Tennessee needs to make a splash with its next hire. So does Florida. Now, three questions persist in the aftermath of the respective tenures of Butch Jones and Jim McElwain.
Who makes the first splash? Who makes the bigger splash? And will any of that change the nature of the SEC East — or the SEC in its entirety?
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The best answer to all three questions is to hire the big name. Multiple reports have linked Chip Kelly to the Florida job. SEC County's Mike Griffith likes Florida State's Jimbo Fisher as a potential candidate at Tennessee.
These are big, bold moves: exactly what each program needs.
"I think it's as important for Tennessee to make the right hire now as it was for Alabama after Mike Shula,” Griffith told Sporting News. "The job is attractive now. It wasn't in 2012, it wasn't after Phillip Fulmer, the timeline was so short. Same thing after Derek Dooley. It's not like this time."
"They're in a situation where Gator fans are antsy,” GatorSports.com columnist Pat Dooley said of Florida's situation. "They want a home run and they want someone who is going to create offense, not just someone who says he is going to create offense.”
Forget about this season. Tennessee is 4-6, and Florida is 3-6. They've combined for a 3-11 record in the SEC, but this isn't a new trend. Since 2010, the Vols are 50-48 with three winning seasons and no 10-win seasons. Florida is 59-40 with six winning seasons and two winning seasons in the same stretch. The Vols are now on their fourth head coach since Fulmer retired. The Gators are now on their third since Urban Meyer left after the 2010 season. It's time to make that big hire.
Why Fisher to Tennessee? Griffith points to multiple factors, including the expectations at Florida State, the fact offensive assistant coaches Randy Sanders and Jay Graham played at Tennessee and the reports Fisher considered LSU last season. It's not as shocking as it sounds on the first pass. Tennessee athletic director John Currie hasn't hired a search firm either.
"I think Jimbo Fisher makes the most sense. He's a guy that's familiar with the SEC. Remember, he won the national championship on Nick Saban's LSU staff. He was the quarterbacks coach when Terry Bowden went undefeated at Auburn in 1993. He's familiar with what it takes to recruit competitively. I think he would be appreciated here, perhaps more so than at his current job.”
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Dooley acknowledges that, at Florida, Kelly is the most frequent submission, but he points to this as athletic director Scott Stricklin's first big hire. The candidate pool is deeper, too, with names such as Dan Mullen, Charlie Strong and Scott Frost in the mix.
"It's kind of funny because every big name you hear there's a negative,” Dooley said. "Chip Kelly is a name everybody's hearing, and there are a lot of reports out there, but there are some negatives there. The fact that he had a show-cause goes against everything Florida's ever believed in.”
Why the big name? Florida and Tennessee must reassert themselves in a conference run by Alabama in the SEC West. Georgia won the SEC East with former Crimson Tide defensive coordinator Kirby Smart, in just his second season. Will the Gators or Vols have one of those schools in mind when they make the move?
"(Florida) tried that model,” Dooley said of copying Alabama. "They tried the Alabama twice, and it didn't work out. I don't know if it's keeping up with Georgia so much as it is getting good again, getting to a point where Florida is back to being the brand that's it been for so many years. I don't think it's a Georgia thing so much it's a Florida thing. Stricklin said in his presser he wanted to make Florida great again, and that's a factor.”
What about Tennessee?
"Everybody's chasing Alabama,” Griffith said. "It's not necessarily all about the coach. Until schools ante up and start spending what Alabama is spending on support personnel, recruiting assistants, quality control coaches, these are the things that are giving Alabama an advantage as much as Nick Saban.”
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To catch Saban, however, both programs need a big personality to make those things possible, on and off the field. For Florida, that might be Kelly. For Tennessee, that might be Fisher. Those would be big splashes and would spice up the SEC East with some instant credibility.
Remember, an SEC East school has not won the conference championship game since 2008. And the last eight conference championship games have been decided by 24 points per game.
To change that, Tennessee and Florida need to pounce. They need that big name more than ever. It's time to make that splash to change the direction of the SEC. The only question is which school makes it first.
"The Tennessee job is as attractive as it has been in years,” Griffith said. "It's important for Tennessee to take advantage of that.”
"(Florida fans) want to go back to the days of (Steve) Spurrier and (Urban) Meyer," Dooley said. "More so the days of Spurrier when the offense was great and they were winning the SEC every year, but that's hard to do. It's hard to do."
