The CheckerBoard

Yup, I said it. Dave Hart's done well so far.

He swung for the fences with Gundy and Strong, (Gruden at Gruden prices is a bad idea - we dodged a bullet there), and missed. That's what we wanted him to do, right? So be it. Those guys didn't choose other jobs over UT. They elected to stay home for gigantic money.

Here's a interesting tidbit - when is the last time a coach has left a traditional top 25-30 job to take another one? Aside from Kiffy's ********* move, I can't think of one. So I researched it. I looked at every single coaching change back to 2007, and could not come up with a single one (unless you count Nutt leaving Arkansas for Ole Miss, and this year with Bielema leaving Wisconsin for Arkansas, I don't know if I would consider that top 25-30 traditional powers, but you might).

The fact is, coaches don't leave established programs unless they're fired or they go to the NFL. It's that simple. Why we think we can just get any coach we want with a phone call is beyond me.

Another thing, the problem isn't Tennessee or Dave Hart. It's parity. There was a time when Tennessee money made the job stand out. Or the fact that you had a better shot at the national title. Or the SEC was the big leagues, and you were on TV all the time, etc. Or you couldn't recruit to those small schools.

Now, everyone's on TV all the time. With the mini-playoff on its way, more conferences will have a shot at the big prize. Heck it may be even easier for Louisville in a castrated ACC than it will be for the next coach in the SEC east (not everyone is looking for the ultimate challenge). Everyone has money these days, thanks to big TV contracts and smart ADs.

I'd like to see folks step back from the ledge, realize that we're not some special case - we're not the college football equivalent of lepers. Stop running down our own program.

Dave Hart said his timetable was sometime before the dead period. We're still on track. We're not late. We haven't lost anyone who's taken a new job.

Certain situations come along maybe twice a decade that allow for a Saban to Alabama, Meyer to OSU. The stars didn't align for us this year.

But,just like every major power in college football in the past 10 years, we're going to have to take a chance on an up and comer, or a coordinator, and hope for the best. This is what everyone does - even USC, Michigan, Florida, Alabama. What makes Tennessee so different from those schools that we simply won't accept anything but the so-called "home run"?