FULMER - Due Respect!…..

#27
#27
DaddyChad said:
This is true. Fulmer was also removed early
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Fulmer was not removed too early. That's revisionist history in light of what transpired afterwards. No, Fulmer's time was done. He was already given a second chance after the 2005 season and what we learned was that without Cutcliffe, Fulmer was a shell of a coach. I appreciate his time here. The 90's, through 2001 were fun, though not as much fun as they could have/should have been. 2002-2008 was frustration, mixed with some fleeting moments of joy.

The only thing I disagreed with was firing him before the season was over. That was handled terribly. He should've been allowed to finish the season. He had at least earned THAT much. In all likelihood, we would've defeated Wyoming and at least gotten to a bowl game that year. I blame the Wyoming loss that led to us having a losing season on our administration. But even had we gotten to a bowl game, Fulmer needed to go.
 
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#28
#28
EconVol92 said:
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.
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Pretty much right on. Personally I don't like either Fulmer or Majors. Both were arrrogant narcissists who thought they couldn't be fired because they BLED Orange.

Majors lost 7 in a row to Alabama but insisted on calling his bosses out in public. Fulmer didnt stab him in the back unless you consider beating Floida and Georgia with the same players Majors lost to Arkansas and South Carolina with.

Fulmer as mentioned sealed his fate when after conducting a Nation Wide Search for an OC damned if the most qualified candidate wasn't on his staff. He said he was going to make changes after the 2002 season but SOMEONE talked him out of it. Hello Queen Vicky.

He wasnt even that great a recruiter in the later years. He lost Patrick Willis, Randall Cobb and completely passed on Garrett Reynolds and Tyson Clabo.

A sign of a deteriorating program was the 07 and 08 Florida and Alabama game where we were outscored a combined 159-52.

I certainly appreciate the contributions both made as a player/coach but in the end they were hoisted on their own petard by their hubris and arrogance.
 
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#29
#29
EconVol92 said:
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.
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No. That part is not true at all. Tennessee was still a VERY attractive job in 2008. Look, at the time, Kiffin was considered THE top coaching candidate. For that time, he was the "rockstar" hire and don't let anybody tell you different, he was the guy most Vol fans wanted! I remember very vividly the excitement and buzz among Vol fans when Kiffin was announced as the new coach. It was the "Lane Train" baby and almost all Vol fans were on board! So to say that the program was tainted and nobody wanted to coach here, that's a load of crap.
 
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#30
#30
New Headline for you - FULMER - DUE CONTEMPT

Cost UT unnecessary Millions
Made Millions off of the University.

Let the program slide
Couldn't hire a decent OC after Cutcliff left twice

Ran the program into the ground both as a coach and then again as an AD

On a positive note: I do think he was from Winchester, so I agree with you there.

To be fair he probably falls in the middle of the Respect/Contempt spectrum and scale - but
he has done as much damage as good overall so he won't get unwarranted respect from me.

Not drinking the Kool-Aid this morning.
 
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#33
#33
EverythingOrange said:
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 almost 15 years to find another decent coach to replace him!
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It’s love hate relationship now with CFP. Great player, great coach, awful AD. Made millions and cost UT millions. So there are parts to respect but also parts he should take ownership for!
 
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#34
#34
Brave Volunteer said:
No. That part is not true at all. Tennessee was still a VERY attractive job in 2008. Look, at the time, Kiffin was considered THE top coaching candidate. For that time, he was the "rockstar" hire and don't let anybody tell you different, he was the guy most Vol fans wanted! I remember very vividly the excitement and buzz among Vol fans when Kiffin was announced as the new coach. It was the "Lane Train" baby and almost all Vol fans were on board! So to say that the program was tainted and nobody wanted to coach here, that's a load of crap.
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WTH have you been smoking? No effin way was Kiffin the "rockstar" hire. Only the Villge idiots were "on board". It was generally well known that he might be in Knoxville for two or three seasons before he would be moving on. Turned out USC was stupid enough to hire him after only one. And Thankfully as well, because the sanctions for his one year were bad enough. Well maybe not thankfully, because Drooley came next.

But before he was hired, several damn good up and coming coaches were considered. And said no. Sadly? They could have gotten Gary Patterson. But Hamilton screwed that up. Had they offered the right money? They could have gotten Chris Petersen out of Boise State. There were several other, but those two I remember the best. And wanted the most. The sad fact was after years of Johnny Majors and Phil Fulmer, Tennessee was in very unfamiliar waters in hiring a coach from outside their own ranks. And it took far too long to finally hire someone like Danny White to handle a coaching search, and get our bickering donors to sit back and let him do his job.
 
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#36
#36
TNnative said:
WTH have you been smoking? No effin way was Kiffin the "rockstar" hire. Only the Villge idiots were "on board". It was generally well known that he might be in Knoxville for two or three seasons before he would be moving on. Turned out USC was stupid enough to hire him after only one. And Thankfully as well, because the sanctions for his one year were bad enough. Well maybe not thankfully, because Drooley came next.

