Should Peyton Manning really matter in Tennessee's coaching search? Yes and no
On the surface, it probably made some Tennessee fans excited to see that their most prominent former player, Peyton Manning, reportedly will have “a big role” in the coaching search for Jeremy Pruitt’s replacement. The casual fan would look at Manning’s involvement in such an important decision and declare that in order to return Tennessee to national prominence, it would probably make sense to involve someone with as much pull as Manning.
Well, yes and no.
You see, Manning’s involvement in finding the next Tennessee coach shouldn’t exactly sound off the “feels like ’98” vibes on Rocky Top.
(I know, I know. They won a national title the year after he graduated. Nonetheless, Manning is still associated with that golden era more than 2 decades later.)
If Manning is indeed heavily involved in the search, that can be deemed as a positive and a negative.
How could I say that? Isn’t this a home run and a sign that the Vols are entering this with a clear head?
Not at all. Manning, if you recall, was all in on hiring Greg Schiano. We know how that debacle turned out. Vol Twitter fired a man before he ever coached a game. You know who else Manning was “all in” on? Butch Jones. We know how that turned how at as well. Tennessee became champions of life and nothing else.
Consider that your warning that Manning isn’t exactly batting 1.000 when it comes to weighing in on the future of Tennessee. And while paying a search firm is often throwing money down the toilet, Manning’s track record shows he often goes with the court of public opinion (he backed off his Schiano support after seeing the reaction from Tennessee fans). Football Scoop reported that Tennessee hired Parker Executive Search for its athletic director search, who will then be responsible for hiring the head coach.
In other words, no, Manning isn’t getting the final say. But will he have some pull? It’d be foolish to think he won’t.
It’d also be foolish to not think about Manning’s bloodlines. Arch Manning, who is Peyton’s nephew and Cooper Manning’s son, is a top-5 recruit in the 2023 class. That’s right. It’ll be another 2 years before the next Manning prodigy can enroll in college. Who knows how many coaches Tennessee will have hired and fired by then.
Sorry, Vols fans. That was sitting right there.
As crazy as it sounds, there is at least a little part of this search that has to consider that element. That is, mess this up and you ensure that you’re going to miss out on another decorated Manning quarterback just like Eli Manning 2 decades ago. That’s not to say that Peyton and Arch share a brain, but it is at least a reason why No. 16’s opinion will be taken into consideration.
There’s a balance there. If Tennessee gets Manning’s vote to hire the newly fired Adam Gase because he helped guide Manning to a Super Bowl with the Broncos, yikes. It was Manning who recommended Gase to the New York Jets, where he went 9-23 in 2 seasons. We have half a decade’s worth of anemic offenses and bad NFL teams that suggests Gase might’ve been lifted by having one of the best minds to ever play the sport as his starting quarterback in Denver.
That’s another part of this that has to be considered with Manning.
If he thinks the Vols are a correct decision from reverting to the 1990s, that might not be the approach. Besides the fact that Tennessee hasn’t won an SEC title since 1998 and the Vols are 5-37 against their 3 biggest rivals since Nick Saban arrived at Alabama in 2007, this is now a program facing an investigation for multiple Level I violations. Tennessee couldn’t win when it was allegedly cheating, how bad will it be when it has an inevitable punishment and the NCAA watching it like a hawk?
Hopefully for Tennessee’s sake, Manning can think practically. This job might not necessarily be exclusively for someone who roots in the Volunteer State, though it seems the list of obvious candidates like Billy Napier, Jamey Chadwell and Hugh Freeze all have some sort of Tennessee tie. It doesn’t have to be an offensive mind just because Pruitt collapsed as a defensive mind. It doesn’t have to be a Saban disciple, either.
It’ll be interesting to hear who Manning supports. It’ll be equally interesting to hear if that candidate lines up with Tennessee’s next athletic director.
