Volunteer Head Coach

[smokefb]

Anybody hearing anything on the Volunteer head coaching  job?

[crow6424]

Pruitt

[JDHoss]

Considering the size of the school and who they have to play, this might be the toughest coaching gig in East Tennessee outside of Sullivan Central. I'm guessing experienced coaches aren't exactly flooding them with resumes. 

[wingman10]

Tough job

[JDHoss]

Still no hire. A friend of mine has a son who played last year and will be a sophomore. He told me this week that he doubts his son will play this year, at least not at Volunteer. Gotta be really frustrating for the kids.

[BlueDevil58]

They have their man in mind and have offered him the job 2 months ago, but they're keeping it quiet.  That tells me he's probably someone who still needs a Tennessee teaching license: either a college coach or someone from out of state.

The early word was that they were going to appoint Justin Hite to be the head coach and had promised him the job in October, but apparently there was some behind the scenes political backlash to promoting the DC who gave up 50 points a game. 

Hawkins County politics are all messed up and now the Director of Schools is a former Volunteer football coach (and Cherokee alum) who got fired and has an axe to grind against the school.  He openly favors Cherokee and takes out his grudge against Volunteer whenever he can.

I know some of the candidates who put in for it personally.  They had some good candidates who really wanted the job, including alums and former assistants with strong ties to the school, but they were not even called in for interviews.  It dumbfounded me.

[Red Rebels]

23 hours ago, BlueDevil58 said:

I know some of the candidates who put in for it personally.  They had some good candidates who really wanted the job, including alums and former assistants with strong ties to the school, but they were not even called in for interviews.  It dumbfounded me.

I hear there are strange things going on up there.

[JohnDeereMan]

They have their man he is a proven winner! Coach Pressley took over a 2-7 and went 20-9 his first 3 years

Edited February 14, 2018 by JohnDeereMan

[madhatter2269]

23 minutes ago, JohnDeereMan said:

They have their man he is a proven winner! Coach Pressley took over a 2-7 and went 20-9 his first 3 years

looks like he has a nice resume. nice to see these type of programs reach from outside of their own staff.

[JDHoss]

Yep....nice resume, and doesn't appear to have any local connections/sponsors, which is probably for the best. 

[BlueDevil58]

On 2/14/2018 at 1:48 PM, JDHoss said:

Yep....nice resume, and doesn't appear to have any local connections/sponsors, which is probably for the best. 

That's going to cost him greatly, I'm afraid.  It also means he has no influential supporters to have his back politically.  Coaching at Volunteer is like Game of Thrones.

My sources tell me they offered several candidates the job, but every one turned them down when they were told they have to keep all the same assistants as last year and wouldn't be allowed to bring in any new coaches to help, but would be held accountable for the record.  The administration wants to keep everything the same as much as possible, even though "the same" was an 0-10 laughing stock.

I give him 2-3 years, tops, before he wonders what he's gotten himself into and resigns or gets run off.

He has been lucky to always coach in places where he had lots of speed and talent that was just poorly coached before he got there.  Pearl Cohn has been an NFL factory.  siegel sends players to the SEC regularly.  The team he took over in Chicago was like Chicago's version of Austin East.  Unless Pressley can magically make Volunteer's WRs and RBs run 4.4 instead of 5.4, he's in for a rude awakening.

Welcome to Hawkins County, Coach Pressely!

Edited February 15, 2018 by BlueDevil58

[JDHoss]

He's got his work cut out for him. No doubt about that. IMO it's the toughest coaching job in East TN outside of Sullivan Central. It's a school with lots of internal politics, and a rural student base that's trying to compete in 5A.