But before he was hired, several damn good up and coming coaches were considered. And said no. Sadly? They could have gotten Gary Patterson. But Hamilton screwed that up. Had they offered the right money? They could have gotten Chris Petersen out of Boise State. There were several other, but those two I remember the best. And wanted the most. The sad fact was after years of Johnny Majors and Phil Fulmer, Tennessee was in very unfamiliar waters in hiring a coach from outside their own ranks. And it took far too long to finally hire someone like Danny White to handle a coaching search, and get our bickering donors to sit back and let him do his job.
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EVERYTHING you're saying is disingenuous, revisionist history. Kiffin was who most Vol fans wanted. You're not remembering this correctly at all. Unless you're willing to call 90% of Vol fans village idiots.

Also, I guaran-damn-tee you that in 2008, most Vol fans had no damn clue who Gary Patterson was and couldn't have picked him out of a damn lineup. Chris Peterson wasn't going anywhere because he had a special needs son and being in Boise put him very close to the specialists he needed.
 
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#37
#37
Brave Volunteer said:
Fulmer was not removed too early. That's revisionist history in light of what transpired afterwards. No, Fulmer's time was done. He was already given a second chance after the 2005 season and what we learned was that without Cutcliffe, Fulmer was a shell of a coach. I appreciate his time here. The 90's, through 2001 were fun, though not as much fun as they could have/should have been. 2002-2008 was frustration, mixed with some fleeting moments of joy.

The only thing I disagreed with was firing him before the season was over. That was handled terribly. He should've been allowed to finish the season. He had at least earned THAT much. In all likelihood, we would've defeated Wyoming and at least gotten to a bowl game that year. I blame the Wyoming loss that led to us having a losing season on our administration. But even had we gotten to a bowl game, Fulmer needed to go.
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Was talking about his time as AD and I definitely wasn’t saying he was removed too early
 
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#39
#39
Brave Volunteer said:
EVERYTHING you're saying is disingenuous, revisionist history. Kiffin was who most Vol fans wanted. You're not remembering this correctly at all. Unless you're willing to call 90% of Vol fans village idiots.

Also, I guaran-damn-tee you that in 2008, most Vol fans had no damn clue who Gary Patterson was and couldn't have picked him out of a damn lineup. Chris Peterson wasn't going anywhere because he had a special needs son and being in Boise put him very close to the specialists he needed.
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Need a bus ticket to Oxford? I am sure Lane misses you. And your propaganda.
 
#43
#43
tvolsfan said:
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.
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No way in hell you can run him off and then rely on the THIS IS TENNESSEE replacement plan. Period.

The quick fix gone bad with Pruitt is what it is, but how many of his coaches he left has White had to trash?

We are in a far better place with White but the department and it ‘s trajectory overall was far from a disaster. Getting a week to hire a FB coach with the perception the guy left him also is what it is.

I was actually in the Steele camp as full or interim solution. Probably not a homerun but not a disaster. Don’t know how a Tucker run would have gone.
 
#44
#44
I see both sides. He was a great coach but he also benefited by a lot of teams not having good coaches in the 1990s including LSU, Georgia, and Alabama in late 90s who all were struggling. Auburn was a mixed bag as well. Florida was his only elite annual competitor and they owned him.

However once Saban turned around LSU and then Alabama, Mark Richt turned around Georgia, and Tubberville turned around Auburn, Tennessee found itself outmatched and this would have been case had Fulmer stayed past 2008. I do think he would have done better than Dooley, Jones, or Pruitt but we would be more like an 8-4 type program.
 
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#46
#46
I always felt the Dooley hire is what crushed the program the most. It was just out in left field and made 0 sense based on his record at LA Tech. At least Butch Jones had an alright record and in 2015 and 2016 he had competitive teams. Pruitt was a meh pickup but he said right things at first but he clearly was dysfunctional in the locker room.
 
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#48
#48
volbound1700 said:
I always felt the Dooley hire is what crushed the program the most. It was just out in left field and made 0 sense based on his record at LA Tech. At least Butch Jones had an alright record and in 2015 and 2016 he had competitive teams. Pruitt was a meh pickup but he said right things at first but he clearly was dysfunctional in the locker room.
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Said the right things with a preschooler's grammar. I'm not really joking here when I say he likely didn't get the HC jobs he had interviewed for prior to landing THCAUT, because of his remarkably poor grammar. He was in the final 3 at Mississippi State and a couple of other places
 
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#49
#49
EconVol92 said:
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.
Click to expand...
Well said! He got lazy & sat on his laurels while running the program into the ground. as football coach he should have been fired at least 2 years before he was ousted. He got the AD job using the good ole boy network. I'm sure he wanted UT to be successful, but he couldn't navigate around his own arrogance, & inflated ego. Fortunately, it finally caught up to him. Best thing to happen to UT's program is for him to be forced out as AD. We all know the real story here.
 
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#50
#50
Fulmer is somewhere "watchin' the tape" and "working like heck to get better". If only all his star players hadn't "failed to develop", and had more often "found ways to win."

Good lord. Fulmerisms still give me hives.
 
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