Quote Originally Posted by Macarthur View Post
I think this is a good hire from a football standpoint. It remains to be seen if it is a good fit politics wise.

However, ut needs to do some self-reflection in this and realize that their inflated opinion of themselves and the arrogance by many of their influential boosters is clouding their judgment and painting a negative picture around the country. First, they totally botched the Saban thing. There's choice #1. Depending on who you believe, they then focused on guys like harbaugh andtTomlin. Then it went to briles and then mora. Then things went to the strong franklins of the world.

So for all their power, money and prestige, ut ended up with their 5th or 6th choice depending on how you want to look at this. There is a perception, right or wrong, that there is major dysfunction and the boosters are a major pain in the ass.
From what I gather the choices to begin with were from a group, you don't go down a check list of coaches in a process like this. That is bad business.

The group that Patterson centered around was Briles, Franklin, Mora Jr, and Strong. I listed those in alphabetical order not in AD preference. The committee/firm that was hired was to bypass job posting laws in Texas. Once the names Briles and Mora Jr were "no longer interested" that was a signal that a choice has been made and UT chose to move forward with Strong. They through in Franklin's name as a consolation prize in thanks for his participation in the process.

The names of Fisher, Gruden, Harbaughs, and Saban were names being thrown out by big money donors who think they are entrenched in the program because of access that was allowed by Deloss and Mack.


It appears that Patterson along with Strong plan to turn this into a football school again and weed out the politics by winning. The school will continue to generate ridiculous revenue and should only increase with winning.