Recent Recruiting Roundup

#26
#26
sjt18 said:
FWIW, CPF is doing a decent job at the things the HC should really be doing. He is still recruiting decently well. He's now gotten and is managing what appears to be a solid staff.... and as most of you seem to say is necessary, he looks to be otherwise getting out of the way.

What specific things do you think CPF is doing/not doing to prevent UT from getting back to championship level play? They were there offensively this past season even with their limitations and deficiency in "playmakers" when compared to past years.
Click to expand...
sjt, you and I are just looking at different teams I guess. I do not think Phil is still recruiting decently well. 2 of the last 3 classes have been his lowest rated. As a head coach I do not expect Phil to call plays or pick starters, but to the extent he has done that (probably moreso in the Sanders era that you mentioned) it has been a debacle and I am very worried that he will once again insert himself into the process with new staff who are not tested against SEC competition. I am trying to give the new coaches the benefit of the doubt until I see what they put on the field but I am very dubious about the lack of D1A experience and the fact that there are now 4 Richmond Spiders on the staff. IMO the staff needs more diversity of experience and geographic ties. As far as last year's offense, what I saw was an outfit with an NFL-bound Sr. QB, a good RB corps., and a serviceable WR corps. wind up 6th in scoring offense in the conference. I don't think that was all on the players. Guys who feel compelled to write responses to newpaper editorials are not "getting out of the way" in my judgment. I just think Phil let the game pass him by. Sorry if that was somewhat rambling but I wanted to get a lot into that response.

WPAINE, you won't have to read many of my posts to figure out that I am no fan of Fulmer but I do not think his handling of discliplinary matters should be the catalyst for his removal. I do think Phil is a "player's coach" and there are certainly young men who benefit from that. My whole beef with the staff has to do with the lack of conference championships and/or BCS appearances since the 1990s despite having numerous highly rated recruiting classes from 2000 to 2007, plain and simple.
 
#27
#27
So you claim that he has had "numerous highly rated recruiting classes from 2000-2007" but also admit that his recruiting has gone downhill, esp in 2 of the last 3 years? I'm kinda confused there.

I agree that the BCS and SEC Championship game wins may be a bit discouraging, but it should be noted that no team has played in the SEC Championship game more than we have dating back to our National Championship season. The fact that we haven't won our past 3 appearances in the SECG is also reflected in our lack of BCS games.

People get upset because they claim that we haven't played in a BCS game in so long, but forget that (for instance) in 2001 if we would have won the SECG we would have played for the NC, but since we lost we got completely bumped out of the BCS picture.

In other words, the fact that we have played in so many SECG has actually hurt our chances of playing in BCS, because rarely will a BCS bowl pick a team (esp. in the SEC) that loses the Champ. game. This is why UGA has been able to appear in so many BCS games, because they benefit from the fact that they haven't played in as many SEC Champ. games as UT and Florida, etc.
 
#28
#28
WPAINE said:
So you claim that he has had "numerous highly rated recruiting classes from 2000-2007" but also admit that his recruiting has gone downhill, esp in 2 of the last 3 years? I'm kinda confused there.

I agree that the BCS and SEC Championship game wins may be a bit discouraging, but it should be noted that no team has played in the SEC Championship game more than we have dating back to our National Championship season. The fact that we haven't won our past 3 appearances in the SECG is also reflected in our lack of BCS games.

People get upset because they claim that we haven't played in a BCS game in so long, but forget that (for instance) in 2001 if we would have won the SECG we would have played for the NC, but since we lost we got completely bumped out of the BCS picture.

In other words, the fact that we have played in so many SECG has actually hurt our chances of playing in BCS, because rarely will a BCS bowl pick a team (esp. in the SEC) that loses the Champ. game. This is why UGA has been able to appear in so many BCS games, because they benefit from the fact that they haven't played in as many SEC Champ. games as UT and Florida, etc.
Click to expand...
WPAINE, I left 2008 out for a reason. Phil had plenty of talent to win the SEC more than once from 2000-2007 but he could not get it done. During the stretch he had one down recruiting year, 2006. Now that there have been two down recruiting years (2006 and 2008) which will show themselves on the field over the next couple of seasons, I have a very hard time believing that Phil will be able to accomplish with lesser talent than which he could not accomplish with greater talent.

As to the other point, I look at a BCS game as nice consolation prize for a good season where you don't play for the SEC. If you lose three straight SEC title games then I think it says something about your ability, or lack thereof. If Phil could've closed the deal on even one of those three games it would be a different conversation but he didn't.

I think UGA has appeared in as many SEC championsips games as the Vols since 2000. The big difference is that they won two of them. That is why they have played in so many BCS games.
 
#29
#29
I'll agree with you on the 2001 SEC Champ. game, but lets not forget that in 2004 we played an undefeated Auburn team (who should have been in the National Champ. game) and in 2007 we played LSU who won the National Champ. game. In both SEC games, I believe TN really held their own and showed they were not that far removed talent wise - in 2004 we even had a lead on auburb thanks to gerald riggs' runs.

I don't think I am necessarily disagreeing with you, because we def. need to win some type of championship, and sooner rather than later, but I'm not quite convinced that the time has passed Fulmer by. A 10 win season isn't too shabby. I think his future rests largely on how Crompton can handle a dang good offense (in regards to starters, etc) and how our Def. Line can improve.. I think we can both agree that we hope that Fulmer proves to everyone that it hasn't passed him by and uses 2008 as a catalyst to a resurgence in TN football..
 
#30
#30
A 10 out of 12 was something of an accomplishment in its day. 10 out of 14, I am just not convinced that it is such a big deal. I count 19 "D1A" schools that had double digit wins in 2007.

Sounds like we are close in agreement, and as much as I think a change at the top could help things I realize that it is going to take a lot to get Phil out if he does not want to leave.
 
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top