to or slightly above their averages...meh...par for the course.

Letting them score far more than they normally do....   Even I can't see Dooley being the coach in that case, because we will lose at least two, maybe three.

Which is exactly what they will say about the next guy at UT.  There is no doubt that Dooley has upgraded the talent base, and not only that, but has upgraded it with solid citizens (which was not always the case in the past).  I really do wish he was winning, because I like Dooley, like how he recruits, like how he runs the program.  What I don't like is losing, and that is ultimately the end all/be all in big time college football these days, and in the end, that will be his fatal flaw.

Which is a phase we needed to go through, regardless of the coach.  He has not won enough, and Sunseri has been a disaster, but no one can argue that the team is more stable and talented than it was in 2010.  And if that process continues one more year, I can be patient.

Many cannot...and from what I have seen of polls on other media sites, roughly 60-70% favor a change now or at the end of the season.

That's a lot of sentiment against Dooley, but hardly overwhelming.

And for the 8th time, in the 8th week, "the season isnt' over yet".

If I am opposed to anything, it's those who have a knee jerk reaction to one or two games, and want the coach fired "now" or "before he gets on the plane" or whatever.

That mentality helped lead, IMO, to the current mess.

Fulmer was let go, IMO, without a solid plan to replace him.  Which leads to a post by Revolver saying "Pretty sure it will be Lane Kiffin".  Which leads to me saying "who the HELL is that?"   Which in turns leads to finding out he had a losing record in the NFL and was dissed by AL DAVIS.  Then I'm REALLY like...

One thing to let Fulmer go, another thing to make a huge fizzleing mess of it.  Which is to say...I can wait a little while longer, whether that's the end of the season or even next year.

Joe Johnson was in fact, a great guy.  Was an acquaintance of my parents.  All around class act, and I thought he handled the end of the Majors era very well. Still recall my father telling me that Joe told him that Majors had "relationship issues".  Couldn't get along with the players, staff OR AD, and that this was the primary reason for the change, though I am sure effing up the 1992 season had much to do with it as well.

But to the original post...these guys have been trolling for days.  More of the same.  Carry on.

We've got the talent this year to have beaten anyone but Bama with better coaching.

Which proves my point 

I think the team will show up this time.  Vs. Akron they were sluggish.  ICBW....it could well be a close game.

LA Tech got a big upgrade in coaching by allowing Dooley to leave.  Think about that....the REPLACEMENT for Dooley at LA Tech is better than what we got.

Or maybe he built a solid base for the next guy

My usual method of predictions says more like a 7-point win for Vols, but I am going to be more of an optimist.   D and O both do a TD better....

Could be relatively close, but somehow I feel a blowout coming on.  Go Vols!   

http://thefootballgirl.com/news-and-features/wise-guys-media-watch/2012-positively-gruden-week-8-49ers-at-cardinals-the-greatness-of-alex-smith.html

Bonus on Kiss, during garbage time, “I know all those guys.  I went to the Kiss concert, everybody knows Ace Freeley. Gene Simmons, I sat in his BOX. I got to meet Gene. He’s not as tall as he is in real life. Paul Stanley, these guys used to be TEACHERS. And look at them now, I love Kiss. “Shout it out LOUD, MAN.” I would sing it for you, but….my wife…she won’t have any of that. Boy, that’s a great concert.  Get a ticket, man.”

Just posted for general interest....  

I went as Tim Tebow...I just sat on the bench on my front porch.

 

of UT home games in the early/late seventies. I was just trying to remember all the games that stood out and I still have much recollection of. The two that stick in my mind are Ole Miss and Kansas. I don't know why these games stick out but what I remember most is Ole Miss had a QB named Norris Weese. It seems like he ran for 500 yards by himself. I'm sure he didn't run for nearly that much, but he just comes to mind. The other game, Kansas , I remember they had a QB named Nolan Cromwell. What I remember is that he was tough on the Vols defense. He later was a pretty good DB in the NFL. Anyone else remember these guys or these games? I saw the Vols play ALA, Auburn, UGa, and LSU back in the 70's, it's just weird these games stick out in my mind.

Don't remember either one...didn't move to Ktown until 1982 and didn't attend a game till 85.

