Derek Dooley is out

“There are two kinds of coaches: those who have been fired and those who will be.”

As just about anyone could have foreseen, Tennessee will be looking for a new football coach.  Vol fans, forget Saban or Gruden. They have absolutely no reason for coming here. Money is not an issue with them.  The administration would be better off placing an ad on Monster.com or interviewing people at one of the career centers.  It wouldn’t even hurt to give Phil Fulmer a call.

Could have Dooley and staff done better? Perhaps. Personally, I disagreed with going to the 3-4 defense.  The players they had to work with were better suited for the 4-3 alignment with mostly cover 2.  To make the 3-4 defense work, you ideally would have big bodies on the line (300+ nose tackle, 270-290 defensive ends), outside linebackers being around 6’3″, 250 pounds and inside linebackers who can drop into coverage.  Since this alignment places much emphasis on single coverage, above average corners would be preferable.

Ultimately, it came down to not having the parts to make the system work.  It also didn’t help that the players seemed to be taking it easy or not really caring about what they were supposed to do.  Coaches can only do so much.  The team would have been better off sticking with the 4-3 and if converting to the 3-4 was their long-range plan, then recruit the players that could fit in the 3-4 alignment.

Much has already been said about this.  I’ve had my own thoughts on it.  The upcoming winter is going to be interesting.

George S. Patton: The Man

You know General, sometimes the men don’t know when you’re acting. 

It’s not important for them to know. It’s only important for me to know.

I’ve often imagined what would it be like if Jesus looked like Andre The Giant or had red hair much like Alexander the Great and Thomas Jefferson. He would have stood out. But I’m inclined to believe he looked average, probably around 5’5″ or so and didn’t have the Force. Maybe he could hit a curve ball.  Then again, they didn’t exactly have baseball back then.  But yet even today, if he was a redhead and could hit a curve ball, he would get some of this treatment. Why? Probably because he would be a catcher who has bad knees instead of playing first base. You are supposed to stand out, but if you do, they will beat you up for standing out. Damn if you do.

This is what George Patton himself has said about another historical figure, “Blackjack” Pershing: “To those who have known General Pershing, only by his pictures or by an occasional distant view, he appears as a grave, austere man of fine presence, but cold and almost frigid in his loneliness. Just so it is with Mount Washington. Viewed from afar, it rises in cold and isolated majesty; in, but not of, our universe. It takes the more intimate personal knowledge of a ramble on it’s craggy sides to discover the warmth, beauty, and latent grandeur of it’s very self. All great men suffer from this fact. Of American generals, none has suffered more than General Pershing, because none have commanded such hosts or risen so high.”

Most people only know Patton from the movie Patton which portrayed him as vainglorious, bombastic, acting without thinking. But he was more than just a tank general.  I first heard of Patton around 30 years ago from reading about him in a WWII book. All my life, I’ve been interested in history.  From studying the man aside from the portrayals in the media, I’ve come to realize that while he could be colorful, he didn’t use profanity as part of daily discourse.   He only used it for dramatic effect. You can’t run a military especially at the lower level of the hierarchy using formal speak all the time. But the military itself is based on rank and file just like the world at large.  Enlisted men do not eat with officers.

He was a human being.  He understood the nature of war and that is the best way to prevent war is to not start one in the first place. If it does start, the best way to end it is to put the leaders out of power even if you have to personally shoot the paper hanging son of a bitch yourself. If the people had not followed Hitler, Stalin, the Japanese military elites, etc…, it could have been averted.  This is why it is important that even if you attend a public speech or watch TV, that you think critically.

This was the last straw for Beatrice, and her temper flared. She unsheathed one of the swords and chased “Saber George” around the room, cursing with expletives that should have made her warrior husband proud. After she had “treed” him on top of the crates, stabbing at his legs, and making him dance quite a jig, he pleaded, “G– D— it, Bea, I’m sorry! I’ll pack them myself!” And he did.