UT Chancellor Should Be All VOL

UT Chancellor Should Be All VOL

I have watched the search process for a new UT Knoxville Chancellor with excited anticipation at the possibilities that could occur.  I now fear that I will only be disappointed with the choice being made by a professional head hunter group.

Nowhere in the list of candidates that has been released has there been a graduate of UTK.  Now many people will tell you that it is more important to find someone with the proper academic qualifications and a past history of teaching, fund-raising, and management experience to take the reins at the Knoxville Campus. To them I would say we have tried that and the results were abysmal.

UT Knoxville needs a leader who has gone through the UT Knoxville experience as a student if he/she is to relate to the students on campus.  We need a leader that understands the inter-relationship of the campus with the City of Knoxville, the farmers in Tennessee, the business community, and the Oak Ridge laboratory.

The news reports and press conferences that I have seen show UT Knoxville bringing in candidates to meet with faculty and staff, maintenance workers, and student representatives.  What is the purpose of having a search committee if they are just going to gauge public response and pick the least objectionable candidate?

UTK needs leadership and needs a strong presence as the head of the University.  My fear is that they are looking for a mouthpiece and a PR manager.  What we need is the next Andy Holt, Ed Boling, or Jack Reese.  For now, the Alumni wait to see.

Bruce Pearl Has Paid the Price: Fight the NCAA

As an alumni of the University of Tennessee, I would like to go on record as saying that I believe we should keep Coach Bruce Pearl. Did he lie? Yes and he admitted that before the NCAA found out. Have we all made mistakes in our lives, absolutely.

So this comes down to deciding if we allow a man to make a mistake. I can guarantee you that if we let Bruce go our next coach will not be perfect. Bruce accepted and dealt with the punishment from the University and the SEC. If the NCAA comes out with additional sanctions, then they are saying that colleges and conferences are not capable of handling problems on their own. If the NCAA brings additional sanctions, then the University and the SEC should say in the future, “Why should we punish anyone, when the NCAA is going to do it.”

If the NCAA comes out with the death penalty and bans Coach Pearl from coaching for a period of time, then Mike Hamilton and the University of Tennessee should fight. Or maybe they have forgotten that the first six weeks into his first season we made more on concessions at Thompson Bowling than the whole previous year.

The University appears to be throwing in the towel and quitting. They should be defending the actions they have already taken; along with the conference. They should be fighting for not only our coach, but the good of our program moving forward. They should be pointing to the “body of work” that has occurred under Bruce Pearl’s leadership of the team and not allow the NCAA to throw all of that effort away.

Until Bruce arrived, our track record of hiring basketball coaches was pretty bleak. Do we think that all of a sudden we will be better at hiring a new head coach?

Practice forgiveness and keep Coach Bruce Pearl.

This blog is the personal opinion of the writer and is published as editorial comment.