Was there ever a coaching hire where you thought "Man, this just isn't going to work?"

[EvilMD]

I was excited when we hired Eddie Sutton. Figured we had just hired one of the top five coaches in the country and he would take us to the Promised Land a couple of times.

I was excited when we hired Rick Pitino. Figured he was one of the top up-and-comers in the game.

I was excited when we hired Tubby. Figured he was the perfect transition from Pitino.

I was even excited when we hired Billy Clyde. Figured he was the perfect answer for a program that had gone stale.

I was of course excited when we hired Cal. The recruiting was amazing from the get go.

Did any of those guys make you think "uh oh" when the hire actually happened? I'm not talking six weeks afterward. I'm talking the day the hire was announced.

 

[DY9ASTY]

I was genuinely excited about all the guys initially

 

[Supafuzz75]

I was never excited for Billy G..

 

[jameslee32]

Three have a ring but only one went to the NCAA's every year winning at least once every year in Lexington. Name him.

 

[barryn2000]

Pitino - UL

That had train wreck written all over it.

 

[EvilMD]

Three have a ring but only one went to the NCAA's every year winning at least once every year in Lexington. Name him.

Tubby

 

[mj2k10]

Always willing to give a guy a chance. But there were serious candidates for the UK job in the past that I was not thrilled about. I'm old enough to remember Joe B leaving, and there was some talk at the time about guys like Lee Rose and Dick Parsons. Even then, they struck me as potentially really, really bad ideas (not that Sutton turned out great). And before Pitino was hired (which was a complete home run hire in every way), there was serious talk about PJ Carlesimo. That hire, at that time, could have easily sent UK into an extended IU-like downward spiral. And more recently, with BCG, there was some smoke around Tom Crean. Thank God that didn't happen.

 

[Altro Cat]

I was never excited for Joker coaching the football team if that counts. I was honestly excited for all the UK basketball hires in my lifetime.

If were talking pro sports there is a long list of hires I knew would never work.

 

[crawfords corner]

Not for Kentucky. So I'd have to go with Bryan Price of the Reds.

 

[gossie21]

Not really at UK. But about the last 4 or so hires at Texas Tech.

 

[Blueaz]

I thought Tubby was hired way too fast.

 

[BigBlueFanGA]

I was excited when we hired Eddie Sutton. Figured we had just hired one of the top five coaches in the country and he would take us to the Promised Land a couple of times.

I was excited when we hired Rick Pitino. Figured he was one of the top up-and-comers in the game.

I was excited when we hired Tubby. Figured he was the perfect transition from Pitino.

I was even excited when we hired Billy Clyde. Figured he was the perfect answer for a program that had gone stale.

I was of course excited when we hired Cal. The recruiting was amazing from the get go.

Did any of those guys make you think "uh oh" when the hire actually happened? I'm not talking six weeks afterward. I'm talking the day the hire was announced.

Tubby, then he won the title and I thought I was wrong, then Tubby recruiting started. I actually thought BCG would work out. Shows how accurate I am.

 

[CELTICAT]

I didn't "know" Billy G was going to be bad, but I felt like he was a second tier hire.

 

[docholiday51]

Gillispie from near day 1,if you didn't see that you weren't paying attention.

 

[preacherfan]

I had an uneasiness about Billy G but didn't know much about him and figured he would be fine. But, I never got over that uneasiness. He didn't seem all that bright to me.

Sutton was the one I didn't want. Between some rumors from Arkansas fans I knew and my own personal encounter, I felt that he was not the right man for the job.

 

[jgraf_1]

I've thought that quite a few times. I thought muschamp was a disastrous hire. Looked like Billy g of football. In way over his head from the start. Thought with dantoni for the Lakers, I thought it with petrino and the Falcons and his second stint with da ville. I thought it with Alford and ucla...maybe wrong about that one. Thought it about with crean at iu. I thought spurrier wouldn't have lasted long at usc before going back to Florida. Thought cuonzo Martin was bad for ut....turns out he got the best of that deal. Kind of thinking this with donovan and okc simply because Durant and Westbrook probably leave and then what do you have left besides a rebuilding job.

There have been others I've thought but these are the most recent. I thought Billy g would do well here but still wanted cal but it turned out well.

 

[bucsrule8872]

I wanted Cal when they hired BCG. I was initially excited, but after he reeled in Patterson, I was on board.

 

[gamalielkid]

Three have a ring but only one went to the NCAA's every year winning at least once every year in Lexington. Name him.

The coach who also produced the least exciting teams every year. A coach whose strategy was to stop you on defense and HOPE his team could score enough to win - very boring Basketball! He was the coach who had the most season tickets not renewed - a thing never heard of from other coaches. I know - I gave up EIGHT of them in one year. Didn't regret it until Cal was hired! Good Guy - but didn't coach exciting basketball.

Go Big Blue!

 

[EvilMD]

I actually preferred Tubby to Billy D. Shows what I know.

