If you haven't heard by now, UT baseball coach Rod Delmonico was released Sunday after 17 years and 699 wins as a Vol. Gentry Estes of The Chattanooga Times-Free Press writes Delmonico's career obit nicely:
This included a 2007 team that fell far short of expectations. A 34-25 season featured losses to Bethune-Cookman, Illinois-Chicago and Wofford. It ended without an NCAA bid after a 1-2 finish at the Southeastern Conference tournament. In-state rival Vanderbilt, the nation's top-ranked team at the time, handed the Vols a 15-2 whipping in what would be Delmonico's finale.
In addition to its poor performance on the field, baseball was the only sport at UT open to penalties as a result of low APR scores -- a measure of academic performance for student-athletes.
Most Vol baseball fans have had an opinion on Delmonico for some time now. Personally I've never been a big fan of the guy. I've felt sorry for players I think he misused (like R.A. Dickey, whose arm is now held together with duct tape), but mostly I've never felt like Tennessee baseball -- even in the good years -- was fun. And if you can't look forward to enjoying a day at the ballpark, something's wrong.
Anyway, the task of finding UT's next manager is now on Mike Hamilton. I'm sure the guy who brought us Bruce Pearl can handle it, but I'd like to offer a few names myself...
Morris Buttermaker
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C. Montgomery Burns
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Bruce Pearl
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Those are just a few ideas to get started with. So Mike, if you need me on the search committee, you know where to find me.
Go Vols!