Well, I certainly didn’t see that one coming.
With practically all of the focus centered on Jon Gruden in Tennessee’s search for a new head coach, there are a couple of names tossed out by one gambling website that wouldn’t necessarily come to mind when trying to get a handle on that situation.
In odds released by Bovada.com Thursday, former North Carolina head coach Butch Davis is listed as a slight favorite at 3/1 to become the Vols’ next head coach. Davis has also been mentioned as a possibility at Arkansas, where he played one year before a knee injury ended his playing career.
Davis was fired by UNC shortly before the start of the 2011 season in the midst of an impermissible benefits/academic misconduct scandal.
And, speaking of scandals, Jim Tressel is listed as a 9/2 favorite for the UT opening. Tressel resigned/retired/was fired as Ohio State’s head coach for his role -- cover-up, lies and all -- in improprieties that led to OSU’s bowl ban this season, costing the undefeated Buckeyes a shot at playing in the BcS title game. As part of the NCAA’s sanctions levied last December, Tressel was hit with a five-year show-cause penalty that would follow the coach, who is currently an administrator at Akron, if he decided to get back on the sidelines.
If anyone, UT or otherwise, were to hire Tressel, the penalties levied on the coach would be enforced at the new school: a five-game suspension to start the tenure and a suspension for a bowl game that first season should the team qualify.
Others listed includes four current head coaches: North Carolina’s Larry Fedora (15/4), Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen (5/1), Miami’s Al Golden (21/4) and Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher (7/1).
Interestingly, Bovada, for whatever reason, did not lay any odds on Gruden.