 

[martycat1]

Joker

 

[Bigblueforever]

I was never excited for Billy G..

Same here

 

[texaslegendcat]

I was concerned about P.J. Carlesimo. If I'm not mistaken, he was actually offered the job and turned it down. We also tried to hire Lute Olsen twice but he only used UK to get more money for Arizona.

 

[blubo]

i've always been excited and optimistic (overly) about every hire but one. hate to admit it, but i was really excited with the bcg hire. at the time i thought he might be the next up-and-comer coach in college, considering his success in texas, and as self's assistant and a good recruiter. on the flip side, i was really bummed out when pitino got the job. i was a sometime nba-celtics fan at the time, and remember watching him on the knicks sideline stomping and yelling at the refs. i couldn't stand the guy. when he got the uk job my reaction was "oh no, why him?" of course it didn't take me long to do a one eighty. i guess my coach-evaluation skill is suspect sometimes.

 

[warddr]

It was obvious Lane Kiffen to USC would be a disaster.

 

[jrpross]

I hadn't even heard of Billy G when they hired him, but I kept hearing how he lived and breathed basketball and he was a relentless recruiter. So I was hopeful. He immediately landed Patterson and Legion and the wool was officially over my eyes. It was a gradual revealing of how bad he was after that. Each commitment he got from that point on was weirder and weirder. He got Dominique Ferguson first which was great, top 10 at the time. The GJ Villarino and Dakotah Euton, aright, we need role players. Then came Zollo (who?) and Michael Avery (WHAT??) And by that time we were headed for the NIT and my blue blood was turning red from anger.

 

[Svarog]

Kelvin Sampson to IU was very strange to me. Almost queasy. That was just a total non-fit.

 

[UKWildcats#8]

Three have a ring but only one went to the NCAA's every year winning at least once every year in Lexington. Name him.

Tubby is the only coach in UK history (Rupp and beyond) to go to the NCAA every year. I say who gives a rat's ass....cause after the first title year, only ONE of the next NINE tourney teams had a legit shot at the title (2003). None of the other teams would have stood a chance even if they had made the Final Four.

Meanwhile Pitino produced 5 real legit ones in 6 years (94 flamed out in the 2nd round so I doubt they would have got it done, but they had some talent), and Cal has had 5 legit ones in 6 years. Pitino went to 3 Final Fours, 2 title games and a title, while Cal has 4 Final Fours, 2 title games, and a title. This just shows you that one bad non-NCAA year in a tenure means little...and Pitino sure didn't suffer from those first two years of probation as he almost beat a great Duke team in the Elite 8 that first year he was eligible. I digress.

 

[ganner918]

I was never excited for Joker coaching the football team if that counts. I was honestly excited for all the UK basketball hires in my lifetime.

If were talking pro sports there is a long list of hires I knew would never work.

I was wrong about it, but when Brooks was hired I was less than enthused.

 

[kats23]

Billy G from day one. I was in the media at the time and we had a pre press conference with him before the big reveal. He left that with us and I said he's going to be a disaster. Already he was rambling about players making plays and all he was here to do was coach. My initial thought was he was already throwing the team under the bus, shying away from responsibility and they hadn't even tipped off yet.

Someone mentioned above Kelvin Sampson. I just laughed at that hire.

 

[SosaUK]

I didn't even know who Billy G was and wanted Cal so I was extremely disappointed. After Gardner Webb and VMI(can't remember which one was first), I was ready to put a sign in his yard.

 

[lobbyman]

Tubby smith was in over his head from day one. C M Newton hired him without interviewing any other candidates.

 

[StubbornPenny]

Tubby was never in over his head. Billy G was the definition of that. However tubby was a "I can tread water fine, why learn to swim better?" type.

Joker was a bad idea from the start, I'm never a fan of teams giving the alumni bonus points. Joker wouldn't be HC for any other SEC program, so why would he be ours? And when we lost to a team in a bowl who didn't even have a coach until 2 days before, I was 100% done.

Kelvin Sampson was also a laugher. That's like dating a girl that you know has cheated on all her boyfriends, and you somehow expect her to not cheat on you. Delusional.

Lane Kiffin to anywhere. He is not HC material. He's okay as an OC. His best skill is having a dad named Monte.

Muschamp looked like a dumb hire from the start. He was just all HERF PERF TOUGH GUY HURRR with nothing substantial to back it, it felt like.

I didn't have any knowledge of his coaching, but Derek Dooley? Ok, so his dad was good. If his name was Derek Smith, would you have hired him? Similar to the Joker and Kiffin situation, I HATE HATE HATE when people get bonus points for a famous name or alumni of a school.

I will say I was dead ass wrong about John Harbaugh. He didn't play the game to the level his brother did. He'd never even held a coordinator position except special teams, mostly a position coach. That plus the name made it feel like a stretch. Turns out he can really coach.

