Are we Tennessee football or Louisville basketball

[NKR1978]

Tennessee: was one of the top programs of the 90’s and 00’s. Fulmer starts to slip and has a couple losing seasons. Then he retired and UT goes on a run of mediocrity with a couple decent, by their standards, seasons under Butch Jones. Now they’re on their 4th head coach since 2009 and likely a 5th in the next couple years.

Louisville: twice they’ve been on the brink and grabbed the best. Crum gets old and starts losing and they get Pitino. Pitino gets them on probation and they hire Mack after an interim throwaway year. and now they’re ranked #1 in rear 2.

I hope we’re Louisville.

 

[hungrychuck]

Depends on how quickly we react.

 

[Scooch]

SU has a massive fanbase, excellent facilities, is located in a talent rich area, and is part of the best basketball conference on Earth.

Plus, hoops ain’t football. A couple years of premium recruiting and you’re a title contender.

All to say, there’s no need to be terrified of the future. We may have some rough patches but we’re better situated for success than 95% of programs.

 

[sufandu]

Tennessee: was one of the top programs of the 90’s and 00’s. Fulmer starts to slip and has a couple losing seasons. Then he retired and UT goes on a run of mediocrity with a couple decent, by their standards, seasons under Butch Jones. Now they’re on their 4th head coach since 2009 and likely a 5th in the next couple years.

Louisville: twice they’ve been on the brink and grabbed the best. Crum gets old and starts losing and they get Pitino. Pitino gets them on probation and they hire Mack after an interim throwaway year. and now they’re ranked #1 in rear 2.

I hope we’re Louisville.

Just a couple corrections. Fulmer was forced out. They actually had a solid season the one year Kiffin was there and everyone was excited about the future. Had Pete Carroll not cut and run from USC, who knows. Tennessee has also gone through a few AD's. Irony may be that Fulmer is the current AD.

I hope Wildhack is a better AD than any they had and that we reap the benefits of that. It'll be Wildhacks first big test when the time comes.

 

[NKR1978]

SU has a massive fanbase, excellent facilities, is located in a talent rich area, and is part of the best basketball conference on Earth.

Plus, hoops ain’t football. A couple years of premium recruiting and you’re a title contender.

All to say, there’s no need to be terrified of the future. We may have some rough patches but we’re better situated for success than 95% of programs.

That’s why I think there’s a lot of similarities between us, Louisville and Tennessee. Louisville reminds me of us in so many ways. They’re a little better historically, but they’re a great program that lags a little behind the “true” bluebloods. Their fans always shocked me with how well they turned up at the BET because they don’t have the local alumni that we did. They’re the program that is most like Syracuse.

Tennessee has one of the biggest stadiums in football. They have so many advantages and they just can’t get it together. Now, after a decade of mediocrity and the Schiano fiasco, they’re a bit of a punchline. Kids don’t remember what they were and they’re largely irrelevant nationally. Sometime they give the big boys a close game or pull off an upset.

It wasn’t long ago that we had 25,000 show up for midnight madness...sad seeing those empty seats against a B1G team. I’m not making any hot headed decisions, but I have my flight and hotel booked for Duke. I’m debating cancelling. I’m still angry/annoyed enough to post hours after a loss, but is it fun to spend $1000 to just be annoyed and unsatisfied? All good things.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

Tennessee Football in a worse geographic area.

Very pessimistic on the future.

 

[NKR1978]

Just a couple corrections. Fulmer was forced out. They actually had a solid season the one year Kiffin was there and everyone was excited about the future. Had Pete Carroll not cut and run from USC, who knows. Tennessee has also gone through a few AD's. Irony may be that Fulmer is the current AD.

I hope Wildhack is a better AD than any they had and that we reap the benefits of that. It'll be Wildhacks first big test when the time comes.

I thought he was forced out and given the AD job as a soft landing. Kiffin was 7-6. They had some close losses so I could see where there could have been some excitement.

 

[OrlandoCuse]

My biggest fear is we become Indiana after Knight, Georgia Tech after Cremmins, St. John’s after Louie or Gtown after Big John.

But we do have better facilities and a better conference than all of those teams, so I’m hoping we end up as a stellar program.

Could be a while though until we get the right coach. Remember that Nova fell into oblivion after Rollie left until they were able to find Wright. So much depends on finding the right coach.

 

[hungrychuck]

Act quickly while the Syracuse brand is still intact, if marginally diminished.

 

[sufandu]

I thought he was forced out and given the AD job as a soft landing. Kiffin was 7-6. They had some close losses so I could see where there could have been some excitement.

Yeah, the 7-6 record was an immediate two win improvement over Fulmer's last year and they were a blocked away from beating Alabama that year.

There was a long gap and three different AD's between Fulmer being forced out (he may have been flat out fired, I don't remember) and him becoming the AD. There was a lot of talk that he sabotaged the last football coaching search to get the previous AD fired (who had only been on the job a few months) so he could get the job, after which he hired Jeremy Pruitt.

 

[sufandu]

Act quickly while the Syracuse brand is still intact, if marginally diminished.

That's my fear. The longer we slide, the more the program becomes irrelevant, the harder it is to be attractive to the right coach.

 

[NKR1978]

That's my fear. The longer we slide, the more the program becomes irrelevant, the harder it is to be attractive to the right coach.

Boeheim’s retirement, whether forced or graceful, will be a huge story. The media will talk us up...but if we hire from within and he flops, then it gets dangerous. Or at least that’s what I tell myself.

 

[Alsacs]

Boeheim’s retirement, whether forced or graceful, will be a huge story. The media will talk us up...but if we hire from within and he flops, then it gets dangerous. Or at least that’s what I tell myself.

Legitimately I will still be a fan but I won’t follow closely the program if Gerry McNamara is the next HC.
That hire would turn me off following the program like a diehard.
As long as the next HC isn’t GMac I can be patience with the next regime.

 

[sufandu]

Boeheim’s retirement, whether forced or graceful, will be a huge story. The media will talk us up...but if we hire from within and he flops, then it gets dangerous. Or at least that’s what I tell myself.

That's true. It would be nice to be talked about for the right reasons prior tomhis retirement. Then again, if we're good, there may be more pressure to hire from within even if it was the wrong move, whereas, if we aren't, it makes sense to clean house.

 

[Sherman20]

Tennessee: was one of the top programs of the 90’s and 00’s. Fulmer starts to slip and has a couple losing seasons. Then he retired and UT goes on a run of mediocrity with a couple decent, by their standards, seasons under Butch Jones. Now they’re on their 4th head coach since 2009 and likely a 5th in the next couple years.

Louisville: twice they’ve been on the brink and grabbed the best. Crum gets old and starts losing and they get Pitino. Pitino gets them on probation and they hire Mack after an interim throwaway year. and now they’re ranked #1 in rear 2.

I hope we’re Louisville.

Football is very different than basketball. You can’t compare the two. We had a Purdue or Michigan State like situation with JB planning a handoff to his longtime assistant Hop. (Keady struggled his last few years and then handed things off to his former player and assistant Matt Painter. Heathcoat handed off to his longtime assistant Izzo. Both situations worked out well.)

 

[Sherman20]

Just a couple corrections. Fulmer was forced out. They actually had a solid season the one year Kiffin was there and everyone was excited about the future. Had Pete Carroll not cut and run from USC, who knows. Tennessee has also gone through a few AD's. Irony may be that Fulmer is the current AD.

I hope Wildhack is a better AD than any they had and that we reap the benefits of that. It'll be Wildhacks first big test when the time comes.

Wildhack’s main challenge is simply finding the money to pay Hop the $5-6 million or whatever it takes to make it impossible for him to say no.

 

[Chosen0ne]

SU has a massive fanbase, excellent facilities, is located in a talent rich area, and is part of the best basketball conference on Earth.

Plus, hoops ain’t football. A couple years of premium recruiting and you’re a title contender.

All to say, there’s no need to be terrified of the future. We may have some rough patches but we’re better situated for success than 95% of programs.

Tennessee has a massive fanbase, excellent facilities, located in a talent rich area and is part of the best football conference on earth...

 

[Scooch]

Tennessee has a massive fanbase, excellent facilities, located in a talent rich area and is part of the best football conference on earth...

Sure but you omitted the point about football vs basketball.

 

[syrBossHogg]

We're Louisville basketball

 

[jgeorge322]

Im afraid were indiana basketball. Its gonna take some time and need to make the right moves.

 

[jgeorge322]

Wildhack’s main challenge is simply finding the money to pay Hop the $5-6 million or whatever it takes to make it impossible for him to say no.

thats a bit high on the price tag.

 

[MSOrange]

I realize different sports but I was thinking Kansas State football. I hope we can mirror that. Bill Snyder rescued that program, not only once, but twice. But coming off a 5-7 season and throat cancer, it was pretty obvious around here it was time to go. He wanted his son Sean to take over. Only in Bill's mind was Sean the most qualified for this position. The AD did his job and hired Chris Kleiman and they were back to 8-4 this year and Bill still seems to have a good relationship with the university.

 

[OttoMets]

...

I hope Wildhack is a better AD than any they had and that we reap the benefits of that. It'll be Wildhacks first big test when the time comes.

Am I crazy, or has the time come?

Wasn't Wildhack's first big test when Hopkins said "I've got an offer from Washington" and Wildhack didn't say "we see the writing on the wall with Jim; we're adhering to the succession plan and you can name your price for a retention bonus for 2017-2018"?

Effectively, in 2017 Wildhack hired a 70+-year-old coach whose success had been trending downward. This looks like a bad hire and a failed first test.

 

[NKR1978]

I realize different sports but I was thinking Kansas State football. I hope we can mirror that. Bill Snyder rescued that program, not only once, but twice. But coming off a 5-7 season and throat cancer, it was pretty obvious around here it was time to go. He wanted his son Sean to take over. Only in Bill's mind was Sean the most qualified for this position. The AD did his job and hired Chris Kleiman and they were back to 8-4 this year and Bill still seems to have a good relationship with the university.

One thing I've been worried about is upsetting the basketball alumni in how the transition is handled. But if this sentiment is creeping in, then maybe there wont be as much resistance to pushing JB out.

 

[UnderHisOwnPower]

Tennessee: was one of the top programs of the 90’s and 00’s. Fulmer starts to slip and has a couple losing seasons. Then he retired and UT goes on a run of mediocrity with a couple decent, by their standards, seasons under Butch Jones. Now they’re on their 4th head coach since 2009 and likely a 5th in the next couple years.

Louisville: twice they’ve been on the brink and grabbed the best. Crum gets old and starts losing and they get Pitino. Pitino gets them on probation and they hire Mack after an interim throwaway year. and now they’re ranked #1 in rear 2.

I hope we’re Louisville.

I was thinking that at this moment, we are holy cross circa Ralph Willard vintage