KNOXVILLE — After the events of Jan. 12 and the early days thereafter, there had been thoughts among the Vol faithful that things might go belly-up, recruiting wise. Not enough time to salvage the class, worried fans thought.
Feb. 3, 2010, will be known historically as the culmination of an amazing performance by a new coach and limited staff over a very short time frame.
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Comments » 26
Maverickman writes:
we will know in two years
TommyJack writes:
Good stuff.
dwolfcreek#397971 writes:
Thanks to a hard working AD. HAMILTON PUTTING IN THE TIME AND EFFORT TO GET THIS FINE YOUNG COACH.
BornVolDieVol writes:
Coach Dooley certainly worked his butt off and held things together for Tennessee! I love the work ethic we have seen from him and that can only benefit us and the future of this program.. GBO!
bluesandbarbq writes:
Great job for the short amount of time given. Plus character counts. Go VOLS.
FranklinVol writes:
Hamilton couldn't find his butt with both hands
arkyvol writes:
my hats off for dooley's performance so far, but i'll withhold final judgement for a couple of years. i've had my hopes crushed too many times by top ten recruiting classes who disappeared into the rocky top triangle.
Handyman writes:
Dooley is off to a great start. I don't think the "other guy" should get any credit for this recruiting class, as it was all about to topple when he bolted for the beach. Wishing CD and the Vols all the best.
law_vol writes:
While I think that Dooley did a good job, I'm not sure why the staff is getting the "amazing job" hype. Getting Hunter and Rogers is great, but that becomes a wash with losing Ambles and Copeland. A lot, if not most, of our other top rated talent was in the third of the class that couldn't go anywhere. Everyone can get bent out of shape, but I wonder how great the class is if Kiffin announces he is leaving one day earlier (before our mid-termers got on the hook under the transfer rules).
rockytopatl writes:
I'm a rabid Vol and always will be, but I am embarrassed that we claim a national title in 1967. I'm even more embarrassed that we have that claim posted on the facade of Neyland Stadium.
SEC champs? Yes. National? No. We were 9-2. We lost our bowl game. The NC award came from something called the Litkenhous poll. Huh? Whodat?
We have plenty of legitimate accomplishments to brag about without claiming bogus championships.
Orangeblood13 writes:
and we are embarrassed of yoour post, run along, who gives a rats arse what you think of 1967
Gumby#1381110 writes:
In the words of famed east Tennessee historian Popcorn Sutton, "dang boys, thats some amazing stuff"!
GOJO writes:
***
You play the Hand that is dealt you. Dooley was dealt a lemon & made some pretty good lemonade out of it. Where he goes from here is up to him.
asleep#212036 writes:
I'm not bent out of shape at all, I understand your points, and they are certainly valid. I think the fact that the class was a "wash" from Kiffin to Dooley is the amazing part. Arguing over Ambles/Copeland vs. Hunter/Rogers is for those more knowledgeable than I, but holding the class together, given the time restraints and the lack of a complete staff, including a DC AND D-line coach, is remarkable. Whether a Kiffin class would have been any better is impossible to know but he (and Eddie O) is a great recruiter so I'll give him his due. What I like is that Dooley seems to be on or near his level in recruiting which bodes well for the future. As far as the third of the class that nobody wanted? Well, most UT classes over the years, even Fulmer's best ones, had a bunch of kids nobody else was fighting for. Most of the time that happened when we had an large number of scholarships to give (like this year) so we were able to offer spots to some relatively local kids who bled orange or make deals with teammates, one of whom would likely never contribute. Next year's class will be smaller and as such, I would expect DD to be more selective. Further, in any given recruiting class, you need at least half of them to be very productive down the road. Just so happens that we have about 18 kids (if memory serves) out of 25 that are 3 stars or better so the chances are pretty good we'll get good service from this group. Of course, having every recruit at 3 or better improves the chances but at UT, that's never happened. And I don't think Kiffin's exit had anything to do with his opinion of his UT recruits. I'm more interested to see if DD can coach the players he has. Getting them here is one thing, making them better players by the time they leave is something else. Time will tell. Go Vols!!!
PennVol writes:
Part of it is certainly the ability of the players coming in, but just as big of a part of success is the coaches ability to develop them. I don't think we've been very good at this in the past, but let's hope these new coaches can "coach" a player up. I think a good example is VA Tech - they load up on 3-star players and typically rank between 15-30 in recruiting, develop their players and go out and win. We saw this first hand in the Chicken Bowl.
You can't coach speed, but we should be able to improve all other skills.
law_vol writes:
By a third of the class that couldn't go anywhere, I was talking about the mid-termers that couldn't bolt because they would have to sit out a year, as it would be considered a transfer. I wasn't talking about players that nobody else wanted. In fact, as to the handful of kids that didn't have high ratings, I liked what Dooley said about trusting his own evaluations and doing his best to coach them up so they wouldn't be viewed as a mistake in the rear view mirror down the road. My overall viewpoint is it seems that most of the kids that could have pulled their verbals and gone elsewhere that we "held onto," weren't the kids that the recruiting rankings or everyone else thinks made our class a top ten-ish class.
rockytopatl writes:
This site is here for Vol fans to debate issues of interest to Vol fans. This is a good topic. Flame the trolls if you will, but can you at least show some class to other Vols?
