No....I'm not talking about the Presidential Election coming up soon. I'm talking about the state of some football programs in the SEC. Tennessee fans faith in Derek Dooley has begin to erode. Gene Chizik is public enemy number one despite being two years removed from a BCS Championship. Joker Phillips is the captain of a ship that was already sinking, and John L Smith is the college football version of the crazy taxi driver.
What we know now, is that Arkansas will most likely make a change for 2013. What we most likely expect is Joker Phillips to be relieved from Kentucky at season's end. What we don't know at the moment is if Derek Dooley (whose seat at UT was getting warmer by the minute) and Gene Chizik (whose chair has spontaneously combusted into flames) will return in 2013.
There's been talks about letting by-gones be by-gones between Arkansas and Bobby Petrino and welcome him back in 2013. Not sure if Jeff Long can swallow his pride enough to do that. Arkansas has to make a splash hire, and there's one name that comes to mind. Tommy Tuberville. Bobby Petrino was establishing a standard of winning at Arkansas and had as high as #3 in the BCS. The hire of John L Smith proved that in order for Arkansas to keep that standard, they're going to have to get somebody who is proven and can win. Although Tuberville was embarassingly dismissed from Auburn, he has a proven record of winning AND....he's an Arkansas native. I've been wrong on many coaching speculations before. But let's stick to this coaching change that will most likely happen. To me, Tuberville and Arkansas seems like a very good match.
If Kentucky is going to make a change, they need to make a change to not only compete, but win. Muschamp has turned the curve in Florida. Mark Richt is on auto-pilot but keeping Georgia in the talks. James Franklin has Vanderbilt moving into at least a Bowl contender. Spurrier has South Carolina in at least the talks about winning the SEC. It's only a matter of time before Kentucky will be on the 1st floor looking at everyone else climbing to the executive palace. Joker Phillips is 12-20 overall, 3-18 in the SEC, and 1-12 vs. Top 25 teams in his tenure at Kentucky. No matter what you thought of Rich Brooks, he had Kentucky in SEC Championship talks, and that is rarely heard. So how does Kentucky recpature that magic and at least delay the talks of Kentucky Basketball for at least a month? They swing for the fences and hire Bobby Petrino. The only thing Petrino did wrong to get dismissed from Arkansas was lie to his boss. I won't go the moral road and talk about his marital affair. The gauge that I seem to get in the SEC is....if you win football games, screw all of the co-ed's behind your wife's back as possible. Sounds sexist, but it's the cold hard truth. If Kentucky just wants a fresh start with a coach they can develop, Gus Malzahn's stock continues to be high.
Tennessee has seemed to already catch Gruden fever in Knoxville and their patience with Derek Dooley has ran thin. I've always argued that Tennessee fans need to show patience because the state of Tennessee football was dismal even before Phil Fulmer was shown the door. The unwanted public attention due to Lane Kiffin's one year tenure and then the sudden exit for the West Coast led UT AD Mike Hamilton to look for a new coach, which Mike Hamilton dropped the ball on again. There was an opportunity to hire David Cutcliffe and they dropped the ball. He is proven in college, despite maybe needing some help with recruiting. But he made Ole Miss a winning program....that says a lot. Look what he's done at Duke. Do you think Tennessee would have been in better shape under Cutcliffe rather than Dooley? I seem to get that impression.
I asked Vols fans "Why Jon Gruden?". The go-to was he has ties (Grad Assistant) and he married a UT cheerleader. They seem to hang on his Super Bowl Championship. I won't deny that Jon Gruden could make a great college coach. I think he could recruit very well. However, you have to think of the staff he'd put together and the pricetag. Jon Gruden is making some serious money at ESPN and loves what he does. To get him away from ESPN, Tennessee is going to have to throw some Nick Saban money at him. This would be a gamble....a BIG gamble. You would be throwing $6mil a year at a guy who has won a Super Bowl but hasn't proven anything in the college game. Deny it all you want, but pro and college are totally different worlds. There's a reason why Nick Saban and Steve Spurrier came back to college after their stint in the NFL. There's a reason why only Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer are the only coaches in football that won a National Championship and a Super Bowl in their careers. Could John Gruden be next and would/should Tennessee take that gamble in the current state of the football program?
Auburn could be the one that if they want to pull the plug on Gene Chizik, they better do it fast. Including the three possibilities in the SEC, there will be other coaching jobs that will come open throughout the nation. If Gene Chizik is going to keep his job, some assistant's heads are going to have to be on the chopping block because the product is awful. Bobby Petrino would be the most likely candidate for Auburn, they've went after him before, right? He and Gus Malzahn has ties to Auburn and is looking like the brains behind Auburn's success. These two coaches most likely will be the most sought after, so if Auburn is going to act, they better act quick.