Tennessee has bigger things to worry about than whether its most prominent former athlete feels included in the search for a head coach. There’s a fine line to walk. Obviously, burning that bridge doesn’t make sense, and neither does granting Manning final say on the Vols’ future.
In a perfect world, Manning and Tennessee’s decision-makers will all get on the same page and Pruitt’s successor will be the first to make it to Year 6 in the post-Phillip Fulmer era. Then again, Tennessee hasn’t lived in a perfect world in the 21st century. It’s been a messy, often embarrassing world filled with as much longing for a return to the glory days as any program in college football.
Manning doesn’t have a full-proof plan to change that. If he did, it would’ve been put in place long ago.
Hall of Fame career and multi-million dollar endorsement deals aside, Manning is just like the rest of us right now — wondering and waiting on the right person to last in Knoxville.
Yes in only that he can get all the BIG money people to join forces and get the right coach and not the cheap one
The BIG money people need to stay out of it and support the AD in hiring a coach. The BIG money people are the reason UT is a dumpster fire.
Just because he was a great player for UT doesn’t mean he’s qualified to make the biggest decisions for the UT Athletic Department.
The decisions that the Vols have to make will be long-term and far-reaching. This isn’t about throwing a football,
*This isn’t about HIM throwing the football.
Manning’s presence would help the base remain committed. Who really knows if Schiano would have succeeded. A twitter lynch mob took care of that before it had a chance. The most important factor in a new coach will be the REAL penalties handed down by the NCAA. If the “rumored” infractions are as numerous and serious as we’ve been led to believe, there could be two years or so that would be lost in recruiting and money! I doubt a big name coach would sign up for that. Best scenario would be an “interim” for the NCAA period and then start over!
Agreed. This is starting to have a Penn State or Ohio State feel to it, where the immediate future is very grim and the best idea may be to go with an interim for year or two and take your lumps while solidifying the program fundamentals to appeal to a high-quality candidate in the future.
But so many Vol fans are impatient and want results yesterday that the logic may be lost on them, despite the fact it worked at both OSU and PSU.
If Manning wants to help, go back and be the QB coach for a year.
well Peyton “endorsed” every HC since he left UT. Do you expect him to come out after a HC was hired and say he is the wrong man for the job? really? I read he did indeed recommend Gase for the jets job which sounds like a favor to me. Right or wrong. who cares. gase wont get the chance at UT. In any case I agree with oz somewhat. Peyton might just be the guy that can get the boosters to come to an agreement on their own top 3, 5 whatever for the new AD and be the guy that can bring commonality between the boosters and the ASD/search committee. Boosters have a lot of pull at most programs. Thats just a fact and I think boosters are necessary and can be a necessary evil depending on the savvy of the person/people trying to manage them and their input. Probably a lot like herding cats but others have done it. I dont know who peyton may or may not have suggested/recommended for a HC when kiffin, dooley, jones and pruitt were hired but simply coming out and saying they are the right man for the job, after they were hired, is just him not causing controversy most likely. Wouldnt read too much into it.
I started to comment on some of the other articles but they were already blown up with comments so I will say a couple things here.
First Matt Hayes is an idiot. His article said “sorry Tennessee will never be elite again” ok well then we should just eliminate the football team then. All schools which are struggling should just shut down their football program and that way only 20-25 schools should play football any longer. His article is so stupid I cant even comment further, except to say TN fans know all to well we are not even close to elite. yes we are a dumpster fire burning brightly. But we also know we will overcome that.
In regard to jeremy pruitts lawyer statement. So many posters saying things like, “wow if he is right TN will be paying out big time for the buyout + attorneys fees”… “this is just a way UT developed to get out of paying pruitt”… Is Pruitts lawyers statement really a surprise to anyone. it certainly isnt to me. Everyone and my dog knew Pruitt would not just say “oh ok, well thanks. See ya around”. Of course he will fight for a settlement. i expect he will get one. Thats how things work in the legal world. In a lawsuit the only ones who make money, generally, are the lawyers. Who/what is right or wrong has little to do with anything. I expect he will get a settlement of some kind. No way in he!! he gets the buyout or even close to that if what we are told is true.
