Thursday, December 2, 2010

Another Joe Biddle Column I Hate

Apparently Joe Biddle doesn't read his own sports section, as he writes a column in today's Tennessean trashing Vanderbilt football and calling it a dead-end job. Biddle argues that Vanderbilt is "in the wrong league for football," and comes back to the familiar sportswriter troupe that Vanderbilt's real problem is not having an "athletics director's experience and contacts" to get the job done. Not surprisingly, I couldn't disagree with Biddle more. Despite the cosmetic "title," Vanderbilt has an athletic department, it just so happens that athletics at Vanderbilt is integrated in, not set apart from, the rest of the student population (imagine that).

Despite the Commodores' 2 disappointing football seasons in a row (which proceeded their first bowl win since the Eisenhower administration), it is impossible to argue that Vanderbilt sports is not as strong or stronger now than they've ever been. David Williams hasn't had to do a major national coaching search, because he's been able to keep his quality coaches in Nashville. Essentially, Biddle is criticizing Williams for being an effective administrator. When you think about it, Biddle's take actually makes sense given his treatment (or lack thereof) of Tennessee's Athletic Director Mike Hamilton. Here's a guy who, despite his "athletic director's experience and contacts" went through 3 football coaches in 3 years while being publicly rejected by almost every candidate they targeted to fill that vacancy. Make no mistake about it Tennessee fans, Derek Dooley was not Tennessee' first, second, or third choice. Yet somehow, because of his title, Hamilton gets a pass, and Williams gets scorned. Unlike last year's Volunteer coaching search, Vanderbilt's efforts are being done in a professional, quiet and methodical manner. There haven't been any leaks, and no embarrassing public rejections. Maybe more schools should get rid of their athletic directors.

For some reason, I let Biddle get under my skin. I don't really know why. I guess what I continue to take exception to, both from Biddle and the other Tennessean columnist David Climer, is the glee they seem to take in criticizing Vanderbilt. The lengths (uninformed at they might be) these columnists will go to slam the Commodores is astonishing (especially as compared to their treatment of the Volunteers, who are always on the ascendancy according to these scribes). Nashville is Vanderbilt's home, yet the home-town paper's columnists appear to relish when the team struggles. Do us all a favor Joe, head east to Knoxville, I'll even throw in 5 bucks for gas.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Biddle has always been a Vanderbilt hater. I think what I hate most about Biddle is that he acts like football is the only sport that matters. I would David Williams, Kevin Stallings, and Tim Corbin over Mike Hamilton, Bruce Pearl, and whoever the Tennessee baseball coach is (the fact that I can't name him shows how much more successful our baseball program is). When the NCAA comes out and releases their findings next year slamming UT's athletic department (b/c the violations apparently occurred in all three major sports), I hope Biddle writes a follow up article apologizing both to David Williams and to Vanderbilt. But we all know that won't happen, b/c Biddle has some deep seated jealousy of the school or something.

Anonymous said...

Another thing Biddle fails to do is mention that so far David Williams has done the right thing. He understood that our football program was a mess, and so far he has shown willingness and a commitment to making it stronger and better. He's taken the first step by firing the coach and from what I'm hearing, it sounds like he's putting together and pretty sold list of potential candidates. Forgive us Biddle for having two outstanding coaches in the other two major sports so that Williams hasn't had to do a major coaching search yet, but let's reserve judgment on Vanderbilt for after we've hired our football coach and seen what he can do for a few years.

Anonymous said...

Bobby - you should send this post to Biddle. Seriously.

Bobby O'Shea said...

This came in to the VSL Newsroom and makes some very good points:

My criticism is more for the Tennessean. The guy is entitled to his opinion. He’s absolutely right about our record. It is what it is. But each new coach is an opportunity to start fresh and the Tennessean allowing itself to be the forum for this guy’s vendetta isn’t good for the university or Nashville. You could easily argue that a column like this is actively detrimental to what David Williams is trying to do. I think instead the Tennessean should run an insightful column about what Vanderbilt needs in a coach in order to be successful, instead of, “Vanderbilt sucks at football, always has, always will.” They could have saved a lot of ink by just running that sentence.

Heim Thyme said...

Biddle probably got reject from Vandy when he applied and to this day is bitter about it. I mean let's be honest if I had to apply again to Vandy I probably wouldn't get in.

Seth said...

Haha I wouldn’t worry about it Bobby. Honestly, I think so far we are handling the coaching search well and responsibly. I like how Williams isn’t calling anyone until their regular seasons are finished (like not calling Auburn or VT). Shows Williams is a respectful guy and I bet coaches like that. A lot more names will start dropping next week. Also, Williams said he let Robbie go so they could get a jump start on the search because he heard another school was about to call one of their targets, my guess is he meant Golden or Bowden. So far I think Williams is approaching this thing nicely. It also doesn’t hurt we are the only SEC school right now looking for a coach.

Even without Williams calling people, top notch and respected coordinators are interested in the job. There was an article in The Tennessean about how Stanford’s Roman said he would definitely listen if Vanderbilt called (you don’t write the newspaper saying “you’d listen if Vandy called” unless you want them to call) and the (odd) defensive coordinator from VT, Bud Foster, said he would listen too. No one this prestigious showed interest in UT last year.

All in all I think things will be different this go around. I really think we will get a good hire, given how successful Vandy’s overall athletics has been over the years (especially the big ones like men’s baseball and basketball) as opposed to when we hired Bobby. It shows you can consistently win at Vanderbilt If we shell out the money and upgrade our facilities we will get a good hire. Again, not to hate of Dooley (cause I like the guy) or UT, but I think whoever we get will be more of a “head turning” and “splash” hire than he was when UT hired him. Go Dores.

Anonymous said...

Great job. I am so sick of Biddle and Climer. You should really write an article bashing them as often as possible.

Also... what about David Climer? QB coach for the dolphins. I heard a rumor about him being interested.

http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/chat/_/id/35789/ncaa-fb-with-chris-low

Anonymous said...

oops... I meant David Lee.

http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/chat/_/id/35789/ncaa-fb-with-chris-low

AD said...

I just like that still available on the front page of Tennessean.com many hours after the game ended is a link with the headline "Joe Biddle: Spurrier's experience can stop Auburn." http://www.tennessean.com/article/20101204/COLUMNIST0201/12040323/Joe+Biddle++Spurrier+s+experience+can+stop+Auburn

I'll keep reading The Contributor.