Athlon Sports Give Vols No Respect In Coaching Tandem Rankings
By Zach Ragan
Athlon Sports recently ranked each SEC program by their football/basketball coaching tandems.
It should come as no surprise that Auburn’s Bruce Pearl and Gus Malzahn claimed the top spot. Malzahn has been brilliant since taking over as Auburn’s head football coach prior to the 2013 season. In his first year at Auburn, Malzahn led the Tigers to the BCS National Championship against Florida State. While the Tigers ultimately lost to the Seminoles, it was immediately clear that Malzahn was the right choice to lead Auburn’s football program.
Auburn hired former Tennessee Volunteers head basketball coach Bruce Pearl this past off-season.
Pearl, who had immense success at Tennessee, but lost his job due to a run-in with the NCAA, has had a rough start to his tenure at Auburn (The Tigers are 12-13 so far this season). However, it’s hard to doubt Pearl’s credentials as a basketball coach.
Most folks probably agree that ranking Auburn first is the right move. But after that, well the list gets a bit shaky.
You can check out the full list here.
Athlon Sports ranked the Volunteers above only Vanderbilt and I’m not sure that’s fair.
Butch Jones clearly has Tennessee football on the right path (just look at all the love they’re receiving from ESPN) and Donnie Tyndall has done an admirable job taking over a basketball program that hadn’t exactly been a model of success the past few seasons (not to mention the team lost several of its best players from the previous season — most notably Jordan McRae and Jarnell Stokes).
I’m not sure how Athlon Sports can justify South Carolina at four, while dropping the Vols all the way near the bottom. Perhaps reputation played a bigger part in their rankings than recent results.
The Gamecocks’ football program went into a tailspin this past season. Personally, I’m a fan of the head ball coach, but his best days are clearly behind him.
South Carolina’s basketball program isn’t faring much better at 12-12 this season.
There’s absolutely no way, based off what’s happening in their respective programs at the current moment, that you can rank the combination of Steve Spurrier and Frank Martin (a coach squarely on the hot seat) above Butch Jones and Donnie Tyndall (I mean come on, Jones is 2-0 against Spurrier).
What say you Vol fans? Did Athlon Sports get it right? Or did they totally miss the mark?
Let us know in the comment section below!