9 people other than Pruitt were fired! 9! 2 higher up assistants, quality control staff and other recruiting staff. I dont know if Pruitt actually knew anything about what was going on or not. I am inclined to say no he did not but either yes he did or no he did not is an indictment of him as the HC. He hired all these people. Jeremy Pruitt did. They were screwing him and backstabbing him if he wasnt aware or he was complicit if he was aware. Either way the buck stops with him. What they do is his responsibility and his accountability. Most people say if the team just finished with a nice season this would have been hidden and Pruitt would be in good shape. Maybe our school is that unethical but I choose to believe there is no way he isnt canned for it. possibly 30 Level 1 and level 2 violations with 9 staff members involved! not many would survive that anywhere.
Everything reported lacks details that will eventually emerge. Until then many opposing fans of the rest of the sec and others will continue to crucify us. Its just the way many fans react to an opponents misfortune. We need to concentrate on a new, highly competent and highly experienced AD and then a coach that we can be proud of for the next decade. UT will be back and in a big way. Count on it.
Literally a better piece than any of the main stream articles I’ve read in the last few weeks. You should publish it.
Nice job. Good luck. The SEC is better when TN is strong.
Hey Fuzzy, pretty good read and a lot of good points. I guess I haven’t seen any details on the violations? Obviously, this is gonna take a while and probably will knock UT back several years. But, with patience and the right coach, who’s willing to build from ground up TN can be elite again. The facilities are there, Neyland is still great and there is a rabid fan base. I’ve thought all along Pruitt wasn’t the right HC, purely on watching him as a DC at UGA. IMHO, he was not the guy, regardless of the violations. So, what are the options from Vol fans perspective and ignore the troll comments from Corch and others? Is it realistic Peyton could “manage” a team in the Dabo model? In that light, T. Elliot would be a good choice.
thanks for a real response sicem. peyton will not be a coach, anywhere. he has much bigger aspirations. CEO/GM and/or partial owner in an NFL team maybe. He is a Vol though and wants his school to succeed. Manning wont be the guy deciding who we hire. Its about the respect he commands from the boosters, the most powerful ones, which he is as well. I agree Elliot may be a good choice. My top 3 would be Campbell, Freeze and Kiffin. After that maybe Napier, elliot or Obrien. We wont hire Freeze and I know that though I would if I was in charge. Campbell has a large buyout and is also thought to be in contention for the NFL soon so not sure he would be a good fit. Might be hard for us fans to swallow our pride and welcome kiffin back with open arms. I admittedly have mixed emotions, but I also know he is a very good coach and think he has matured and grown a lot since the mattress fires at UT were put out when he left on the midnight train to Socal. Everyone has opinions. These are just mine. Im not a fan of looking for the next dabo. ClemPson got lucky and it took a long time for dabo to pay off. Not many P5 schools would have given dabo that much time in todays world. im certain UT wouldnt (duh). I am in the corner of an experienced, successful HC with HC experience. I really prefer SEC experience but Campbell has done so well at Iowa State it wouldnt bother me to give him a 5-7 year deal worth tons. We likely have sanctions coming so we wont get anyone of his caliber for a short term deal.
I don’t think any of those commenters were surprised by the attorney’s press release. And none of us will be surprised when TN pays an undisclosed amount of money to Pruitt in exchange for his silence. I think we all know some level of “gray area” recruiting takes place on most (if not all) campuses. The glaring difference at UT is that someone on the inside used that information to burn Pruitt. At most institutions focused on winning football games, everyone that dons the school emblem is willing to help sweep that kind of stuff under the rug. If Pruitt was winning games do you think any of this would have seen the light of day? Maybe so, eventually, but it wouldn’t have come from inside the program. TN had a financial interest, a big one, in making sure Pruitt could be shown the door holding a stack of purported violations. In the end, TN wanted Pruitt gone because they had enough evidence he was in over his head, not because he was cheating. The cheating was just the golden ticket for keeping their pile of cash.