 

[Ryan Lemonds Diary]

If you were the UK AD and had a DeLorean Time Machine, which UK coach would you go back in history and not hire? For me it would be Sutton.

 

[mj2k10]

Tubby smith was in over his head from day one. C M Newton hired him without interviewing any other candidates.

Yeah, because that 35-4 National Title year just screamed "incompetence".

Go away, you racist idiot.

 

[texaslegendcat]

One of the worst, if not the worst, college football hires was Bill Callahan at Nebraska.

 

[Mojocat]

Was initially excited about them all. Thought Tubby wouldn't be as good a coach as Rick, but thought his recruiting would be other-worldly (like what Cal would do years later). Didn't know much about Clyde, other than if he can win that much at backwaters like UTEP and A&M, he ought to do really well here. I do recall the night he was hired I was listening to ESPN radio on a long drive, and Freddie Coleman - and all the guests he had to discuss the hire - was raving about him. Illusory.

 

[warddr]

If you were the UK AD and had a DeLorean Time Machine, which UK coach would you go back in history and not hire? For me it would be Sutton.

Honestly none because our worst hires played out nicely in the end with the hiring of Pitino and then the hiring of Cal. Even though they ended badly, we came out of each situation quite remarkably best case scenario.

 

[Ryan Lemonds Diary]

While we may have hired a good coach in the aftermath, if the sanctions could have been avoided, to me I would have done it.

 

[michaeluk26]

Tubby is the only coach in UK history (Rupp and beyond) to go to the NCAA every year. I say who gives a rat's ass....cause after the first title year, only ONE of the next NINE tourney teams had a legit shot at the title (2003). None of the other teams would have stood a chance even if they had made the Final Four.

Meanwhile Pitino produced 5 real legit ones in 6 years (94 flamed out in the 2nd round so I doubt they would have got it done, but they had some talent), and Cal has had 5 legit ones in 6 years. Pitino went to 3 Final Fours, 2 title games and a title, while Cal has 4 Final Fours, 2 title games, and a title. This just shows you that one bad non-NCAA year in a tenure means little...and Pitino sure didn't suffer from those first two years of probation as he almost beat a great Duke team in the Elite 8 that first year he was eligible. I digress.

That 94 team had beaten 3 of the 4 final four teams that year. Arizona in Maui, Florida on senior night and the sec tournament finals, and Arkansas in the sec semi's.

 

[lobbyman]

Tubby was never in over his head. Billy G was the definition of that. However tubby was a "I can tread water fine, why learn to swim better?" type.

Joker was a bad idea from the start, I'm never a fan of teams giving the alumni bonus points. Joker wouldn't be HC for any other SEC program, so why would he be ours? And when we lost to a team in a bowl who didn't even have a coach until 2 days before, I was 100% done.

Kelvin Sampson was also a laugher. That's like dating a girl that you know has cheated on all her boyfriends, and you somehow expect her to not cheat on you. Delusional.

Lane Kiffin to anywhere. He is not HC material. He's okay as an OC. His best skill is having a dad named Monte.

Muschamp looked like a dumb hire from the start. He was just all HERF PERF TOUGH GUY HURRR with nothing substantial to back it, it felt like.

I didn't have any knowledge of his coaching, but Derek Dooley? Ok, so his dad was good. If his name was Derek Smith, would you have hired him? Similar to the Joker and Kiffin situation, I HATE HATE HATE when people get bonus points for a famous name or alumni of a school.

I will say I was dead ass wrong about John Harbaugh. He didn't play the game to the level his brother did. He'd never even held a coordinator position except special teams, mostly a position coach. That plus the name made it feel like a stretch. Turns out he can really coach.

Tubby was never in over his head. Billy G was the definition of that. However tubby was a "I can tread water fine, why learn to swim better?" type.

Joker was a bad idea from the start, I'm never a fan of teams giving the alumni bonus points. Joker wouldn't be HC for any other SEC program, so why would he be ours? And when we lost to a team in a bowl who didn't even have a coach until 2 days before, I was 100% done.

Kelvin Sampson was also a laugher. That's like dating a girl that you know has cheated on all her boyfriends, and you somehow expect her to not cheat on you. Delusional.

Lane Kiffin to anywhere. He is not HC material. He's okay as an OC. His best skill is having a dad named Monte.

Muschamp looked like a dumb hire from the start. He was just all HERF PERF TOUGH GUY HURRR with nothing substantial to back it, it felt like.

I didn't have any knowledge of his coaching, but Derek Dooley? Ok, so his dad was good. If his name was Derek Smith, would you have hired him? Similar to the Joker and Kiffin situation, I HATE HATE HATE when people get bonus points for a famous name or alumni of a school.

I will say I was dead ass wrong about John Harbaugh. He didn't play the game to the level his brother did. He'd never even held a coordinator position except special teams, mostly a position coach. That plus the name made it feel like a stretch. Turns out he can really coach.