Key takeaways
ON THE SEARCH “I’m tremendously excited. It was a great search. And as I mentioned earlier, Chance (Miller) was with me. We had a plan. We had a process and once we got underway, we stuck to it. We went through it, and we ended up with a guy that we expect to be successful here. I know that, although I don’t see a lot of stuff, some things were thrown out, some names were thrown out. In this day and age, you guys are more accurate than maybe you were many years ago. On some things. Not everything. But a lot of that’s out there. But a lot of good coaches’ names. I’ll tell you this, the coaches that I talked to during this process, first class, enjoyable experience and nothing at all where there’s an issue. I’m excited about Lamont and what he’ll bring to this program.”
WHAT SOLD HIM ON LAMONT PARIS “I think today, I was speaking to someone, and I said, I’m not going to draw a comparison to Shane Beamer. But when I started looking, you know, a while ago at, he started, where he’s been and the process, and then being at Wisconsin, being at Akron and getting to where he is at Chattanooga. It just kind of gave me that opportunity to say that, okay, he’s had to go to a program that needed some work when he got there. And he proceeded to make it happen. I think he was maybe 62 and 30-something his last three years. And I know that there was another school that was ahead of us in the process, and I thought he could possibly come off the board. But he didn’t. And he was still playing, of course as I said earlier, when he got beat, that was the opportunity to get in person. That’s what happened. He did tell the truth. Chance was talking to him about getting over here and I was talking to Chance about going to pick him up. And an hour later, Chance says, ‘He’s driving.’ And I thought, well, maybe we should intercept him. Then I’m thinking, nah, it’s OK. He got here Saturday night.”
HOW MUCH DID HEAD COACH EXPERIENCE MATTER “I talked to an assistant. There were a few guys that y’all weren’t aware that I was talking to, but I thought that it was important. You know, this is the Southeastern Conference this year, the best conference in the country. There was a lot of turnover in the league. And I think, sitting in the chair, in his case for five years, with the background that he had, I thought it was an invaluable opportunity and it was important, but again, there was an assistant coach that did speak with. More than one actually”
ON THE SEARCH “I’m tremendously excited. It was a great search. And as I mentioned earlier, Chance (Miller) was with me. We had a plan. We had a process and once we got underway, we stuck to it. We went through it, and we ended up with a guy that we expect to be successful here. I know that, although I don’t see a lot of stuff, some things were thrown out, some names were thrown out. In this day and age, you guys are more accurate than maybe you were many years ago. On some things. Not everything. But a lot of that’s out there. But a lot of good coaches’ names. I’ll tell you this, the coaches that I talked to during this process, first class, enjoyable experience and nothing at all where there’s an issue. I’m excited about Lamont and what he’ll bring to this program.”
WHAT SOLD HIM ON LAMONT PARIS “I think today, I was speaking to someone, and I said, I’m not going to draw a comparison to Shane Beamer. But when I started looking, you know, a while ago at, he started, where he’s been and the process, and then being at Wisconsin, being at Akron and getting to where he is at Chattanooga. It just kind of gave me that opportunity to say that, okay, he’s had to go to a program that needed some work when he got there. And he proceeded to make it happen. I think he was maybe 62 and 30-something his last three years. And I know that there was another school that was ahead of us in the process, and I thought he could possibly come off the board. But he didn’t. And he was still playing, of course as I said earlier, when he got beat, that was the opportunity to get in person. That’s what happened. He did tell the truth. Chance was talking to him about getting over here and I was talking to Chance about going to pick him up. And an hour later, Chance says, ‘He’s driving.’ And I thought, well, maybe we should intercept him. Then I’m thinking, nah, it’s OK. He got here Saturday night.”
HOW MUCH DID HEAD COACH EXPERIENCE MATTER “I talked to an assistant. There were a few guys that y’all weren’t aware that I was talking to, but I thought that it was important. You know, this is the Southeastern Conference this year, the best conference in the country. There was a lot of turnover in the league. And I think, sitting in the chair, in his case for five years, with the background that he had, I thought it was an invaluable opportunity and it was important, but again, there was an assistant coach that did speak with. More than one actually”
Last edited:
