FULMER - Due Respect!…..

[EverythingOrange]

Phillip Fulmer (From Winchester, TN) played for the VOLS as an Offensive Guard (With ALL SEC Honors) from 1969 - 1971. Tennessee posted a record of 30-5 while he was a player….

As Head Coach of the Volunteers he earned a record of 152 wins & 52 losses…..

Yeah, his AD duties may not have been that great……

But it would be hard to find ANYONE that bleeds BIG ORANGE more than Coach Phillip Fulmer!!!!

And, It took almost 15 years to find another decent coach to replace him!

 

[Volnuck]

View attachment 561757

Phillip Fulmer (From Winchester, TN) played for the VOLS as an Offensive Guard (With ALL SEC Honors) from 1969 - 1971. Tennessee posted a record of 30-5 while he was a player….

As Head Coach of the Volunteers he earned a record of 152 wins & 52 losses…..

Yeah, his AD duties may not have been that great……

But it would be hard to find ANYONE that bleeds BIG ORANGE more than Coach Phillip Fulmer!!!!

And, It took more than 20 years to find another decent coach to replace him!

 

[onevol74]

View attachment 561757

Phillip Fulmer (From Winchester, TN) played for the VOLS as an Offensive Guard (With ALL SEC Honors) from 1969 - 1971. Tennessee posted a record of 30-5 while he was a player….

As Head Coach of the Volunteers he earned a record of 152 wins & 52 losses…..

Yeah, his AD duties may not have been that great……

But it would be hard to find ANYONE that bleeds BIG ORANGE more than Coach Phillip Fulmer!!!!

And, It took more than 15 years to find another decent coach to replace him!

Good morning Vicky.

 

[Volnuck]

View attachment 561757

Phillip Fulmer (From Winchester, TN) played for the VOLS as an Offensive Guard (With ALL SEC Honors) from 1969 - 1971. Tennessee posted a record of 30-5 while he was a player….

As Head Coach of the Volunteers he earned a record of 152 wins & 52 losses…..

Yeah, his AD duties may not have been that great……

But it would be hard to find ANYONE that bleeds BIG ORANGE more than Coach Phillip Fulmer!!!!

And, It took more than 20 years to find another decent coach to replace him!

I agree he deserves respect and he was an above average coach, but he was a GREAT recruiter. The talent level was always excellent under Fulmer. He got outcoached several times, but all coaches do. Always remember, Coach Fulmer said an Athletic Director at UT would always be defined by his hiring of the football coach. He hired Pruitt and everyone acted like Fulmer was not even connected to that mess, and he was. Also, Phil never left UT that he was not paid for years after exiting (even after the Pruitt debacle). Excellent coach with questionable scruples

 

[Big Orange Rob]

Absolutely. He coached us thru a decade of dominance we may never see again. His blood is 100% orange!

 

[Mccage]

There use to be one that bled more Orange until it was drained out by a big ole knife stuck in his back!

 

[Boston Vol]

Thank God he is gone.

 

[CAVPUT]

There use to be one that bled more Orange until it was drained out by a big ole knife stuck in his back!

 

[posivol]

There use to be one that bled more Orange until it was drained out by a big ole knife stuck in his back!

and johnny walker poured out.....fact!

 

[VOLfrombama]

There will always be a place at the table for Coach Fulmer. He was obviously not the right person for the AD spot but he was 100% the right choice for the HC job when Coach Majors started having health issues.

 

[LWSVOL]

I agree he deserves respect and he was an above average coach, but he was a GREAT recruiter. The talent level was always excellent under Fulmer. He got outcoached several times, but all coaches do. Always remember, Coach Fulmer said an Athletic Director at UT would always be defined by his hiring of the football coach. He hired Pruitt and everyone acted like Fulmer was not even connected to that mess, and he was. Also, Phil never left UT that he was not paid for years after exiting (even after the Pruitt debacle). Excellent coach with questionable scruples

Others leaving UT and getting paid... its what UT does..

John Currie
Mike Hamilton
Butch Jones
Derek Dooley
Dave Hart

His choice for coach was Mel Tucker. Overruled by a prominent booster. But he was right, the hire defines his tenure as AD.

 

[SDV]

I still love Fulmer. It's sad the way everything unfolded in the end for him, but it's hard to deny the heights that he he helped elevate our program to. Will always be a VFL

 

[DaddyChad]

Good coach, great recruiter early on, great coordinators under him, I think he wanted more than anything for the program to be successful. That said he was probably the worst AD we’ve ever had and that’s saying something bc Hamilton was here.

 

[LWSVOL]

Good coach, great recruiter early on, great coordinators under him, I think he wanted more than anything for the program to be successful. That said he was probably the worst AD we’ve ever had and that’s saying something bc Hamilton was here.

Hamilton's hires led to 13 years in the wilderness.. recovering nicely from Fulmer.. credit to management which sucked after Johnson and Dickey.

 

[DaddyChad]

Hamilton's hires led to 13 years in the wilderness.. recovering nicely from Fulmer.. credit to management which sucked after Johnson and Dickey.

