wagee12
June 8th, 2010, 12:12 PM
I've always thought that Mike Hamilton was a straight up guy and one hell of a bean counter. He's made some mistakes with escape clauses in contracts, but other than that, he's done a hell of a job for Tennessee. The guy really cares about the kids and about the athletics programs. BTW, from Hammy's comments, I'm guessing that old Todd Raleigh is on the clock and has one more year and he had better win and win big next spring.
As you can see by the way this final question/statement was presented, Trent Tubbs and the boys are also Hammy fans. From Rivals (Volquest).com
VQ: As always, you're very gracious for your time and thanks on behalf of the VolQuest staff.
MH: I would like to say one thing if I could. While it has been an interesting year and with football, I want to say this about our football kids: Our football kids have been through a lot in the last 18 to 20 months. And you've been around them so you know this. We've got a lot of great kids in that football program. They've had three head football coaches and four strength and conditioning coaches and 20-some odd assistant coaches. For me to see the growth in them from a maturity standpoint has been really gratifying because that's part of becoming the men that they will be after they get out of college. I don't think anybody wants to have to go through anything like what we've been through in the last 18 months anytime again in the near future, or ever. But I think that we're going to see some kids who are going to come out of this with some really interesting things that they're going to do in life from the things they've learned from that. I applaud them, and I don't know what that will translate into in terms of wins on the field, but I don't think you can discount it either.
The second thing is, we have had a pretty good year overall when you look at the SEC all-sports championship trophy. I don't know where we'll come out in the (national) Director's Cup in the end, but if you think about swimming, it was ranked 17th and women's swimming was 13th. Our tennis team played for the national championship and we had two doubles teams that played for the national championship. Our women's team will probably finish ranked in the top eight or top 10. Both of our basketball programs were in the top 10. Golf played in the NCAA Championships; women's golf finished 17th. There have been a lot of good things that have happened. I know we tend to judge a lot of things by what happens in football and basketball, and certainly basketball had great results, but there are a lot of young men and young women in our university who are performing at a really high level, and I'm proud of them and proud of that. I don't want that to be lost in the transition within the football program. I just think that's unfair to some kids who have been doing a great job.
As you can see by the way this final question/statement was presented, Trent Tubbs and the boys are also Hammy fans. From Rivals (Volquest).com
VQ: As always, you're very gracious for your time and thanks on behalf of the VolQuest staff.
MH: I would like to say one thing if I could. While it has been an interesting year and with football, I want to say this about our football kids: Our football kids have been through a lot in the last 18 to 20 months. And you've been around them so you know this. We've got a lot of great kids in that football program. They've had three head football coaches and four strength and conditioning coaches and 20-some odd assistant coaches. For me to see the growth in them from a maturity standpoint has been really gratifying because that's part of becoming the men that they will be after they get out of college. I don't think anybody wants to have to go through anything like what we've been through in the last 18 months anytime again in the near future, or ever. But I think that we're going to see some kids who are going to come out of this with some really interesting things that they're going to do in life from the things they've learned from that. I applaud them, and I don't know what that will translate into in terms of wins on the field, but I don't think you can discount it either.
The second thing is, we have had a pretty good year overall when you look at the SEC all-sports championship trophy. I don't know where we'll come out in the (national) Director's Cup in the end, but if you think about swimming, it was ranked 17th and women's swimming was 13th. Our tennis team played for the national championship and we had two doubles teams that played for the national championship. Our women's team will probably finish ranked in the top eight or top 10. Both of our basketball programs were in the top 10. Golf played in the NCAA Championships; women's golf finished 17th. There have been a lot of good things that have happened. I know we tend to judge a lot of things by what happens in football and basketball, and certainly basketball had great results, but there are a lot of young men and young women in our university who are performing at a really high level, and I'm proud of them and proud of that. I don't want that to be lost in the transition within the football program. I just think that's unfair to some kids who have been doing a great job.