I did happen to notice one time that a Kansas QB is tied with Tim Couch for the passes completed against us record, and I was like "Kansas?  really?".  that may be the game you are thinking of...I am pretty sure it was in the 70s.

I wonder if LSU has figured out yet that the football field is actually more than 50 yards long 

LOL.  Now that's a very fair shot.

I wonder if Miles recalls he had a backup QB that had actually started at one point.   Never will figure that one out....

I personally believe that money is just not an obstacle.

Is it a faith-based believe, an assumption, or are you going on what others said?

You could say money should not be an option, which is a good opinion to have.  I don't think it should be either, but if we spend a lot it better be worth it.

I personally can't just sit back and assume the money is there, because I actually have no idea whether wealthy alumni would open their wallets or not.

What I recall about Saban coming to bammer is that Bear Bryant Jr headed a large group of donors and collected something like $30 million to pay off whatever Shula needed, renovate facilities, hire saban and some other things.

I haven't seen any such effort from any UT folks.

Funny thing...no bama fans want to talk about the money-raising effort anymore.  It seems they have developed amnesia.  I can speculate as to why, but that's a whole other topic.

The kid they got to play Anakin in Phantom Menace was a terrible actor. I know he was a kid, but come on, they couldn't do better than that? Of course Hayden Christiansen in 2 and 3 wasn't much better. 

Yeah, Episode 1 was too "kiddie" and in the next two Hayden was overly dramatic and the love scenes with Padme were laughably bad.  But at least the last two movies had drama and action, which is what I loved about the series to begin with.

While the original trilogy and particularly the first film are considered epics, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that Lucas was going for a classic "pulp fiction space opera" that was serious while also being fun. 

I think the original trilogy looks much better by comparison because (a) it was so new and different at the time, and (b) the special effects were so far beyond what anyone had seen to that point.


Also, you have to factor in that stuff looks better when you're younger, as many have noted above.   

I am probably in the minority, but I would take Stoops over Gruden.

No comparison IYAM.  Stoops has won one and been there a couple of other times.  Yeah, he's lost a couple MNCs since he won the one, but having them there is half the fight.   Since the last one against UF in 2008, he has slipped a notch, but they were in the conversation this year prior to the ND game.

Probably past his prime and doesn't have the fire to rebuild, but at least he has been there before.

Every major sport coach at UT has made headlines recently for recruiting coups. Does anyone wanna take a guess at which one hasn't? Does anyone need to?

The one in your sig pic?   

Always has been, always will be.

I didn't care for Episode 1, the Phantom Menace, but liked 2 and 3 better.  2 had some drama and in 3, I finally got to see the volcano fight scene mentioned way back in the original Star Wars book I bought in the fifth grade in 1977.   

Gus Malzhan?

A big part of it. 

FSU was coming of 7-6, and Notre Dame 6-6.  Both were thought to be at historic lows talent-wise.  Now a good argument can still be made that their low talent was better than our low talent, but the argument remains that they are beating some pretty decent teams, we are not.

I'll play.  I would argue that UT 2012 is where Notre Dame, FSU, and USC were in 2010, though you could argue that either way (by which I mean, you could argue that it was better, you could argue that it was worse).  Coming off a near-500 year with a reasonable talent level.

In 2010, I would argue we were far worse than them, and that this was compounded by injuries last year.

You could also make a good case that where ND, FSU and USC were in 2010 was comparable to UT in 2009.

To which....I present the 2010 records of those coaches, plus Kiffin's UT record in 2009

FSU/Fisher 10-4 ACC
USCw/Kiffin 8-5 Pac-10
ND/Kelly 8-5 Independent
UT/Kiffin 7-6 SEC

I also post the conferences as a reminder that the SEC is much tougher than definitely the ACC and also the Pac-10.  I don't know how tough ND's schedule was in 2010, but they usually have a fairly tough schedule.

If you accept the premise that this year is more like 2010, then I find Dooley's performance in-line with the others...IF he wins out, and that includes the bowl.

And FTR, my personal ratings of the coaches is Kelly, Fisher, Kiffin, Dooley, based mostly on this year, but I never thought Kiffin's 7-6 showing at UT was that great and I actually think Dooley could move past him.  Take away Monte and Kiffin loses now, IMO.