Tennessee Baseball: What Does Dave Serrano Have to do to Get Fired?
After five failed seasons in Knoxville, Dave Hart announced that Tennessee baseball coach Dave Serrano will return for a sixth year to coach the Volunteers.
At any school on the planet, five years of failing to make the postseason is grounds for firing. But in Knoxville, that is apparently not the case.
On Thursday morning, Tennessee Vols Athletic Director Dave Hart made the most questionable decision he could have made during his tenure in Knoxville. He decided to bring Dave Serrano back for a sixth year to coach Tennessee Baseball.
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Hart made the announcement at a press conference, the video of which you can view here on UTSports.
Here is an excerpt of what he said in the press conference.
"“This struggle is not confined to the Dave Serrano era, as you know full well. We have struggled to get baseball where we all want it for many years, probably a dozen years or more."
To put it simply, Hart said he still believes in Serrano, noting that he never cut a corner and that the baseball team never quit. And he also cited the academic improvements under Serrano.
That’s all fine and dandy, but the same could be said about Buzz Peterson when he was in Knoxville.
Hart can say Serrano inherited a tough situation, but what type of situation could be so tough that they need six years to rebuild?
How much longer could it be before Serrano is fired?
The reality is that Hart likely does not believe what his eyes are telling him simply due to Serrano’s past success.
On paper, that’s a fair assessment to make because Serrano’s failure in Knoxville still doesn’t make sense given what he did at his previous two stops before then.
There’s also the question of whether or not he will be able to get anybody better, and that is indeed a fair question.
But at the end of the day, Serrano has to be judged by performance, and he was supposed to take the next step his fourth year with the program.
He is now entering his sixth year with the program and still has not taken that next step.
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So amidst all the past success, the off-the-field success in Knoxville, and the struggle to find a new coach, at some point Hart will not be able to ignore the lack of production on the baseball diamond.
And that is what poses the initial question: What does Dave Serrano have to do to get fired?