JJ Clark out at Tennessee

I'm glad I was never part of this train wreck. These alum are terrible and sure are bad at supporting their program.

How did the DMR do?

More importantly,

Where is Tennesee relevant in ANY NCAA sport in the last several years? List em.

The entire AD is a disaster. Making JJ a scapegoat is silly and misguided. Knoxville sports is a total, unmitigated MESS.

You fool hiding behind this VFL get some balls and state your name like the guy Gildea who is an alum. VFL you seem to have some info and referring to some of the people by their cordial names. Maybe someone should re-evaluate your connection with the program and you too should probably refund all the money that you have made working as an inside agent gaining info from the athletes. Too bad you can't coach jumps so that when the jumps coach leave, you can apply for his job like you applied for every job that was available with in the same program that you are bashing. Grow up and get a life. You did your part running your 2 laps, now support or get out.

Ya, I know who you are referring to and not him. I have spoken to him and indifference is the tone there. What I know comes from being part if the running community and being at meets. People in the community are talking and people are fed up. It doesn't matter in the long run, I truly believe he has made enough traction to stay longer. We will support Tennessee and see how this shakes out.

VFL you are literally pathetic. George Watts did a terrible job at Tennessee with the distance guys. Their school records are terrible and he never developed anyone. It boggles my mind how he recruited anyone with how much of a jerk the guy is. This JJ guy is a much better coach with a much better coaching record and VFL you should be honored he is coaching a program as pathetic as yours.

As an alum I can no longer continue to read the BS in this forum and not say anything. JJ Clark is one on the worst, if not the worst coach in the country. Not only does he not know what the hell he is doing on the track but he is a terrible person who doesn't care about his athletes except for his "African" and his pro runners. I was angered to find out this morning that JJ has already started the process of "Africanizing" this program. I was made aware that he cut two runners (Scott Foy and Jack Felix) yesterday to make room for two Africans. This man is an idiot. These two kids, with the exception of Nick Kaiser and Jeremy Dickie where the most talented and had the most potential out of the amazing recruiting class that Watts put together only two years ago. JJ is two dumb to realize that he just let a 1:54, 50 runner go in Foy and a 15:20 and 9:20 runner go in Felix. They had been injured the past two years with injuries probably caused by JJ's joke of a training plan. Its a shame that it has come to this and I hope they two athletes find a real track and field program with a real coach. Secondly JJ has never made an athlete he coached better besides Phoebe Wright and that is because she didn't do anything in high school. Chennelle Price never PRed in college. Brittany Sheffe PRed by maybe 2 seconds her entire career. Its a joke. Now he doesn't have a single girls who can run a race over the 1500. He has about a thousand 800 runners who cant seem to run any faster then 2:10. I don't understand this mans obsession wit the 800 meters. Its not like anyone on the team is actually good at it. Thirdly he has this teams priorities way out of line. Tapering for the Penn Relay, I mean the JJ Olympics" as it has been called before, is a joke. JJ will never win another wheel with the terrible coaching that is taking place at Tennessee. There is no need to train for the Penn Relays. SEC's needs to be the goal, not a pointless mid season meet. Finally I will conclude with a few harsh statements that need to be said: This man needs to be as far away from a coaching position and these kids as possible. I'm praying that when the NCAA violations finally come out from all his illegal activities that this man is fired and hope he has the decency to never coach college kids ever again. He does not care about any of his athletes. I mean the man went to Africa in the middle of the season for a week during a critical point in the season and made no contact with his team. Really professional. This man will do anything for his job and is not thinking about the kids college careers he is ruining. Dona Thomas (his boss) has him by the balls. She is going to SEC's to evaluate him. Hopefully she realizes the atrocity that is going on with this program. I pray that this man is fired as soon as possible for the sake of the kids on this team. Its a shame that Tennessee has come to this. FIRE THIS MAN NOW!!!!!!

I agree that JJ is a joke but to say "JJ is two dumb to realize" is pretty sad. Really?!

If JJ leaves it won't happen until after next year when his contract expires

kibitzer wrote:

So what the thread--now five pages in--is saying, is that some people would like a change in the coaching at UT, but that no one knows when, or whether, that shall occur.

Just rants, in other words. Got it.

Let's see, five weeks later...looks like the only modification the above post needs is to have "five" changed to "six."

I believe JJ is fully quotafied for his job. I would be quite surprised to see him leave UT before his contract expires.

I can provide a long list of people JJ has coached who were just average HS runners, improved under him, and became competitive at the SEC and NCAA level.

As far as Sea Rays goes, a lot of that you can blame on the NCAA regional system. There is not alot of incentive to travel your team anymore with standards being easier to achieve. With the exception of Penn and Stanford alot of these previously highly competitive meets no longer exist. Sea Rays was a prestigious meet in the 90s and was declining in the 2000s before JJ even got there or had any say with how the meet was run.

annoyed865 wrote:

As far as Sea Rays goes, a lot of that you can blame on the NCAA regional system. There is not alot of incentive to travel your team anymore with standards being easier to achieve. With the exception of Penn and Stanford alot of these previously highly competitive meets no longer exist. Sea Rays was a prestigious meet in the 90s and was declining in the 2000s before JJ even got there or had any say with how the meet was run.

The decline/demise of Tennessee Home TF Meets should be an entirely separate thread.

Sea Ray was declining before the NCAA Regional system began and long, long before JJ got there. In the 80's/90's Tennessee had 3-4 tremendous Home TF every year, Dogwood Relays (Sea Ray), Tom Black Track Classic, a scored meet or two, plus the NCAA Championship, as well.

I can't speak to the start of the overall decline, but it has been a very long time (Doug Brown-??) since there was a great commitment to providing a top-notch home TF Meet experience for the Competitors / Coaches / Spectators at Tennessee.

Predictions for SEC's?

9th, 11th

dy-No-mite!

I guess they'll blame Watts for this too!!

He's got the sec right where he wants!

This looks like UT's worst finish ever on the men's side. With something like 4 points scored in all the track events.

No!!!! It's an honor to have him coaching and UT is lucky remember?! Even tho the school records are weak he was so close in so many events with his young stars. He'll be my vote for coach of the year in 2014 when the pheonix rises from the ashes.