Back to the well again

Really, it’s Tennessee, so why should I be surprised?

The search firm Tennessee used to aid in the hiring of former football coach Derek Dooley, former men’s basketball coach Cuonzo Martin and former baseball coach Dave Serrano has been retained to assist in filling UT’s athletics director vacancy.

UT on Saturday agreed to a letter of understanding with Atlanta-based Parker Executive Search, which will charge the university $120,000 for its assistance in the athletics director search.

Parker’s done a bang up job for UT.

The coaching hires Tennessee made with Parker’s help ended in underwhelming fashion.

Dooley was fired after three seasons. Martin departed for California after three seasons with the Vols, highlighted by a Sweet 16 appearance. Serrano resigned in 2017 after a compiling a 157-160 record in six seasons.

Tennessee has used Parker in at least 10 hires for leadership positions, including its search that produced Davenport’s 2016 hiring – she was fired in 2018 – and the hiring of Davenport’s predecessor, Jimmy Cheek, as well as the 2011 hiring of athletics director Dave Hart, who retired in 2017.

You know the old saying about insanity — doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result?  Sometimes, that’s just stupidity.  I’ll leave you to judge which is the case here.

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14 Comments

Filed under Because Nothing Sucks Like A Big Orange

14 responses to “Back to the well again

  1. pdawg30577

    Those rednecks want Hugh Freeze so bad they can’t stand it. Leave it to Jermy to have burned that bridge to fine, gray ash for them.

    As for Jermy, I hope he’s so toxic that the next job he has is cutting Rush Propst’s grass.

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  2. dawgman3000

    As a UGA fan, Parker Executive is doing an excellent job for UT. I hope they can keep it going.

    Liked by 3 people

    • gastr1

      Martin was a pretty effective coach for them, but of course, there were issues with his “style.” He couldn’t win over the “culture” much the way Greg Schiano likely wouldn’t have been able to.

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  3. Down Island Way

    The powers that are PES are all UGA grads, smells as though UGA is under cover my brutha’ in getting some W’s from big urnge cuntry (through timely coaching hires)… one big urnge cuntry grad exists on staff, so, there is that at PES…

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    • 79dawg

      Your first point is correct, and my recollection is that we have used PES for the basketball searches recently, so take from that what you will…

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  4. Didn’t PES get the $40k that went into the “search” that hired Kirby? I don’t mean that as a negative against the firm, but they probably did a background check and some investigative due diligence then sent McGarity a report that covered his @$$ in case something blew up.

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  5. classiccitycanine

    Based on their track record, it doesn’t sound like that firm should be in business.

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  6. Dylan Dreyer's Booty

    I am glad we dodged a bullet by not having an executive search firm select our coaches or AD.

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  7. Tony BarnFart

    Like clockwork, the first things that come out with these UT coaching searches are something something Late 90s something Jason Witten something Peyton Manning.

    These people have learned nothing. Can an institution fire its fan base ?
    /Seriously guys, I demand we hire a proven Power 5 winner ! \Yeah, because proven Power 5 winners are just lining up for career suicide.

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  8. TN Dawg

    I won’t say that the Derrick Dooley hire wasn’t a cluster of epic proportions, but IIRC, he was like the fourth or fifth offer at the time.

    Tennessee’s last three hires have essentially all been marked by their primary choices telling them ‘no thanks’ followed by them taking what they can get.

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  9. Dawg19

    “Parker Executive Search…you think you hate us now…but wait ‘til ya hire us!!”

    https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/e076c4d8-c6e3-42d3-a8c3-4a41f8f8bb65

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