Honest question. Outside of his lack of head coaching experience, what would be the drawback to Tony Elliott being hired as the next Tennessee football head coach? As an assistant very few coaches have his track record.
Dabo Swinney named Elliott the Clemson Tigers’ co-offensive coordinator in 2015. They have won the ACC Championship and played in the College Football Playoff every year since then, winning two national championships in the process. Before Elliott’s promotion, Clemson hadn’t had a top five finish since they won their national title under Danny Ford in 1981.
That alone shows that Elliott must have some value, and there was no drop-off this past year when he became the full-time offensive coordinator. Just looking at those facts, Tennessee football could do a lot worse. There’s a reason Elliott won the Broyles Award for the nation’s top assistant in 2017.
When it comes to a coach like Elliott, we also have to look at who the Vols can and should go after right now. Fans may want a home run hire. Well, the fact of the matter is the school is just not attractive enough for a home run hire.
At this moment, Tennessee football has had two top 25 finishes in 13 years. The Vols have’t won an SEC title in 22 years, they haven’t finished in the top 10 in 19 years, and they have finished seven of the last 13 years with a losing record.
In just the last four years, they have had three losing seasons and no top 25 finishes. They’re now in the midst of their fifth coaching search over the past 13 years, since they fired Phillip Fulmer, and for the icing on the cake, they are facing serious NCAA violations that could put them on probation over the next two years.
Any coach who takes the UT job would have to walk into all of that while also dealing with a fan base that has sky-high expectations. Those expectations could be justified, but what coach wants that pressure with everything currently working against the program?
Newsflash Vol Nation: A coach with real options isn’t going to take this job. This is why P.J. Fleck, as reported on 247Sports, prefers his gig with the Minnesota Golden Gophers to heading to Rocky Top. Plenty of other coaches are probably making that decision too.
Now, a guy like Elliott could indeed be a splash hire. His track record as an assistant speaks for itself. We could also mention that he would be the first African American head coach in UT history and the only one in the SEC. Combine that with a focus on offensive performances, and Elliott is a hirable guy who could make the Vols an attractive place once again.
For those fans looking at Jeremy Pruitt and feeling concerned about hiring an assistant, they should know that not every assistant is a failure. Three of the five coaches to win national championships the past 10 years were assistants when the school they won the national title at hired them: Jimbo Fisher, Ed Orgeron and Dabo Swinney.
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Meanwhile, Tennessee football’s hire just before Pruitt was Butch Jones, and that guy had won four conference championships in six years at two different schools as a head coach. His resume was superb, but he didn’t work out at this level.
That’s not to say UT should ignore head coaches with a great resume who, for whatever reason, would entertain going to Rocky Top. It’s just to say that they shouldn’t limit their search to just those candidates. Coaches come from anywhere, and if you can’t make a home run hire, you’re always taking a bit of a risk.
The only splash home run hire this program could make in terms of wins and losses is Liberty Flames head coach Hugh Freeze, but let’s get back to reality. There is no way the Vols could hire Freeze as they are facing NCAA violations when Freeze was fired by the Ole Miss Rebels for violations and then tried to pin them the previous Ole Miss coach, Houston Nutt.
Sorry, but UT has to eliminate a few coaches who could be great hires more than other schools do simply because of those NCAA issues. Fans have to accept that, and they have to accept that there are lots of things making the school less attractive right now.
If those things are true, Tennessee football should look for somebody who would take the job and could also be a splash hire. The Vols do indeed need both to restore their status, as they can’t rebuild based on their historical prestige. Elliott would be a risk, but he does fit the mold, and he’d be a creative hire. As a result, fans have no business turning on the idea of such a hire.