From a fan perspective, it does indeed feel good to look forward. There hasn’t been real doubt the Vols would have a new coach since the end of the Kentucky game three weeks ago, and I do think John Currie made the decision he felt was best for the program in waiting to fire Butch Jones. But there is freedom in both being able to look forward officially, and staying in the present with this team the last two weeks of the season. The Vols are heavy underdogs against LSU, but change at the top helps one be invested in not just player development but the actual outcome these last two weeks.
Here’s everything we’ve done in the first 48 hours of this search:
- A 100-minute podcast on Gruden, Mullen, Frost, Norvell, and Taggart (and why can’t Les Miles make a hot board?).
- A Taxonomy of College Football Coaches: Gurus, Champions, Contenders, and Up-and-Comers
- Which coaches get the most out of their teams: an advanced statistical analysis of Butch Jones, Dan Mullen, and Scott Frost
- Coaching Profiles for 22 candidates, sortable by the Taxonomy
One way we’ve found interesting to take the temperature of the fanbase and power rank this search: which of those 22 coaching profiles are generating the most traffic?
- Jon Gruden. Obviously. The white whale remains at large, and reports of him contacting former UT players to fill out his staff will do nothing to slow the frenzy. Gruden is the quickest way to get a percentage of the fanbase to pretend they really loved Randy Sanders all along. He’s an Assistant Coach Al Wilson short of an idiot optimist coaching staff.
- Scott Frost. Yeah baby. Check out the podcast above to hear Brad and I compete to see who loves Frost more. It’s clearly an opinion held by more than just us; as discussed in the advanced statistical analysis post, Frost has Central Florida fifth nationally in S&P+. This is far more than the mid-major flavor of the month, and Frost isn’t just the most popular name on our site beyond Gruden. He might legitimately be the first choice of Tennessee and a number of others, and I would argue he should be.
- Greg Schiano. Ohio State’s defensive coordinator went 3-20 the first two years at Rutgers, then 65-47 after that before heading to the NFL for two years. His name hasn’t been the first one or two out of anyone’s mouth in this search, but he’s a bigger name than many of those seemingly ahead of him in the pecking order and would check a lot of boxes between Rutgers and Ohio State. Would he be a good fit in Knoxville?
- Dan Mullen. If Gruden is the clubhouse leader in dreams and Frost among up-and-comers, it seems to me Mullen is an early leader if we ask who is most likely to actually be coming to the podium in a few weeks. We covered Mullen’s strengths in the advanced statistical analysis post; I’m a big fan of his and think he would be an excellent fit here.
- Gary Patterson. Don’t think anyone would be disappointed here. Patterson floated his involvement in Tennessee’s 2008 search last week. He’s been at TCU since 2000 with six Top 10 finishes since 2005, by far the most proven winner in college football on this list. If he did finally make a move from Fort Worth, I’m sure Tennessee fans would be thrilled to have him. If he truly is a realistic option, where would he rank on your list?
These are the names generating the most interest on our site. How do these and others stack up for you?