This is true. Fulmer was also removed early

 

[Vol4gzus]

There use to be one that bled more Orange until it was drained out by a big ole knife stuck in his back!

some live on in the vitriol from a Coach John Majors view.

 

[OrangeBeachVol]

Good coach, great recruiter early on, great coordinators under him, I think he wanted more than anything for the program to be successful. That said he was probably the worst AD we’ve ever had and that’s saying something bc Hamilton was here.

As LWSVOL says above, Hamilton was worse. He did serious damage to the entire UT athletic dept. Fulmer's tenure was too short to do that much damage. I believe he would have gotten better if he had remained but the damage was done with Pruitt and his UT career is over.

 

[EconVol92]

He should have retired after the National Championship like his wife wanted and turned it over to coach Cutt.

All he did after 98 was coast and try to get more wins than the General.

Fulmer was the recruiter, but coach Cutt was the secret sauce as the team got worse when he went to ole miss and then improved when he came back and then back down when he went to duke.

By the time Fulmer was fired he had run the team into the ground and no one wanted the job.

Then he returns and runs it into the ground again as AD.

I view him as a net negative as far as his involvement in the program and that coach Cutt as being the real positive force in the program.

I’m sure many will disagree with me, but that is how I view it after living through it all.

 

[Vol4gzus]

and johnny walker poured out.....fact!

Sadly this could have gone down differently, but matters were not getting better. Whether it was a stab in the back or not comes down to perspective. Who was AD that allowed Fulmer to step in? So much here. Sadly many here are unforgiving and show it anytime Coach Fulmer is mentioned. We all basically agree the AD gig was not his cup of tea.

 

[EasternVol]

As LWSVOL says above, Hamilton was worse. He did serious damage to the entire UT athletic dept. Fulmer's tenure was too short to do that much damage. I believe he would have gotten better if he had remained but the damage was done with Pruitt and his UT career is over.

He never learned a thing when he was head coach. What makes you think he'd learn anything to become a better AD?

 

[tvolsfan]

He had a really strong run but was rightfully fired. We probably would have been better off if he was fired earlier. He was then a terrible AD.

 

[LWSVOL]

He should have retired after the National Championship like his wife wanted and turned it over to coach Cutt.

All he did after 98 was coast and try to get more wins than the General.

Fulmer was the recruiter, but coach Cutt was the secret sauce as the team got worse when he went to ole miss and then improved when he came back and then back down when he went to duke.

By the time Fulmer was fired he had run the team into the ground and no one wanted the job.

Then he returns and runs it into the ground again as AD.

I view him as a net negative as far as his involvement in the program and that coach Cutt as being the real positive force in the program.

I’m sure many will disagree with me, but that is how I view it after living through it all.

peoples perspectives are different..

93-98 record was 63-7 (won't see at UT again in our lifetime, you and me).

99-08 record was 85-39 (your words, "running it into the ground") which we all would love to have seen these last 15 years.

09-23 record has been 90-81 since Hamilton fired Fulmer. Debates will rage long after you and I are gone who is to blame for this period. You likely blame Fulmer while I will blame Hamilton / Haslam. Hamilton doesn't make it happen without Haslam blessing.

We are all different and opinions differ based on our knowledge learned.

 

[tvolsfan]

peoples perspectives are different..

93-98 record was 63-7 (won't see at UT again in our lifetime, you and me).

99-08 record was 85-39 (your words, "running it into the ground") which we all would love to have seen these last 15 years.

09-23 record has been 90-81 since Hamilton fired Fulmer. Debates will rage long after you and I are gone who is to blame for this period. You likely blame Fulmer while I will blame Hamilton / Haslam. Hamilton doesn't make it happen without Haslam blessing.

We are all different and opinions differ based on our knowledge learned.

Split 99-08 into 99-04 and 05-08 and it doesn't look so flattering. And his record against Tuberville, Saban, Meyer, Spurrier, and Richt wasn't exactly inspiring confidence that he was about to turn it all around.

 

[OrangeBeachVol]

He never learned a thing when he was head coach. What makes you think he'd learn anything to become a better AD?

I think he learned a few things as a HC. He learned how to recruit elite players and that hiring top level assistants and coordinators was key. Now you can question some of his hires in the later yrs. Did Chavis stay too long, probably. Was promoting R. Sanders to OC a good decision no, but he did well in the 90's with his talent, can't take that away.

I did not end up a big Fulmer fan but have to respect most of his coaching career. I also was not a fan of his AD hire but hoped he could work out. I was wrong.

 

[EasternVol]

Good coach, great recruiter early on, great coordinators under him, I think he wanted more than anything for the program to be successful. That said he was probably the worst AD we’ve ever had and that’s saying something bc Hamilton was here.

Mediocre coach, poor motivator, really good recruiter when Bama, UGa, and LSU were down but not so great after, was Mr. Complacency after the NC, got outcoached time and again, ran the program into the ground twice. Otherwise he's gold.