Clinging To Ole Teddy

"Ole Teddy" the teddy bear was a great source of comfort for kids, who feared the dark. Cuddling up with "Ole Teddy" took those fears away and helped you get through the night until you awoke to the rising sun.

The fan base of the University of Tennessee football team is about to awake to a beautiful sunrise this Sunday, as the source of darkness will be officially fired and no longer a part of the University of Tennessee football program. Its Tennessee Independence Day! The spell is broken and the chains will fall free! Football season will, once again, be be something to look forward to with anticipation and glee.

The UT football coaching search is in full gear and UTAD, Mike Hamilton is searching near and far to deliver a coach to UT, who will bring fresh ideas and a change to the UT football program. After-all, Phil Fulmer and his remora-like cronies have sucked the life-blood out of the UT football program.

The candidates range from old stogy NFL coaching types to young "gun-slinging" coaches. All have more head coaching experience than Phil Fulmer has, when he was given the head coaching job by Doug Dickey in 1992. The comparisons of the younger coaches to Bill Battle were bound to come up, but remember this is 35 plus years later. Todays' "young-guns" coaches, are smarter, have fresher ideas, relate to the young prospects and players better, and do not cling to the fear of failure. Failure, after-all, is a paralyzer.

The fans who want to continue to cling to this culture of fear, induced on them by old Tennessee football, should continue to cling tight to their teddy bears. That may give them some comfort next fall. Those of us fans, who look forward with anticipation to the changes in UT football next season and beyond, threw away our security blankets and put "Ole Teddy" away in mothballs a long time ago. Its time that University of Tennessee fans put away their fears and face the challenges of the modern football landscape with courage and foresight to trust the modern "young-gun" marvels of the coaching profession.

The "Home Run" Hire

Just what do Volunteer fans want out of their new football coach?

Many of the Volunteer faithful thought that their soon to be ex-coach was the answer, until they finally took off their blindfolds and realized that they had been duped by a circus hypnotist posing as a coach. Many of the Orange and White faithful thought that they had been lusting after the coaching version of Farrah Fawcet, only to have snapped out of the trance and saw that they actually had been ogling Rosie O'Donnell.

Okay......what is it that Vols fans want and need in its next coach?

Most UT fans feel that whomever Mike Hamilton hires, he had better step to the plate like Hammering Hank Aaron himself and hit a "home run" or else. The University of Fulmer fans will tell you that he had better hit a "home run" with this hire because he Hamilton fired their object of worship. The rest of Big Orange Country just wants to start competing for Championships as we did throughout the much of the 1990's.

So, what do fans mean when they demand that Mike Hamilton make a "home run" hire? Does it mean that Mike Hamilton must hire a marquee name such as Butch Davis or Bob Stoops? Could it mean that whomever Mike Hamilton hires brings the offensive system flavor of the day? Does it mean that the hire should be someone who will change the current team culture and forge a new culture on "The Hill"?

Before fans create their expectations and perceptions of Volunteer football program's future, they need to pull out their road atlas and look at just where on the "roadmap of collegiate football" the UT football program is at. The Vols program was busted flat and relocated to "Rock Bottom" by outgoing coach, Phil Fulmer. Whomever takes the reigns of the program, had better be able to come in and immediately change the culture. He will have to have a plan that he can instill in the players and the players must buy into the philosophy. The UT football program will not be about conducting business as usual, but rather it will conducted in the ways seen fit by the new coach. Some of the old University of Fulmer cadre will not like much of the change one bit, but it is the best thing that could ever happen to the Volunteer football program.

The new coach, in all honesty, will be expected to turn the UT program around and rightfully so. However, to expect the new coach to win SEC Championships right out of the gate, with the half-bare cupboard that Fulmer has left, would be delusional. The soon to be hired UT coach will need to be a gung-ho recruiter who is not afraid to roll up his sleeves and engage himself in the recruiting battles for the top prep players in the nation. A strong "identity" will go a long way in helping to secure the services of these future student-athletes. That source of this "identity" could be a well known name, a effective offensive system, or a combination of the two. No matter what, the Vols need an infusion of top talent badly. Losing to the Wyoming Cowboys on your home field is not something the Volunteer faithful should have to get used to doing.

"But Brother Bluto! We can't have a coach who would use Tennessee as a stepping stone....." Don't get caught up in this self-imposed trap. As mentioned earlier, we afforded Phil Fulmer that opportunity and he looked upon our offerings as his entitlement and kingdom, while he sank the program into the depths of despair. Hopefully a new coach will be able to turn this ship around sooner than later. We would not expect him to stay any longer than 7-8 years-ten at the most. Most coaches lose their vigor by that time and lose their fire to be the best. If he wants to leave UT after rebuilding the program, then so be it and lets move on.

Whatever Mike Hamilton does or whomever he chooses, lets hold hope that hires a strong person, who will stress discipline, carry himself with dignity, and who will change much of the culture of arrogance that has rotted away the core of the University of Tennessee football program. In doing so, we can count on some new traditions being established, added to existing traditions, and enjoyed by University of Tennessee Volunteer fans for years to come.

A Dry Martini, Shaken Not Stirred

Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, Daniel Craig, and Mike Hamilton....huh? That can't be right can it?

The University of Tennessee coaching search has been conducted on a level so secretive that you would swear you could hear Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man" in the background. The media is in a tizzy because Mike Hamilton has slipped out the secret staircase in the library and taken on his new personna, secret agent 008.

The instant gratification seeking internet fans are upset because they are being kept in the dark by Hamilton and the media. Some are upset that they are claiming that Hamilton has been turned down by every coach in the national coaches convention. Geez, get a grip.

Common sense would tell you that the reason that his "my lips are sealed" behavior in this manhunt is to protect the candidate's and their teams as they head down the home stretch of this football seasons. It would be unfair for Hamilton to spill the beans that he is discussing a contract with "coach of the day", as his team prepares for their big game for all of the marbles.

The announcement of the results of his cloak and dagger mission will tell us a lot about just who he has worked out a deal with. An announcement right after the final game would tell us that the new coach is either not working somewhere or his team is out of the hunt for their league's championship or even the national championship picture. An announcement after mid December would likely mean that the new coach is preparing his team for a very meaningful run at a chmapionship...either at the collegiate or NFL level.