2006 Football

[Vol67]

I need to refigure my crystal ball and it came up 7-5 with a loss in the Peach Bowl.

 

[jakez4ut]

it hurts to bet against tennessee, but last year i made a ton off the memphis and vandy games. when fulmer is the favorite he hardly ever covers. when he is the underdog i never bet against tennessee they usually will rise to the challenge. all depends how many points they give.

yeah, it's your dime....and i would agree with you. we aren't very good against the spread as a favorite.......my heart won't let me bet against 'em, and my brain won't let me bet for 'em.

 

[VolunteerHillbilly]

I need to refigure my crystal ball and it came up 7-5 with a loss in the Peach Bowl.

Ahem - I believe it is now officially referred to as the Chik-Fil-A Peach Bowl. Who do you think we'd play? Clemson? NC St? BC?

NC St might be a good game but it would really hurt recruiting if they beat us.

 

[jakez4ut]

NC St might be a good game but it would really hurt recruiting if they beat us.

the only good thing about playing them would be they are the only team that i can thnk of that commits more penalties than we do....they are a very mistake prone football team.....but i would agree, losing to them would suck.

but we're not there yet...sooooo............

 

[ddubb76]

Solich inherited good players. The first 4 years he was still working with players Osbourne recruited. His first senior class of players he recruited was in 2002. I'm not justifying why he was fired. His W-L record is good, and better then Fulmer's last 6 years.

Solich never had a no. 1 recruiting class, go 5-6, 4 years later. Fulmer's finished 3 of the last 6 season unranked, mainly due to poor bowl performance. I'm pretty sure Solich stayed in the top 25, all except the 2002 season.

Fulmer

2000 8-4
2001 11-2
2002 8-5
2003 10-3
2004 10-3
2005 5-6

IMO the only reason Paterno wasn't fired was because he has remained a few games away from becoming the winnest coach in div I. Paterno and Bowden are basically in a death match to outlive the other one, so they can become the alltime winnest coach in Div. I. As soon as one retires or dies (probably dies), the other becomes the victor. Its a unique circumstance.

If Solich was a really good coach as you are suggesting he should be able to turn around wherever he goes (Ohio). That remains to be seen.

The thing about your argument is that talent got him those wins but the anti-fulmers on here say that we have all the talent and no coaching, So which is it ? Fulmer or any coach not developing talent or not recruiting talent and loosing?

 

[hatvol96]

what he said....Okla, i hear you and you are right...all those changes you've mentioned, and i've agreed with, have all been better hires, but as pointed out above, which was my point all along, look what these schools had to endure before they got to the point they are now....that's how it works out more times than not. rarely does the 1st coach hired after a vacancy is opened, pan out to be as good, much less better than the previous coach.

If you think Jim Donnan was a bad hire at Georgia, you should be calling for the end of the Fulmer era. What Fulmer is producing now is comparable to Donnan's results at UGA.

 

[jakez4ut]

If you think Jim Donnan was a bad hire at Georgia, you should be calling for the end of the Fulmer era. What Fulmer is producing now is comparable to Donnan's results at UGA.

good point...and i would agree with you if CPF had made it a habit to lose as consistently as Jim Donnan did at GA. And from an x's and o's standpoint, they probably aren't that far off, but i would give the edge to CPF since he did dominate him during his tenure at UGA.

But you talk about a guy that squandered talent....some of his UGA rosters were LOOOOAAAADDDDEEEEDDDD with talent, and got nothing, except beat by UT and UF every year he was there. Same for Ray Goff.

 

[orange+white=heaven]

Ahem - I believe it is now officially referred to as the Chik-Fil-A Peach Bowl.

Actually, starting next year it is to be called just the Chik-Fil-A Bowl...

 

[hatvol96]

good point...and i would agree with you if CPF had made it a habit to lose as consistently as Jim Donnan did at GA. And from an x's and o's standpoint, they probably aren't that far off, but i would give the edge to CPF since he did dominate him during his tenure at UGA.

But you talk about a guy that squandered talent....some of his UGA rosters were LOOOOAAAADDDDEEEEDDDD with talent, and got nothing, except beat by UT and UF every year he was there. Same for Ray Goff.

Not every year he was there. Fulmer would have only one SEC championship in 14 years if Donnan hadn't beaten Florida in '97. He also beat UT in 2000.

 

[jakez4ut]

Not every year he was there. Fulmer would have only one SEC championship in 14 years if Donnan hadn't beaten Florida in '97. He also beat UT in 2000.

yeah, i knew about the 97 UF game....just had a memory lapse....
and for the life of me, i thought Richt came to UGA in 2000....but it was 01 i guess huh?

either way, he only beat the two biggest rivals he had 1 time each in his entire tenure.....which is still not very good, compared to CPF's winning % against his rivals, and not that all of them are great....i know the UF % isn't where we'd like it, and recent performance against UGA isn't very good either, but over all it's not deplorable.

