re: Who else thinks Tennessee will botch this hire

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Can't speak on the leather helmet era but they were so dominant in the 90s because goff and donnan couldn't keep the elite GA/ATL talent home and they went to UT. Cosey Coleman, deon grant, jason respert, jamal lewis, etc. You started to see the worm turn when Richt got here and now that it's kirby vs butch (lol) you're seeing that pipeline basically come to a dead halt.

Without the combination of state of GA talent and a very good/great coach it's a hell of a lot more difficult for UT to be successful. Currently they have neither.

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First of all the pipeline to Georgia will never stop. There are just too many elite players in Georgia for any one school to get. Tennessee will always get their share.

And although you are right that in the past without talent from Georgia, Tennessee could not sustain a championship caliber team. THAT IS NO LONGER TRUE. The last couple of years have shown a stark increase in talent across the state of Tennessee (primarily in the Middle Tennessee-Nashville area). Tennessee is now a recruiting hotbed. The class of 2019 currently has 20 players rated as composite 4-stars. That's 5th most in the nation behind Florida, Texas, Georgia, and California. And the 2020 class looks to be even more talented. 247sports currently has only the top 109 players ranked for the class of 2020 and the state of Tennessee once again has the 5th most players of any state after Florida, Texas, Georgia, and California.

If the 2019 and 2020 classes are the NEW NORMAL, then Tennessee is no longer a program that needs out of state talent to build a consist championship program. Tennessee could become the new LSU. A team that can build a perennial national title contender on just talent from the state of Tennessee (if they can get most of those instate kids to stay home). Now that is probably unlikely. I think Tennessee kids are similar to Georgia kids. They don't have a loyalty to the instate school simply because its instate. You already saw in 2017 that most of the top-end players (Tee Higgins, Jacoby Stevens, and Jacob Phillips) went to schools outside Tennessee. And in the 2018 class, a couple of Tennessee kids are already committed to Ohio State's elite #1 rated class and another is already committed to Alabama. But Tennessee with the right coach can close that gap and sign most of the highly rated kids from the state.

Tennessee is a potential GOLD MINE job. Under the right coach it can be as good as any program in the country. It has everything you could ask for. A top 5 instate talent base, close proximity to other talent laden regions, elite facilities, rabid fan base, and lots of media focus. There is no excuse for why Tennessee can't be a perennial top 5-10 program. NO EXCUSE.