Really? The “glaring difference” is someone on the inside using the information to burn pruitt. You are correct there is some gray area violating going on everywhere. But you think the level of violations in this case is routine, gray areas? Sorry but that is not a smart comment. You have no basis whatsoever for your final summation. You are guessing and probably guessing wrong.
Fuzzy, you both are guessing just like the rest of us. This is what you would call a controlled demolition. If what he says is true than we have to question how important it is to this administration they TN wins games. I’ve seen evidence to suggest two things. They really don’t care and rely on booster opinions for their hires and who cares if the Vols win. Or, what we have here is an uncommon number of people in the admin that are football illiterate all around to the rules and winning ways of producing a winning program. One of those scenarios is true.
Wow, just like the news networks. Said like its fact when actually its all guessing and opinion.
Well written. SDS would do best to avoid writing the type of article that Matt Hayes wrote. Sensationalist at best, it is the cheap tripe you see elsewhere. Congrats UT on being able to move on. Infractions may work in your favor as far as doing it right this time. Manning can be a calming and unifying force as far as getting everyone on board and working together as opposed to against one another.
Hard to believe they put Matt Hayes stuff on here.
Yes, Peyton is calming but look at the names he gave us in the past. If he does not recognize that elite passing offenses are undefeated and the goals of intelligent coaches all around, than we got to assume he’s going to gives us the names of coaches that are from his era. That was an era of yesterday’s game and will never compete in this day and age for titles.
Like Saban? Wow, would you want to reconsider that speech against coaches over maybe the age of 45-50?
Nice piece, I just disagree in one area. If it is the football coaches responsibility to know what the people they hire is doing, the same must be said of others. There fore Fulmer should have been a aware, and I believe he was, of any impropriety that was happening in anything he was in charge of.
Peyton should distance himself from the Vols for awhile… The Vols is bringing everyone down at the moment. Don’t get caught up in it.
Based on your posts I’m sure that’s what you do when a close one is in a time of need.
It’s ok you tried… Your post was dumb just like all your other posts but that was expected..
Keep in mind, Vols fans, the great Bo Jackson help pick Gus Malzahn for Gene Chizik’s replacement.
Well, that turned out a heck of a lot better than Tennessee. So not a good comparison there.
It was a pretty good hire for a while. Gus’ refusal to let others coach his system and his refusal to see that it needed to evolve brought him down more than anything else. Well and developing a QB.
Actually, nearly the entire search committee wanted Kirby or Jimbo. Gus was a JJ pick, and everyone else had to come around to accept it. But I’m sure you know everything about Auburn.
I know a lot. My reference was to what kind of hire he was, not the debate going on before he was hired. I guess if you actually had a college degree you would have been able to tell.
Manning is set to recommend Brad Paisley as the new Tennessee coach.
So far, the selection folks for hiring UT coaches have miserably failed over the last decade plus. I don’t care who makes the decision so long as it is finally a right one. Heck, bring out the Ouiji board. Can’t do any worse.
Actually it all boils down to the AD and trustees. One signs the coach and the other oks it and pays for it.
“It doesn’t have to be an offensive mind just because Pruitt collapsed as a defensive mind.”. Uh, he collapsed on multiple levels but mainly on the offense. Yes, it does have to be an offensive mind. Take a good look around at whose winning in the SEC and none of them are D minded coaches. The bottom of Pruitt’s D fell out only when he didn’t address the offensive issue first. If you can’t keep your D off the field because your offense is poor, that does not mean your D is bad. It means your D is over taxed every game. If you have no offense, your D will regress.. JP failed on the offense and his D was taxed too much. He overreacted and fired the wrong guy. Then he took over the D and it actually looked worse. Why? Because he never addressed the offense correctly or fixed those issues.
