FULMER - Due Respect!…..

#76
#76
Boston Vol said:
I wasn’t thrilled with the hire, I wanted Brian Kelly. But I won’t lie, after the staff that Kiffin put together and the way they finished off the 2009 recruiting class, I was all in.
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Finished? Class was third in the rankings when he was hired. Finished 10th. Kiffin cut loose 9 players Fulmer had committed including Tajh Boyd and Bryce Petty.

Now, I liked the class Kiffin got but I would not say he finished it because he actually reshaped it. He didn't like the QBs but one would have to say both ended up doing really well in college.
 
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#78
#78
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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Fulmer stabbed Majors in the back and rode his coat tails to the head coaching job in 1992.
 
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#81
#81
Thunder Good-Oil said:
If Fulmer could have been able to add assistant coaches like he signed players, he would have been unbeatable. But his best coaches were hired by Majors and CPF’s coaching tree was a 2 by 4.
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In my opinion, this is Coach Fuller’s Achilles heal. He was a very good judge of football playing talent but not very good at keeping the coaching staff at the same level as the SEC elites. The Pruitt hire was a disaster. Coach was too loyal to his buddies.

As fans, we need to let this go.
 
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#82
#82
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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He made his mistakes but I’ll always love Fulmer.
 
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#83
#83
Volfan1000 said:
Who else was on the AD list when Hamilton succeeded Dickey?

Fulmer and Hamilton were the two worst athletic directors in Tennessee athletics history.
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I don't believe anyone was. Fulmer, Summit and Peterson all supported the Hamilton hire.

There may have been but I sure can't recall if there was or not.
 
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#86
#86
15 years to replace him?
Well yeah, lots of incompetence with the AD title on their office door led to those 15 years in the wilderness.
 
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#87
#87
LWSVOL said:
Kiffin chose to start two walk-ons. Here are the other OL on that roster.

Senior Chris Scott - played in the NFL
Freshman - Aaron Douglas
Sophomore - Cody Pope
Freshman - Daniel Hood
Freshman - JerQuari Schofield
Junior - Jarrod Shaw - played in the NFL
Sophomore - Dallas Thomas - played in the NFL
Senior - Jacques McClendon - played in the NFL
Sophomore - William Brimfield
Junior - Victor Thomas
Senior - Vlade Richard
Senior - Josh McNeil

I don't recall the reason Kiffin started the Sullins boys but I question if he was forced to start them or not. I do recall the Sullins boys being praised for their hard work in preparing to play. There were several options in the list above.. the media guide from 2010 had McClendon, Douglas and Scott as the other starters (starters being those that started the most games at a position). Shaw and Thomas both started in 2010.

If you have information on why he started them would love to hear it.
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I mean, sure. We had bodies on the roster at the O-line position. That doesn't change the fact that two of them that Kiffin thought put us in the best position to win were undersized walk ons. We can "coulda, woulda, shoulda" all day long regarding who was hurt and probably would've started but it still speaks to the quality of our depth at that point. Plus, correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Fulmer try to start another walk on O-lineman a year or two prior named Michael Frogg? I don't think he lasted very long though. I mean, what the hell man??? If you're a perennial power program in the hunt for divisional/conference/national championships every year, you're not supposed to have personnel issues to THAT degree!
 
#88
#88
152-52. Best football coach at Tennessee in my lifetime. People will try to make excuses as to why. To me the measure is winning. 75% wins. Johnny never produced, nor wouldn’t have as a coach, no matter how long he stayed. To try and compare the 2 is just nonsense. I was a majors fan, but his firing was going to happen sooner or later no matter what CPF did or didn’t do
 
#90
#90
If he'd reached into his own pocket and paid Cut what he was worth they might both still be coaching. Plus kept RG here.
 
#91
#91
TNnative said:
Yean, but Al Davis warned us, and nobody at UT listened. To say Kiffin has character is like saying the sky is red. It just ain't true.
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Al Davis said he will ruin the program, people said Al was old and lost. Guess he proved them wrong
 
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#92
#92
Kiffen started the brothers for the same reason he played Bryce Brown and that was to show potential recruits if they come here, they can play early.

Hamilton became the AD because Shumaker was going on vacation and did not want the hiring of an AD pulling him back. So, he just called up Hamilton and told him he was getttge job and then sent out a short press release.

Fulmer is hands down the best coach we’ve had since Neyland. Had he just been given a sabbatical, we would still be on top for past 15 years!

Fulmer had no choice but to hire Pruitt! Who else was going to come here after that fiasco? Evidently, it was a worse job than Auburn!
 
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#93
#93
Savannahbayvol said:
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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Do you like the university of Tennessee? Maybe they should have named you head coach
 
#96
#96
LWSVOL said:
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.
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Haslam honestly was probably more the issue than Hamilton. Fulmer probably doesn’t get the AD position without Anderson right? Anderson also led to Pruitt being hired. We needed an AD less beholden to a particular booster
 
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#97
#97
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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Honestly I wasn’t as sold on Kiffin. Kiffin’s staff however was a huge attraction and I think if you remember correctly Kiffin structured it that way. Him bringing in Monte and O on the defensive side of the ball were viewed as slam dunks. Kiffin sold Hamilton and Haslam on that, idk that he was always the top coaching candidate like you portray it. He was just fired by the raiders.
 
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#98
#98
DaddyChad said:
Haslam honestly was probably more the issue than Hamilton. Fulmer probably doesn’t get the AD position without Anderson right? Anderson also led to Pruitt being hired. We needed an AD less beholden to a particular booster
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All true except. You will never have an athletic department without heavy booster influence. Many, many, many millions of dollars give you a voice at the table. That voice has tremendous influence. Unavoidable.
 
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#99
#99
DaddyChad said:
Honestly I wasn’t as sold on Kiffin. Kiffin’s staff however was a huge attraction and I think if you remember correctly Kiffin structured it that way. Him bringing in Monte and O on the defensive side of the ball were viewed as slam dunks. Kiffin sold Hamilton and Haslam on that, idk that he was always the top coaching candidate like you portray it. He was just fired by the raiders.
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Hammy had agreement with Kif before getting ok to fire Fulmer. His sham interviews in November cost him after Kiffin bailed because those same coaches gave him the finger. Thus the Dools gets hired.
 
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