Tennessee has parted ways with Butch Jones. The school now turns its attention to finding a new head coach, one that can restore the Volunteers to their former glory.
If you haven’t been keeping up, click here for the list of ideal candidates whose names have popped up early in rumors and speculation. Every coaching search takes its own twists and turns; everything else.
Here are the candidates who are not ideal. They have some tragic flaws that in one way or another disqualify them from becoming the 24th head honcho in Vol football history.
Without further ado, let’s dive in:
1. Lane Kiffin, Florida Atlantic (formerly Tennessee, USC, Alabama Offensive Coordinator)
It’s been amusing to watch Vol fans go from a disgusted, “Ugh, we’d never want Lane Kiffin back!” in early 2016 to “Well, you know, yeah, Lane would be an improvement here” in the present day.
You don’t want Lane Kiffin back in Knoxville. It didn’t end so great last time.
And I’m not even talking about college kids burning mattresses and barricading Coach Kiffin from leaving in 2010.
I’m talking about the NCAA investigation that happened immediately after Kiffin’s departure, and the sanctions the program had to put on itself. There’s no telling what trouble Kiffin would get the Vols into during a reunion.
Kiffin has entertained himself on Twitter by reliving his 14 months on Rocky Top – one might even say trolling UT fans with tweets like these. Joey Freshwater has become so much of a parody of himself that bringing him back would be farce.
It’s like if your ex-girlfriend from high school called you out of the blue and decided she wanted to get back together with you ten years later. I’d totally take her back, but let’s be honest, gentlemen: Megan ain’t calling.
I’ll leave non-consecutive terms to the likes of Grover Cleveland and General Neyland. Don’t make me put Lane Kiffin in the same sentence as Robert Neyland.
I don’t deny the success Kiffin had as Alabama’s offensive coordinator. And it looks like he’s building something special at #TheFAU, even if he’s not always thrilled to be there.
The ship has sailed. Let him go.
2. Brady Hoke/Larry Scott
Brady Hoke has been named the interim head coach and hiring the interim is almost always a bad idea. Name the interims who got the full-time gig who ended up doing a good job. You can count them on one hand. (Hi, Dabo Swinney.)
It’s nothing personal against either of these two coaches; by all means, Brady Hoke established himself as a head football coach and adding him to the fold as the defensive line coach was great for Tennessee. Larry Scott impressed in his audition with Miami before becoming the tight ends coach on Rocky Top. But keeping either of these two in the fold limits progress. It will only bring back loathsome memories of the past regime to keep Hoke or Scott in a position of power.
I have confidence they’ll find jobs at a Power 5 school in the near future. But, it’s time to move on from Tennessee.
3. Bobby Petrino, Louisville
When replacing Butch Jones, you want a guy who’s capable of winning big in the SEC.
And you know what? Bobby Petrino did just that.
Petrino capped his career at Arkansas with back-to-back 10 win seasons, and appearances in the Sugar and Cotton Bowls, respectively.
Except, his career in Fayetteville ended with a motorcycle crash with a student-athlete he was having an affair with and also paying. Wow.
After hopping jobs seemingly every other year, Petrino has settled down in Louisville for good, I think. He’s won at every stop in the college ranks, and carries a 115-47 record.
That’s mighty appealing a first glance, but the only two conference titles he won at Louisville were in the Big East and C-USA. He has a 5-5 bowl record. He has a 5-3 record right now on a team that has the best quarterback in college football, Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson. His 2016 team went 9-4 like Tennessee (but still somehow managed to win the Atlantic Division in the ACC.)
Big Orange nation needs a coach who maximizes the talents of its team and gets the most out of it, not wins in spite of it. Tennessee can do better than Petrino.
4. Mike Bobo, Colorado State (former Georgia Offensive Coordinator/QB coach)
Listen, I think Mike Bobo could do a great job given the keys to a SEC program. I think he’d have considerable success at Tennessee.
But not without the whining and complaining from that sect of Tennessee fans who would wail about his Georgia roots.
Bobo was born, raised, and developed as a Georgia Bulldogs lifer. He holds several Bulldogs passing record and was the MVP of the 1998 Outback Bowl for UGA. He latched on to the program after his graduation in 1998, becoming a quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator under Mark Richt.
It’s disheartening to assume a Georgia boy would be a PR nightmare for the Vols, even if he has a track record of success. But that’s where we are.
As it stands, Bobo has a 20-15 record at Colorado State. It’s hard to build an elite program in the Mountain West conference – Bobo’s record isn’t that far off from what Jim McElwain had before he went to Florida – but those results paired with his Peach State heritage would be enough to sour Vol fans on Bobo and John Currie.
It’s unfortunate. But Bobo probably deserves a shot at a big-time program not named Tennessee.
Other really bad fits: Ed Orgeron (LSU, former Tennessee defensive line coach); Art Briles (former Baylor coach); Marc Trestman (former Chicago Bears coach) ; Jim McElwain (Florida).
