Out with the Old, Who is the New

On June 7, Mike Hamilton resigned as Athletic Director at the University of Tennessee. This has been a long time coming in my opinion. While I do not think that Hamilton is a bad man, I do think that he made several bad decisions. He fired Phil Fulmer, our most second most successful football coach. He hired both Kiffin and Pearl who both turned out to not have the principles that a University of Tennessee coach should posses. And worst of all after hiring those two men, he allowed them to commit twelve NCAA violations. Mike Hamilton is not a bad man, but he does not possess the power to make strong hires and keep the people that he hires in line.

So now that he is gone, UT is stuck looking for a new Athletic Director. Most fans believe that a current AD from another university is who will take over the job, because UT would want a person with experience. But every UT fan hopes deep down that Phil Fulmer will come back to UT as the AD. Fulmer knows the university, the fans and supporters, sports, and he bleeds orange. His only flaw is that he has no actual AD experience or any type of business experience for that matter, and finance is such a large part of what Athletic Directors do today. Nonetheless, I believe that Fulmer could surround himself to help him with the areas in which he is not quite as proficient. So, I am certainly a proponent for hiring Phil Fulmer as our new Athletic Director.

You Go Cuonzo

The worst mess that has been made for the University of Tennessee Football Program in the last few years was created by head basketball Coach Bruce Pearl. Pearl violated ten NCAA rules and then lied to the NCAA investigation committee. Even though Pearl made the basketball program the most successful it has ever been, his actions could not be tolerated. So Bruce Pearl was fired at the end of last year, and a new man has been put in place to lead. Cuonzo (con-zoe) Martin the previous coach of Missouri State has been hired to coach the Vols. Cuonzo is very similar to Coach Dooley in his coaching methods. He thinks that it is very important that these young be successful in all areas of their lives not just the classroom. To be a player for him he says that a player must do three things, work hard, play defense, and go to class. Cuonzo is opposite from his predecessor Bruce Pearl. Pearl was extremely extroverted, loud, and exciting. He fired people up about UT basketball when we were terrible. Cuonzo takes a slightly different approach. Cuonzo is humble and soft-spoken, but has a presence about him that demands respect. It may take a little while, but I think that Cuonzo will do great things here at the University of Tennessee.

Conzo's Coaching Philosophy

Do the Dooley

Now that the University has gotten rid of the Three Stooges, Pearl, Kiffin, and Hamilton, there are many shoes to be filled with men of integrity. This process began in the fall of 2010 with the hire of Football coach Derek Dooley. Dooley has proven to fans that he believes in following the rules and getting UT’s Football Program back on track in an honorable way, unlike his predecessor Lane Kiffin. I have spoken with several of my friends on the football team, and the majority of them have said that Kiffin was not a man that could teach life lessons and football at the same time, which is an important quality for a college football coach to have. The young men that play football here at the University of Tennessee are more than just football players. They are students, citizens, sons, brothers, friends, and role models. And in the future they will have a greater responsibility in their communities than just playing football. Dooley has realizes this fact and has implemented a new program called the Vol for Life Program. This program gives the football players the education to achieve all of the aspects that I mentioned above. Dooley is a solid man, and I believe that he has a plan to bring UT football back to the top in a way that everyone will make everyone proud.

Dooley on Vol for Life Program

The Three Stooges

I assumed at first that most of you would realize who the three men at the top of the blog were, but just in case you are not sure. I will take you through each man. The man on the far left is Bruce Pearl, the previous basketball coach before Cuonzo Martin. Coach Pearl was great for the University of Tennessee. He took us to six NCAA championships, one of those years making our first Elite Eight appearance, which I attended; he brought energy that made the home crowds in Thompson-Bowling Arena the fourth largest in the country. He served the community well by helping with many charities and non-profit organizations. It is very sad that he failed UT in the way he did. Coach Pearl was caught violating NCAA rules, and even worse when he was asked about the violations by the NCAA, he lied about it. These mistakes ruined the great basketball legacy that he had worked so hard to build in the six years before hand.

The man on the far left is Lane Kiffin, the previous football coach before Derek Dooley. Lane Kiffin is viewed by many as the greatest mistake that the University of Tennessee has ever made. He was at UT for only fourteen months, but he was trouble the whole time. He constantly was cocky and rude, which caused him to become hated by every other coach in the SEC. He committed small NCAA infractions over and over again. And recently it has been found that he committed two major infractions, and UT is waiting to hear what the NCAA decides on that matter. Kiffin left UT after only one season, and people were so furious that they actually rioted in the street.

The man in the middle is Mike Hamilton. Hamilton served as the Athletic Director of UT for the last eight years. Hamilton is not a bad man, and I do not believe that he necessarily supported the behavior of Kiffin or Pearl, but the issue still is that he hired both of them, and he could not control their behavior. So these men are at the top of the page because they are the men that dug the hole that UT is working to get out of right now.

The Point of the Turning Point

What is the Tennessee Turning Point? The Tennessee Turning Point is where the University of Tennessee's Athletic Department finds itself at this very moment. The UT's athletic department has been struggling for three years now in some way or another. The football team went through three coaches in three years. The baseball team just fired the last coach. The basketball team just did the same and is facing NCAA infractions. And the Athletic Director just resigned. The football and basketball teams both committed NCAA violations over the last several years and are currently awaiting the verdict from the NCAA. The department is in utter disarray, and if something is not done at this turning point then University of Tennessee athletics will continue its downward spiral. The point of this blog is to look into what has happened to the athletics department and what they are going to do as they move forward. I hope you enjoy it.