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Thursday, 06/01/06
Fulmer expects rebound
Still optimistic after 5-6 season
By CHRIS LOW
Staff Writer
DESTIN, Fla. As Phillip Fulmer approaches his 14th full season in a profession and a league that chews up and spits out football coaches, he understands as well as anyone the need to produce.
"I don't know that I feel pressure," said Fulmer, the dean of Southeastern Conference coaches. "Obviously, I'm highly in tune right now to what having a poor year last season has meant for all of us.
"But our expectations really haven't changed, and they don't change. We expect to go and compete for the championship and have a great season."
No one who matters at Tennessee has labeled this as a championship-or-bust season for Fulmer, who's won 77.6 percent of his games, two SEC championships and one national championship.
By the same token, the reality is that he's not likely to survive another six-loss season coming off last year's 5-6 disaster despite his gaudy $4.3 million buyout.
And for that matter, losing to all of the so-called teams who count Georgia, Florida, Alabama and now South Carolina would place Athletics Director Mike Hamilton in the kind of lurch he has no interest in thinking about at this point.
"I don't deal in the hypothetical," Hamilton said. "What I will say is that the mission is clear, and we all understand that last year was not something that was acceptable for any of us administrators, coaches, staff, fans, anybody.
"We're working toward correcting that, and I've seen that in the offseason. Now, I'd like to see that play out in the season itself."
Fulmer, in Destin this week for the SEC spring meetings, said he's as motivated as he's ever been to start the season.
He said it's a motivation driven more by a deep sense of responsibility to steer the Vols back to the forefront of the SEC than it is feeling any kind of pressure that he might lose his job.
"You have to look at our history of what we've been able to do while we've been here," said Fulmer, who enters his 32nd season at Tennessee as either a player, assistant or head coach.
"From a loyalty and passion standpoint, there's not anybody out there any more interested in getting it done here than I've been because I'm a Tennessean, a guy that loves the program in every way."
He remains miffed over last season and all the distractions that led up to the Vols' first losing season in 17 years.
He blames himself for many of the things that went wrong, especially the whole quarterback shuffle that divided the team.
And for the first time publicly, he admitted that he waited too long to make changes on his offensive staff.
Fulmer brought David Cutcliffe back in to be his offensive coordinator after Randy Sanders resigned last season. Fulmer also fired receivers coach Pat Washington and offensive line coach Jimmy Ray Stephens.
"Sometimes change is good," Fulmer said. "A couple of them should have been made a couple years before that, but that's hard because you're just coming off an Eastern Division championship and some good years.
"But getting to where we got to, we were patching it in some ways and should have made some changes before that. I was talked out of it, actually. But ultimately, it's all my responsibility."
Hamilton said he's sensed how anxious Fulmer is to prove that some of the younger guns in the league such as Georgia's Mark Richt and Florida's Urban Meyer haven't passed him by.
Fulmer is 1-4 against Richt and lost to Meyer last season in their first meeting. Since 2000, Fulmer is just 2-8 against SEC heavyweights Steve Spurrier, Tommy Tuberville and Richt.
"Phillip is motivated by the success some of these other guys have had," Hamilton said.
Some of those guys haven't exactly treaded lightly, either, while sensing that Tennessee might be down.
This past spring, Meyer mentioned to a Florida booster club gathering that the "team in Knoxville" folded when times got tough.
Fulmer, his eyes blazing, nodded his head slowly when asked if he'd heard about Meyer's comments.
His reaction?
"Just like you'd expect it to be," he said sternly.
"I've been in it long enough to know that things occasionally will go in cycles. I've seen the ups and downs of most programs in that (meeting) room.
"This league is very competitive year in and year out, and we've won a lot of close games. But so has whoever else that's been the dominant team at that time. Last year, we weren't able to make those plays to win the close games. We've got to find a way to make them, and we will."
While fans nervously anticipate the 2006 season and speculate on how many games the Vols might win, Fulmer refuses to play the numbers game.
Rather, his promise to fans is more generic.
"If it takes a year or if it takes two years or whatever it takes, Tennessee football is going to be right back in the middle of things," Fulmer said. "It always has been and always will be."
Historically, it's taken tradition-rich programs such as Oklahoma, Nebraska and Alabama longer than just one year to get back on track after having a disastrous season.
It's doubtful that Tennessee fans will have an abundance of patience coming off last season's 5-6 record, and Fulmer isn't promising a quick fix.
But with a salary exceeding $2 million per year, he understands that nobody will tolerate a long, drawn-out reclamation project.
"I know it sounds like I'm asking for two or three years to get it turned around," he said. "That's not what I'm saying. We're expecting to compete for the championship next year, and we'll see how long it takes.
"I know it's going to take a lot of hard work. Whether it takes one year or two years, we're absolutely going to get it done."
I just hope it does not take 2 years or however long to turn the prgram around!!!!!