 

[VolunteerHillbilly]

Actually, starting next year it is to be called just the Chik-Fil-A Bowl...

I wonder if the guy in the Smokey suit would start wailing on the guy in the cow suit with thunder stick?

 

[orange+white=heaven]

I wonder if the guy in the Smokey suit would start wailing on the guy in the cow suit with thunder stick?

I just wish somebody would pummel the cow and the kid that are dancing in that commercial thats running on TV right now.... :banghead:

 

[hatvol96]

I just wish somebody would pummel the cow and the kid that are dancing in that commercial thats running on TV right now.... :banghead:

Only after they annihilate the "Three hour tour" guys.

 

[VolunteerHillbilly]

I'll take the Chik-Fil-A commercials over Quiznos commercials any day. The one that really is driving me up the wall right now is a radio ad for Shane Co. jewelers where they have a little jingle that goes:

"he's dull but he's brilliant...Shane!"

I want to shake the hand of whoever sold Shane that piece of crap. Not only is it insulting but it completely makes me not want to buy anything from him.

 

[jakez4ut]

i'm a bit sick of the Nissan "righ here, right now, right here righ now"........that is annoying as hell.

 

[jakez4ut]

Back on topic, let's try looking at this from another angle....what do you think some of the other team's records will be next year?

Namely:
LSU
UGA
UF
Bama
Auburn

For me,
LSU-10-2, losses to 2 of the following 3...AL, AUB and UF
UGA-9-3, losses to 3 of the following 4..USC, TN, Aub, UF
UF-10-2 losses to 2 of the following 4...Aub, UGA, LSU, FSU
Aub-9-3, losses to 3 of the following 4...LSU, UF, UGA, AL
Bama-8-4 losses to UF, UT, LSU, Aub

LSU v FL in SEC championship.
FL wins.

For us, LSU and UF are the only teams on paper right now that i think we will definitely lose to. I could see us losing any of the following as well: UGA, Cal, Bama. 9-3 is very possible, so is 8-4...i'm torn now.

 

[volsgal03]

I dont have any predictions for the vols come fall yet, obviously I would like to see them in a bcs bowl. Is Fulmer's time up at Tennessee if he has a bad year? I'm going to say yes.

 

[milohimself]

"Propel the program into mediocrity?" News flash, we're already there. We have won the same number of SEC championships since '98 as UK nad Vanderbilt. We just went 5-6. The propulsion into mediocrity has already been accomplished by the current regime.

Dude, it was one losing season. If we go through another couple seasons of cruising around .500 at best, then yes we can be considered mediocre. But as it stands, it's merely an ugly abrasion on anotherwise solid, not great, program.

What do you guys think?

If Fulmer left, would the resulting situation be one where they look for and find a superstar to come in and take over right away? Or would it be more like the Florida scenario, where the expectations are so high that someone has to be brought in as sort of a 3 year sacrificial lamb to be kicked around until the superstar is freed up or brought in from the ranks of lesser known but hot coaching?
Zook got hired as third choice. It seemed almost a foregone conclusion that he would not succeed and the fans expected him to be gone in a few years when somebody good came along. Three years later, with the hot prospect in Urban Meyer available, that was that.

The scenario you do not want, under any circumstance, is the hybrid where you hire someone with everyone expecting them to brign the program back to elite status, have them fail for 2 years, and then have them get kicked out. Then no one of any star status will want that job.

I don't know if Fulmer is quite to that level that Spurrier was. Fulmer has never really dominated the SEC like that. Especially considering if Fulmer leaves soon, it will be due to poor performance, which should be not too bad to follow up. It's not like Fulmer would be leaving on top or whatever.

I think Tennessee's record will be 10-2 or 9-3 this year in the regular season.

Pretty lofty, my friend.

I agree . . . . I don't think it will come to that, but IMO it would be at least '07 before anything happened.

Yep. The national championship still has Fulmer supplied with free passes for another bad season or two.

that is true, that is the reason i think the Cal game is so important. if we lose that game i think alot of the people giving fulmer a chance will turn on him. i have a bad feeling next season is going to get ugly.

Why is it such a big deal? Cal is a respectable opponnent from a major conference. It's not like losing to some scrub from C-USA.

I hear you Jake. The big thing is going to be just to show signs of life on offense in the first half against Cal. After the way we went out with a whimper last year, more than anything else we need a shot of confidence.

Shouldn't be too hard. Cal's defense shouldn't be particularly spectacular this coming season... And hey, if the Golden Bears score on us, it's alright. There's a precedent for that kind of situation as long as we pull out the win (see OSU @ LSU '04, ASU @ LSU '05).

