And now that I've had my coffee and my shower . . .
. . . let me say that I feel better already. I meant everything I said a mere two hours ago, but things have coalesced a bit for me already. I still think we needed something for the short term as well as something for the long term, and I still think that the administration, based on reports that we didn't really even try for someone who would have provided more of an immediate impact, made a mistake. Going into the thing, all boiled down to just the stuff floating on top, I was just hoping for someone we didn't have to research. Not because we don't want to do research, but because it meant that we didn't get someone we were already excited about.
But I also meant it when I said over the summer that reasonable optimism bias is good for you and when I said this morning that I thought I'd find my optimism equilibrium sometime soon. And it's actually returned sooner than I thought. Here, I can help.
I admit to a certain residual cynicism going into the press conference today at 2:30. The whole Charlie Brown kicking the football thing comes to mind. We've been through this three times in the past four years -- Who's that? Awesome presser, dude. Who's that? Awesome presser, sir. And you don't really want to be that guy who just Pavlov's his way through insanity over and over again. I understand. Because that's exactly how I feel. I don't want to be tricked by the press conference into thinking that we're all going to live happily ever after.
But just because we don't have the immediate Happies this morning, it doesn't mean that they won't come. And, even better, it doesn't mean that they won't come sooner rather than later. Because you may have had to look up Butch Jones' resume rather than just blindly ga-ga-ing over a certain unnamed Monday Night Football guy, but when you shake off the blues and get your mind right, you can actually see things you weren't looking for before. And there are, in fact, good things to see.
And if you think that I'm completely off my rocker and speaking out of both sides of my mouth, well you're sort of right. It's part of the process. I was disappointed. Still am a bit. But I also still believe that thinking that good things will happen is better than thinking that bad things will happen. If that doesn't make sense to you, have another look at this summer's optimism post and see if you don't feel differently.
So. Welcome to Tennessee, coach Jones. Let's do this.