Alabama Football: Tennessee Vols are moving quickly with a plan to stop the bleeding and attack the Crimson Tide at the same time.
The Alabama football neighbors to the north could be admired for their consistency. It is not easy to be wrong, time, after time, after time. At some point, reality provides a slap in the face. But, not in Knoxville.
Some in the college football world are applauding the hire of Danny White as the Vols new Athletic Director. Alabama football and basketball fans are familiar with White, regarded by many as one of the top young administrators in college sports. Crimson Tide fans give White credit for his hiring of Nate Oats at Buffalo. The flip side comes from his more recent gig as UCF AD. White’s most noteworthy distinction was a wildly bogus assertion of a UCF 2017 CFB National Championship. White may not have started the absurd claim but he milked it, complete with a parade, a stadium banner and national championship rings. Graded on a huckster scale, White looks good. Reality is too painful in Knoxville now, so experience weaving delusional ideas makes him a good fit.
Celebrating Tennessee fans might be missing a key point. The new AD hire was executed quickly. So quickly it confirms what many of us already knew, Phil Fulmer’s hands are not clean in the growing NCAA mess. Statements made earlier in the week that Fulmer had ‘nothing to do’ with any NCAA violations do not ring true.
For decades the Tennessee program has had parallel goals. Equal to a winning program was an obsession to surpass the Alabama Crimson Tide in football. The primary architect of dismantling and bypassing Alabama Football was Phillip Fulmer. For over twenty years, Fulmer’s failures outweighed his successes. Now he is gone, and no matter how many words of praise were uttered in Knoxville this week, Fulmer was canned.
More: Fulmer came close to destroying Tennessee football.
Danny White will be earnestly working to hire a good football coach. A top coach willing to tie his reputation to the Vols’ future will be hard to find. On Tennessee message boards, fans want White to hire Bill O’Brien. Proving again the Vols nation is more focused on harming Alabama Football than creating a legitimate Tennessee program.
Though the NCAA is not expected to use a ‘Death Penalty’ again, it would have a small, silver lining for the Vols. Disbanding Vols football for a season or two would stop the Crimson Tide’s winning streak. Otherwise, the Vols will have to endure it every season, for years to come.
The Tennessee Vols want and are desperately seeking a clean slate. Next to the school moving to the ACC, a stable and NCAA-compliant Tennessee program would be best for the SEC. Maybe Danny White can get them there.