@Deep Creek
Just for my enjoyment and perhaps yours, let's talk about Tennessee's hires
1. Lane Kiffin - This hire was interesting. It is hard to say it was necessarily a bad hire but it wasn't a good hire to follow a legend. This hire looks more attractive later on for Tennessee when the struggles start. The impression of Fulmer was that his coach and teams had gotten stale and failed to modernize with the rest of CFB. This was the reason for the struggles in Fulmer's last 5 years. Kiffin was the polar opposite of Fulmer but was a major risk. When you consider the state of Tennessee's program at this time and the coaches that were interested, there was a lot better options out there (Chip Kelly and Gary Patterson are two coaches that Tennessee passed over for Kiffin). So I would say this was a bad hire, but not a total disaster
2. Derek Dooley - Even though Tennessee was under the gun with Kiffin leaving after 1 year in the middle of recruiting season, this was a bad hire. Derek Dooley had a losing record at La Tech and no real evidence of success. He would have been a better AD hire than coaching hire. Interestingly, the fanbase actually liked this hire at the time arguing his educational background as a lawyer, his dad's legacy, and his role of being both an AD and Coach. The guy could not recruit and that was his primary reason for failing. Losing to a UK team without a QB on its roster in year 2 sealed his fate. No matter how you spin this one, it was an epically bad hire. At worse, UT should have brought in a 1-year interim and then searched the filed. Tennessee was still considered a top job at the time
3. Butch Jones - On paper this is not a bad hire. It also came right after Charlie Strong shot down the job. Jones had a Conference Championship at Cincinnati and had winning teams at all levels. Butch Jones was also enthusiastic about the job. His major downfall was that he failed to make adjustments with his teams. He ran the same type of offenses every year. When he had Josh Dobbs (the best UT QB until at least Erik Ainge, perhaps Tee Martin), he had a lot of success. His first real kink was the lost to South Carolina in 2015. IMO, this loss was driven by the fact that he played Josh Dobbs despite the issue that Dobbs had the flu and did not look even 75% out there. Cleary a 2nd string QB was NOT developed or recruited. Once Dobbs left, Jones teams got derailed.
I would rank this coaching hire as a B-C grade at the time. Obviously Jones did not live up to hype and had major flaws. Hindsight puts this grade even lower. Regarding the lottery question, so far Tennessee has NOT won the lottery with anyone.
4. Jeremy Pruitt - On paper this was a good hire, especially after a messy off-season. I hindsight, he might be the WORSE hire on the list. With the exception of a run in 2019 against mediocre to decent SEC programs, Pruitt never accomplished anything. He recruited very well but even that is now under scrutiny with the NCAA infractions. Pruitt, on paper, looked like another Kirby Smart hire but ended up being a disaster. He kind of reminds me of Will Muschamp. Both got a lot of attention as potentially coaches of the future as assistants but both failed miserably.
This would be like Clark Griswold Vegas Vacation epic fail when it comes to gambling on the lottery.
5. Josh Huepel - To be determined on whether he won the lottery. Regarding how it looks at the time of his hire, it appears a lot like the Butch Jones hire; B or C grade at the time. The Tennessee job is not near as attractive as it was in 2009 or 2010 when Dooley and Kiffin were hired so in light of circumstances, this is a decent hire on paper. We will see if he can have any success on the field.