String several three and outs in a row and you got no chance at a win against even a AR or UK, and blow outs against the better teams. Only thing that matters and forgives all sins is wins, and wins equal money. If you make networks and your conference money, all is forgiven. This is why UT needs Freeze. There are no trophies for morality. As long as you win, they will keep coming. That all starts with hiring a coach from a coaching standpoint. Period. No ex NFL coaches, no newbies, no aging dependables with.500 records in lesser conferences.
I do love Manning and watched him mature into a phenom. But I often wonder what his offensive mindset be if he ended up being coached by Brady and LSU born twenty years later. I might be more inclined to hear what Burrows had to say. My guess is heavily lean on a coach who believes in developing these new high powered offenses that make the best SEC D’s like GA look childlike and inept, and UGA has a great D but nothing beats this style of passing. Its currently undefeated.
It’s a trend that defenses will adapt to. Just like the HUNH…it takes time for personnel and coaches to catch up. But they will.
Peyton has his hands full with Drew Lock and the Broncos. The off-season is as fun as the regular season.
Peyton has no involvement in the Denver Broncos operations. Not sure why Lock hasnt been good in the NFL.
Their failures have been a team effort. It’s not just Lock.
If I remember correctly, didn’t Peyton support hiring Greg Schiano?
Tennessee doing an internal investigation & getting themselves likely put on some type of probation was a crazy move to just avoid paying Pruitt & Fulmers buyouts… reminds me of that saying “cutting your nose off to spit your face”.. they might have been better off just riding out Pruitt & Fulmers contract instead.. Probation is only gonna set the program back further.. they better throw some really big $$ at Fickel, Campbell or Napier.. & no way in hell I’d welcome kiffin back if I was Tennessee
Yes, Manning should have a voice, as should other VFLs. No, he should be more cheerleader for UT than distraction.
UT is a “laughing stock” and it is pretty painful place for the alumni and fanbase to endure. An NCAA smackdown looms.
The worst thing that could happen is people quit caring. Right now, care more about our basketball teams.
I have nothing but love and affection for The Hill, always will. No bandwagon fan here.
Tennessee Schiano’d in their own nest when they reacted to the dumbarses on twitter.
Hmmm. If Peyton wanted to help right the ship, he could sign on as QB coach for a couple seasons.
If Manning signed on as head coach he could have that program turned around in 2 or 3 years and have them competing for the SECE every year. He has a great football mind and his celebrity would make it so easy to recruit. He could hire top assistants. Geez. It would be a dream come true for any program. He could probably get a HC job in the NFL with no coaching experience so I guess he just doesn’t want to put in the effort it takes to be a coach in college or pro football.
Butch had one bad season after 2 straight 9-4 seasons and was fired. I wouldn’t have fired him.
Yeah that was a mistake. He was doing a pretty good job.
No, he doesn’t matter. He is a great football player, a nice guy, and pretty smart. None of that means he knows anything about hiring a college football coach. But of the most importance is the AD.
In the mid 1990’s, Fulmer’s players were always in trouble, and he was always working the fringe. I’d just as soon see Fulmer and Peyton move on. Little, Silvan, Nash, Thompson, Ratliffe… Oh, and the credit card scam. Lol.
Well-written article. I don’t know anything that goes on inside the political structure of UT, but this seems like a good take. Peyton Manning was a great player, but that doesn’t mean he’s great at evaluating coaching talent.
I would trust Manning’s evaluation over the UT AD, president or the chancellor. Football has been his life. He grew up watching his dad play pro football and then spent his life playing the game until he was 40 years old. And regarded as one of the smartest and best QBs of all time.
If that is the case then the AD, president, and chancellor need to be fired. There is a difference in being able to play a sport, and being able to administer the sport.
Yesterday they were saying how bad it was that their fans were interfering. Today they are
Promoting the same
I’ll tell you one thing about Peyton, he makes a really good commercial.
If Manning is considered for the coaching job, after not holding any coaching job what so ever. What are they gonna do when they “clean house” every 3 years?