Fulmer expects rebound
Still optimistic after 5-6 season
By CHRIS LOW
Staff Writer
DESTIN, Fla. As Phillip Fulmer approaches his 14th full season in a profession and a league that chews up and spits out football coaches, he understands as well as anyone the need to produce.
"I don't know that I feel pressure," said Fulmer, the dean of Southeastern Conference coaches. "Obviously, I'm highly in tune right now to what having a poor year last season has meant for all of us.
"But our expectations really haven't changed, and they don't change. We expect to go and compete for the championship and have a great season."
No one who matters at Tennessee has labeled this as a championship-or-bust season for Fulmer, who's won 77.6 percent of his games, two SEC championships and one national championship.
By the same token, the reality is that he's not likely to survive another six-loss season coming off last year's 5-6 disaster despite his gaudy $4.3 million buyout.
And for that matter, losing to all of the so-called teams who count Georgia, Florida, Alabama and now South Carolina would place Athletics Director Mike Hamilton in the kind of lurch he has no interest in thinking about at this point.
"I don't deal in the hypothetical," Hamilton said. "What I will say is that the mission is clear, and we all understand that last year was not something that was acceptable for any of us administrators, coaches, staff, fans, anybody.
"We're working toward correcting that, and I've seen that in the offseason. Now, I'd like to see that play out in the season itself."
Fulmer, in Destin this week for the SEC spring meetings, said he's as motivated as he's ever been to start the season.
He said it's a motivation driven more by a deep sense of responsibility to steer the Vols back to the forefront of the SEC than it is feeling any kind of pressure that he might lose his job.
"You have to look at our history of what we've been able to do while we've been here," said Fulmer, who enters his 32nd season at Tennessee as either a player, assistant or head coach.
"From a loyalty and passion standpoint, there's not anybody out there any more interested in getting it done here than I've been because I'm a Tennessean, a guy that loves the program in every way."
He remains miffed over last season and all the distractions that led up to the Vols' first losing season in 17 years.
He blames himself for many of the things that went wrong, especially the whole quarterback shuffle that divided the team.
And for the first time publicly, he admitted that he waited too long to make changes on his offensive staff.
Fulmer brought David Cutcliffe back in to be his offensive coordinator after Randy Sanders resigned last season. Fulmer also fired receivers coach Pat Washington and offensive line coach Jimmy Ray Stephens.
"Sometimes change is good," Fulmer said. "A couple of them should have been made a couple years before that, but that's hard because you're just coming off an Eastern Division championship and some good years.
"But getting to where we got to, we were patching it in some ways and should have made some changes before that. I was talked out of it, actually. But ultimately, it's all my responsibility."
Hamilton said he's sensed how anxious Fulmer is to prove that some of the younger guns in the league such as Georgia's Mark Richt and Florida's Urban Meyer haven't passed him by.
Fulmer is 1-4 against Richt and lost to Meyer last season in their first meeting. Since 2000, Fulmer is just 2-8 against SEC heavyweights Steve Spurrier, Tommy Tuberville and Richt.
"Phillip is motivated by the success some of these other guys have had," Hamilton said.
Some of those guys haven't exactly treaded lightly, either, while sensing that Tennessee might be down.
This past spring, Meyer mentioned to a Florida booster club gathering that the "team in Knoxville" folded when times got tough.
Fulmer, his eyes blazing, nodded his head slowly when asked if he'd heard about Meyer's comments.
His reaction?
"Just like you'd expect it to be," he said sternly.
"I've been in it long enough to know that things occasionally will go in cycles. I've seen the ups and downs of most programs in that (meeting) room.
"This league is very competitive year in and year out, and we've won a lot of close games. But so has whoever else that's been the dominant team at that time. Last year, we weren't able to make those plays to win the close games. We've got to find a way to make them, and we will."
While fans nervously anticipate the 2006 season and speculate on how many games the Vols might win, Fulmer refuses to play the numbers game.
Rather, his promise to fans is more generic.
"If it takes a year or if it takes two years or whatever it takes, Tennessee football is going to be right back in the middle of things," Fulmer said. "It always has been and always will be."
Historically, it's taken tradition-rich programs such as Oklahoma, Nebraska and Alabama longer than just one year to get back on track after having a disastrous season.
It's doubtful that Tennessee fans will have an abundance of patience coming off last season's 5-6 record, and Fulmer isn't promising a quick fix.
But with a salary exceeding $2 million per year, he understands that nobody will tolerate a long, drawn-out reclamation project.
"I know it sounds like I'm asking for two or three years to get it turned around," he said. "That's not what I'm saying. We're expecting to compete for the championship next year, and we'll see how long it takes.
"I know it's going to take a lot of hard work. Whether it takes one year or two years, we're absolutely going to get it done."
I just hope it does not take 2 years or however long to turn the prgram around!!!!!
