The CheckerBoard

It will depend a lot on how the team morale holds up, while I do think they are somewhat better at handling adversity this year over last year, they could also very easily throw in the towel as to picking themselves up and dusting themselves off. It will be interesting to see how it plays out though. We still need to give the players our support regardless of what people think of the coaches.

That is not true. He led La Tech to a bowl in his second year and he was not the AD at that time.

Edit Tntoak you are right I stand corrected he was hired in March 2008 and won bowl in 2008.

When Vandy has as many SEC victories since 2011 as Tennessee does since 2010?

That's what makes you a laughingstock.

I 100% disagree with you. Our fan base is a joke. When was the last time we were all united behind our coach? It's been 20 years. That's embarrassing.

Oh, I agree with this. I'm just saying it wasn't 20 years of constant bickering which is how I read his original post.

Hammy could have helped himself and the university by naming Kippy the interim for one year. With the timing as off as it was, this could have helped. We would have had a year to have found out who really wanted the job. It might not have been near this bad. The thing was everyone, including me, wanted a coach quickly and we all bought in when he said......britches.

You're right about there not being this constant bickering between the factions between 1995 and 2002. That was mainly because Fulmer was putting good teams on the field every single year, and the pro-Majors crowd really had nothing to stand on, especially after the 1998 NC and Majors' performance at Pitt. But once Cutcliffe left the first time, the crack started to show in both the program and behind the scenes. It wasn't until 2008 that stuff really started coming back out into the open again.

Personally, I'm on the fence about Dooley's status right now. I think he's a class act from a personal standpoint, but I'm no longer convinced he can take this program back to where everyone thinks it should be. What bothers me the most about the team this season is that for every issue they address (setting the edge on defense, having a solid OL once again for example), they seem to take a step backwards in other areas. The next five games will ultimately decide his future with this program, possibly even the next two games, depending on how things play out.

Fair. Hamilton screwed up when he fired fulmer with no plan. Dooley was the only guy that would work for that clown. You can make huge changes without a good plan.

My money is on Hart taking his time and not pulling a Hamilton 2008.

Okay, Let's see...
Offensive line experience - Yeah, most of them (except Tiny) are experienced now, and ya know what? They're good. RB's - Experienced? No, but they've all improved from where they were last season. Hunter - This is really only his second season as a starter and he's coming back off a torn ACL. Improved? No, but you would think if he comes back he will be improved. Bray - Can't honestly say whether he'll ever get better or not. Maybe a coaching change would help, maybe not. Chaney has worked with better quarterbacks than him. Maybe Worley or Peterman is our future whether he comes back or not. I would guess he'll be back at this point.
Defensive line experience - Couch (2nd season as a starter), Sentimore (1st), McCullers (1st). Linebackers - AJ (2nd year), Maggitt (2nd yr), Lathers (along with Waggner, the most experienced we've got), J Smith/J Williams (1st yr as starter),
Secondary - Coleman (started a couple games last yr), Waggner (experienced), McNeil (Frosh), B Moore (1st as a starter).Not to mention that we are at least partially converting over to a 3-4 scheme at the same time, so much of the experience these guys have gotten needs to be taken in context.
I wouldn't call that a ton of experience, but I think next year you'd be able to say that we'll have a ton of experience (whether Dooley is our coach or not).

As for our fanbase being a joke - Joke probably wasn't the right term, maybe disfunctional. Let me clarify, because what I said last night was no doubt an overstatement, but I believe there is some truth to it and both you and Crockett were right for calling me out on it. Our team IS a big part of the problem. The numbers don't lie and I'm just as frustrated as anyone. I live about 600 miles away from Knoxville and I'm very aware of our perception to outsiders having been reduced to an "also ran". Basically, we play in a great conference, must be a really cool place to see a game, but most don't think of us when you think of traditional powers anymore. Only one thing will cure that and it's winning. But (you know there's always a "but") our fanbase is also looked at like we're unrealistic and overreact to any slight on our team. Fans of all of these other schools and (I believe) many in the sports media are enjoying our losing and like to pile it on when they get the chance. That's not because they don't like our players or our coaches, it's because they know we will overreact and whine that we aren't getting any respect. We'll watch/listen to them even more and yell at our tvs and radios. Whether it's Fowler (who I like), Pollock, Finebaum, Holtz or whoever, they know they can get us riled up pretty easily. We overreact to everything. We want to fire coaches after less than two seasons ( there were a lot of people calling for Dooley's head midway through last season). I remember having some friends from Rutgers down for a game in 2002 and we were listening to the call in shows and people were calling for the firing of Fulmer. It was the third game of the season and we were coming off an 11-2 season, but we had just lost to Florida the week before. They thought our fans were nuts. Check out TOS, the fans on there dislike each other more than they do fans from other schools. It's three camps (1. Fire Dooley,2. Dooley will get it done, and 3. Troll and instigate). Why does anyone get enjoyment out of trolling their own fanbase? I know other teams have fans like that too, but not to the same degree that we do.
This program is in much better shape than it was when Dooley took it over, I have no doubt about that. I feel like when he got here, the elevator was heading down the shaft at 100mph from the 30th floor. He got it stablized and got it going back in an upward direction, but I'm not sure if it stalled on the way back up. Can Dooley get us to the next level? I don't know. He's gonna have to win at least 4 (maybe 5) more this year to have a chance to prove it. Whether it's him or somebody else, 7-5 or even 8-4 shouldn't be acceptable as the norm here. I believe that he should get a full four year recruting cycle to prove that he can get us back to the 10 or 11 win seasons we're used to. I hope he's the guy, because I believe he likes Tennessee, appreciates our traditions and has set the right blueprint. I hope we end up 8-4 this year, but if we don't I will still support him until the day he's no longer our coach and then I will support our next coach 100% no matter who it is (well, maybe not 100% if it's Clay Travis' Boy toy).

Sorry about the long and rambling dissertation,I just probably needed to explain my drunken post from last night. I'm frustrated as Hell, just like I was last week. I'm tired of having a split fanbase, but I'm starting to wonder if that will ever change. If we do change coaches I really hope that it's somebody that we all get behind and can focus on what's good about our program and not what's bad. I know that ain't happening until we start winning 10 games a year again.

Our fan base in not a joke. Who wasn't behind Kiffin when he was here?

A lot of people? You're kidding yourself. 95% of Tennessee fans thought the program was heading in the right direction.