VolunteerPassion writes:
Guys, quit hating on Hamilton! He got us Bruce Pearl(those of u who hate Pearl, we can always go back to Buzz if u want). Yes, he got us Lane Kiffin, who most of us were as excited as 5 year olds on Christmas morning about. He has gotten us Dooley, who has ALREADY brought class back to Tennessee and a top 15 recruiting class. And he had renovations done to Neyland, and TBA. I mean, I would have hated to tear down Neyland like Miami did for the Orange Bowl. Yes, he let Fulmer in a way I didn't like, but it wasnt JUST him! He had pressure from boosters, donors, fans... etc. So cut him some slack and stop already with the degrading posts.
roloyo writes:
In '67 there was no Coaches Poll, ESPN Poll, or BCS. At that time the Litkenhous poll carried as weight as the AP or the UPI. Now you know.
GBO
oldvolmikelb60 writes:
I would play for him in a heart beat. We might be a little short on talent, but I think our Vols will compete hard next season. Maybe we wont get some of those flaky calls like the red zone plays vs UCLA last year.
VOLINTN64 writes:
True Vol fans dont really give a sh!p about woulda coulda shoulda.What really matters is we have a SMART ENERGETIC CHARASMATIC HUMBLE COACH!All these recliner prognosticators that have such crystal balls and 20/20 hindsight vision should stick to their day job if they have one and leave the UT Football Team in the hands of the man thats truly more qualified than they ever will be.Lets meet back here next year after the season and lets see where our 2011 class ranks.Until then GBO and Thank YOU LAME KITTEN for getting the FREAK out of our GREAT CITY and back to gang ridden MUD SLIDE CITY you silly MUD PACKER.
rockytopatl writes:
Respectfully disagree. UPI did the coaches' poll and did for many years thereafter. There was also the AP writers poll and those two were the undisputed kings when it came to crowning national championships in those days. You can't even find much about Litkenhous on the web. It was better known for its use in Kentucky high school basketball.
We were No. 2 going into the Orange Bowl after our 9-1 regular season and we lost a heartbreaker to No. 3 Oklahoma. No. 1 USC won the Rose and was NC in both polls.
The Litkenhous was basically a computer poll before there were computers. It was based on math and Tennessee must have gotten super credit for its win over undefeated Alabama. I'm not selling the Vols short, it was a great team and won the SEC title but it lost two games and doesn't have a legitimate case for No. 1 that year. The other loss was to UCLA, which lost to No. 1 USC.
One more point: Everybody knows how starved for national championships Georgia is. Listen to what a Dawg website writes about Vince Dooley's Dawgs winning the Litkenhous poll the next year:
"Vince Dooley's 1968 squad was declared the national champion by the Litkenhous poll, but, since Southeastern Conference champion Georgia lost to Southwest Conference champion Arkansas by two touchdowns in the Sugar Bowl, that No. 1 ranking is dubious, at best."
So Georgia refuses to accept a championship it knows is dubious, but we keep ours and plaster it on the side of sacred Neyland.
Sounds like something a recent former Vol coach would do.
themoodystwo writes:
LOL!!!
stick2urgunsbleedorange writes:
well i think our offense is going to be awesome! we have the nations top RB recruit from last year brown and will be an amazing player the next few years along with neal from this year and should be great. our recievers are gonna be so good. great pick ups this year and than we have g-jones still along with moore which i still believe is with us cause im not exactly all caught up on who will be back but he proved to be a deep field threat. we have a good TE set too. which all this leads to the QB... are we gonna start a true freshman or stephens who i think has a winning mantality and good game managing skills which is what we need. if he can throw the ball our recievers will do the rest. as far as the rest of the class im ok with it. solid players + a solid coach = sec titles! we are on our way despite the fact that i was curled up in a ball in a corner bawling as i felt the program go 6 feet under but jumped right back up after signing day. this guy is going to do good things but it might be a couple years before we're there! GO VOLS!!!!
AtLeastMyTeamHasPerfectSeasons writes:
Read "Six Seasons Remembered" by Gus Manning and Haywood Harris. You will agree Tennessee has 6 National Titles. It tells you the OTHER teams of those years and what they accomplished also. In those days, Litkenhouse were just as relevant as the AP. But the AP is still around, so some consider their picks as true champs.
AllforTenn writes:
Get over it. Other teams (read Alabama) post similar championships. I recall the '67 season, and we have as much right to claim it as USC or UCLA. We all 3 beat each other. Polls were taken before the bowl. No team was undefeated. We lost the opener in a close game at UCLA. USC beat UCLA and lost to Oregon. We should never have lost to Oklahoma in the Orange bowl game. I was there and saw us get behind 19-0 at the half, only to come back to miss a field goal and lose 26-24.
By your reasoning, that is were the bowl games factored in, we should have won the 1950 title.
How many times are you going to post this silly item?
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