ESPN’s Adam Amin Addresses Tennessee’s Coaching Debacle [Audio]
As the coaching landscape becomes clearer at programs like Florida, Ole Miss and Texas A&M, the University of Tennessee continues to wander in the wilderness with their coaching search.
After balking on Greg Schiano, candidates such as Purdue’s Jeff Brohm, Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy, Duke’s David Cutcliffe and North Carolina State’s Dave Doeren have all turned down offers from Tennessee.
Early on Friday, the University of Tennessee dismissed athletic director John Currie less than a year into his tenure in Knoxville.
As Tennessee’s coaching search continues, ESPN play-by-play broadcaster Adam Amin dished out his takes on the crisis happening in the search for the next Volunteers head football coach on The Gary Harris Show.
Amin looked at the various parties involved in the coaching search and relayed his comparison of Tennessee’s handling of the search to a pro football coaching search.
“This is pro football, man. This is an ownership group, essentially, that is dictating to the general manager, in this case whoever the athletic director is, who the new coach is basically going to be or where they need to look or what they’re going to do in this process otherwise, you can just going to stop processing our checks, and that’s what it has become. This is basically pro football except it is being run at a very amateur level right now in Knoxville.” Amin said.
Through the numerous candidates that Tennessee has attempted to land, the ESPN college football broadcaster questioned the direction that the coaching search has taken and how it will affect the next Volunteers head football coach.
“I don’t understand what they’re doing, and I don’t know how you get out from underneath this thing because whoever you end up with is going to have the smell or the stink of this entire process on them going into the 2018 season.” Amin said.
Early in the process, former NFL head coach and Monday Night Football color analyst John Gruden was floated as potential candidate to replace Butch Jones in Knoxville. However, Adam Amin noted Gruden’s nearly decade long absence from coaching and how the Gruden rumors threw the search process off the tracks from the start.
“It all started when we’re talking about this a couple of weeks ago. The old fun John Gruden rumors are fun to talk about, but they set very strange expectations.” Amin said.
Friday afternoon, former Tennessee head football coach Phillip Fulmer was announced as the university’s athletic director. Amin analyzed Fulmer’s impact on Tennessee history, his link to some of the program’s best teams in the 1990s and whether former Tennessee quarterback and current USC offensive coordinator Tee Martin is ready for a head coaching job in the SEC.
“They’re still hanging on to the late 90’s. In some ways, Phillip Fulmer represents the glory of Tennessee. They were looking at Tee Martin as somebody that they wanted to bring in. People were clamoring for Tee Martin. Tee Martin is a really good offensive coordinator. He’s not ready to be a head coach, in my personal opinion. He’s not ready to be a head coach at a major SEC program.” Amin said.
During his appearance with Gary Harris, the ESPN play-by-play broadcaster took a look at the outlook for Ole Miss and the chances for Alabama to make the College Football Playoff.
Catch The Gary Harris Show every weekday from 9-11 AM on Tide 102.9/100.9 and the Tide 102.9 app.