 

[hatvol96]

Dude, it was one losing season. If we go through another couple seasons of cruising around .500 at best, then yes we can be considered mediocre. But as it stands, it's merely an ugly abrasion on anotherwise solid, not great, program.
I don't know if Fulmer is quite to that level that Spurrier was. Fulmer has never really dominated the SEC like that. Especially considering if Fulmer leaves soon, it will be due to poor performance, which should be not too bad to follow up. It's not like Fulmer would be leaving on top or whatever.
Pretty lofty, my friend.
Yep. The national championship still has Fulmer supplied with free passes for another bad season or two.
Why is it such a big deal? Cal is a respectable opponnent from a major conference. It's not like losing to some scrub from C-USA.
Shouldn't be too hard. Cal's defense shouldn't be particularly spectacular this coming season... And hey, if the Golden Bears score on us, it's alright. There's a precedent for that kind of situation as long as we pull out the win (see OSU @ LSU '04, ASU @ LSU '05).

A loss to Cal would be indicative of the depths to which Fulmer has allowed the program to fall. When Tennessee is losing in Knoxville to any Pac-10 team whose initials aren't USC, it is time to clean house.

 

[hatvol96]

Dude, it was one losing season. If we go through another couple seasons of cruising around .500 at best, then yes we can be considered mediocre. But as it stands, it's merely an ugly abrasion on anotherwise solid, not great, program.
I don't know if Fulmer is quite to that level that Spurrier was. Fulmer has never really dominated the SEC like that. Especially considering if Fulmer leaves soon, it will be due to poor performance, which should be not too bad to follow up. It's not like Fulmer would be leaving on top or whatever.
Pretty lofty, my friend.
Yep. The national championship still has Fulmer supplied with free passes for another bad season or two.
Why is it such a big deal? Cal is a respectable opponnent from a major conference. It's not like losing to some scrub from C-USA.
Shouldn't be too hard. Cal's defense shouldn't be particularly spectacular this coming season... And hey, if the Golden Bears score on us, it's alright. There's a precedent for that kind of situation as long as we pull out the win (see OSU @ LSU '04, ASU @ LSU '05).

If UT has fallen to simply being a "solid" program, I can't think of a better reason to make a change at the top.

 

[jakez4ut]

Why is it such a big deal? Cal is a respectable opponnent from a major conference. It's not like losing to some scrub from C-USA.

they are respectable, and i don't think anyone would compare present day Cal with a team from the MAC or CUSA...that said, it's in our house, and a team like TN, who's supposedly, repeat supposedly, a top tier SEC program (at least that's what we're supposed to think of ourselves, regardless if it's true or not....) is not supposed to lose to a west coast team that has to travel down here....

Even as good as Cal is supposed to be this year, losing that game does set a tone for the season. It'd be different if we were coming off a good year and this was a clash of two really good teams...but this year, for us, we need a big dose of confidence and we need it early. Cal presents the perfect opportunity for that. If we lose it could send the wrong message to the team confidence wise. the idea being "if we can't beat cal, how are we going to beat UF, LSU, UGA, Bama etc....?)

 

[jakez4ut]

A loss to Cal would be indicative of the depths to which Fulmer has allowed the program to fall. When Tennessee is losing in Knoxville to any Pac-10 team whose initials aren't USC, it is time to clean house.

I think a loss to Cal would suck too for reasons i've already listed in my reply to Milo....but he does have a point, it's not like Cal is going to suck.....that said, i still believe that game is the tone setter for the season. Losing that game won't ruin the season or be indicative of anything if we can come away from that and get some W's later in the season. But if we do lose that game, my feeling, as i would expect a large % of TN fans would feel the same way, would be "oh no......."

Likewise, if we win the game, and win an ugly close game, i think TN fans will still have that sense of "uh oh". Kind of like some of us did after the UAB game last year....except this year, we won't be thinking, "ah, it's the first game, they won, they'll get it figured out" along side that "uh oh".

So i do think there is quite a bit of pressure on the team that first game....right or wrong.

 

[OWB]

So i do think there is quite a bit of pressure on the team that first game....right or wrong.

I think that Tennessee fans are putting a lot of pressure on this team in general. The coaches get paid and are open to criticism, but all that pressure trickles down to the team.

I hope they can handle it this year.

 

[jakez4ut]

I think that Tennessee fans are putting a lot of pressure on this team in general. The coaches get paid and are open to criticism, but all that pressure trickles down to the team.

I hope they can handle it this year.

me too...and unfortunately that's the state of affairs these days in college football.

 

[RealVol]

Hey, what's worth a damn that doesn't have pressure involved?

To name one recent successful team sport that had a good coaching staff / team approach to the mission...the uf basketball TEAM.

As most here know I highly dislike uf, but to be real, there's not much you can dislike about their squad this season. Maybe the 2 starting Tennesseans had a lot to do with that!

Not to discount BP's Teams victories of uf this season, I understand. I definitely believe in UT's BB Coaching Staff & can't wait till they build up a team w real talent & depth. Yes, I know we swept them this year. I can't wait till BP gets his feet fully on the ground w depth & experience.