The CheckerBoard

If Strong say's no, offer Gruden $6MM, and camp on his front yard. Take the the wife's parents with you on the trip.

Make him the highest paid coach in CFB, secure your recruiting class, and move forward. The difference between $5MM and $6MM is $1.50 per home game ticket.

We wasted to much time talking to two coaches that were obviously not interested in becoming the New HC of the Vols, but instead blowing their own horns to get a better job in the NFL, and getting a pay raise plus extenstions from their current teams, now, the only HC that has SEC experience, expressed a strong interst in becoming our coach and can recruit is having to think about taking the VOLS JOB. If I was Strong I would be upset with the fact that I was made to wait until your pipe dream coaches fell thru before you contacted me with an offer, it kinda shows the dedication that the Vols HC search crew had in Strong to begin with. I don't blame Strong if he declines our HC position. The blame should fall squarely upon the shoulders of our AD. He has made a circus out of this and we will wind up looking like a bunch of fools when Strong declines the job also. A HC with SEC experience has to think about whether or not to leave a school with a what less than 60,000 seat stadium, who is moving to the ACC, and is clearly a school where Basketball is king, over UT. Hart, Gruden, and Gundy will be the reason why we wind up with another coach like Kiffen and Dooley. We were one of the first SEC teams to fire their coach, and the last one left looking for a coach., Their is no excuse for this.

Ok, It took me a while to jump on board the Charlie Strong bandwagon but I'm finally on board. If he can do what everybody is saying in regards to recruiting and assuming he either keeps Chaney or brings in somebody with a proven offense, I think this could work out. However this back and forth with Louisville is making me, and I'm sure all Vol fans, just a litte nervous. My question is what happens if we don't land Strong or Fedora and we have to move down the list to "C" level coaches? At what point do we bring Fulmer back? I know people have mixed feelings about coach Fulmer and I'm not here to debate that. I'm just asking/stating that if we get down that far on the list ( Hopefully we won't), It may be better to bring back Fulmer (who by the numbers is as good as they come) rather than hire another "Dooley". He would bring back stability, a top notch staff (also maybe Chavis), and a Phillip Fulmer with something to prove could be like the "Fulmer of old". Like I said, hopefully things don't come to this and we can land Strong but if not just wanted some perspective on when Fulmer becomes an option.