Volstorm
VN GURU
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This is more like a DUH! article. If you don't know this is true, then you need to go back and "review the tape".
FULMER FUNK: UT OFFENSE SADLY LACKS CREATIVITY
By JOHN ADAMS (LIO's favorite journalist), adamsj@knews.com
July 25, 2004
Forget for a moment that college football is a religion in the Southeast. Remember that it is also entertainment.
Only then can you appreciate Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer's situation.
Don't think of him as a successful college football coach who has won a national championship and about 80 percent of his games. Think of him as an entertainer.
Then ask yourself: "Is his act entertaining?"
Winning is the second best form of football entertainment. It's second to winning big.
Winning big never gets old. Everything else does. An entertainer with a $1.7 million contract and a 104,000-seat stadium better figure that out.
The Vols are no longer winning big, and they aren't winning the biggest games. UT football is in a rut, and Fulmer has put it there.
Many college programs would equate such a rut to winning the lottery. UT wins eight, nine or 10 games; plays in a bowl; and usually finishes in the top 25. What's wrong with that?
Nothing if you're accustomed to winning seven games and not finishing in the top 25. But at UT, that's an old act - preceded by a better one (See 1995-1998 for details).
Many fans are tired of watching the same old offense producing the same old results. I don't think Fulmer realizes how tired.
If he did, he would have hired an innovative offensive coordinator, given him two words of advice - "Be creative" - and gotten out of the way. That's not an indictment of offensive coordinator Randy Sanders as much as it is an indictment of a UT system that has too often been ineffective.
Fulmer obviously believes in the system. He believes he can recruit better players and make it work, just as he did in the mid-to-late 1990s, just as he did in 2001.
Maybe he can. Maybe this offense will succeed where the last two failed. Maybe it will help UT win a championship.
But for a conservative coach, Fulmer is playing a high-risk game. He is betting everything on the system.
He could have brought in a hotshot coordinator and given him as much control of the offense as John Chavis has with the defense. He could have changed a tiresome act.
All Fulmer changes is personnel. He believes problems are solved through recruiting. And there's something to be said for that, particularly when you recruit as well as Fulmer.
You want an exciting offense? Sign Peyton Manning, Jamal Lewis, and Peerless Price. But what if you don't sign Manning, Lewis and Price?
Then you go to the Peach Bowl and get waylaid by whatever Atlantic Coast Conference team shows up. The UT offense has produced 17 points in the past two Peach Bowls. It should be able to score that much handing the football to Chick-fil-A cows.
The Vols ranked 67th nationally in total offense in 2003. If that doesn't give you chills, how about this: They averaged 211 yards per game fewer than Texas Tech and only 19 more than Vanderbilt.
When UT can't project a future NFL draft pick at every offensive skill position, it wrings its hands and screams for more defense. A more creative offense isn't an option.
Other offenses not only get by, but flourish with less talent than UT's. You can turn on your television any Saturday afternoon in the fall and see them producing bigger numbers and better entertainment.
Ticket prices are going up. Stats are going down. Is that any way to fill 104,000 seats?
Remember the empty seats you saw last year? You will see more of them this season if the Vols go belly-up against Georgia, and their offense plods along at the same pace as last year.
Athletic director Mike Hamilton has emphasized the importance of raising millions of dollars to refurbish Neyland Stadium. But the program needs more than structural improvements.
It needs a creative spark, a different act. As the head coach and entertainment director, Fulmer should understand that.
FULMER FUNK: UT OFFENSE SADLY LACKS CREATIVITY
By JOHN ADAMS (LIO's favorite journalist), adamsj@knews.com
July 25, 2004
Forget for a moment that college football is a religion in the Southeast. Remember that it is also entertainment.
Only then can you appreciate Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer's situation.
Don't think of him as a successful college football coach who has won a national championship and about 80 percent of his games. Think of him as an entertainer.
Then ask yourself: "Is his act entertaining?"
Winning is the second best form of football entertainment. It's second to winning big.
Winning big never gets old. Everything else does. An entertainer with a $1.7 million contract and a 104,000-seat stadium better figure that out.
The Vols are no longer winning big, and they aren't winning the biggest games. UT football is in a rut, and Fulmer has put it there.
Many college programs would equate such a rut to winning the lottery. UT wins eight, nine or 10 games; plays in a bowl; and usually finishes in the top 25. What's wrong with that?
Nothing if you're accustomed to winning seven games and not finishing in the top 25. But at UT, that's an old act - preceded by a better one (See 1995-1998 for details).
Many fans are tired of watching the same old offense producing the same old results. I don't think Fulmer realizes how tired.
If he did, he would have hired an innovative offensive coordinator, given him two words of advice - "Be creative" - and gotten out of the way. That's not an indictment of offensive coordinator Randy Sanders as much as it is an indictment of a UT system that has too often been ineffective.
Fulmer obviously believes in the system. He believes he can recruit better players and make it work, just as he did in the mid-to-late 1990s, just as he did in 2001.
Maybe he can. Maybe this offense will succeed where the last two failed. Maybe it will help UT win a championship.
But for a conservative coach, Fulmer is playing a high-risk game. He is betting everything on the system.
He could have brought in a hotshot coordinator and given him as much control of the offense as John Chavis has with the defense. He could have changed a tiresome act.
All Fulmer changes is personnel. He believes problems are solved through recruiting. And there's something to be said for that, particularly when you recruit as well as Fulmer.
You want an exciting offense? Sign Peyton Manning, Jamal Lewis, and Peerless Price. But what if you don't sign Manning, Lewis and Price?
Then you go to the Peach Bowl and get waylaid by whatever Atlantic Coast Conference team shows up. The UT offense has produced 17 points in the past two Peach Bowls. It should be able to score that much handing the football to Chick-fil-A cows.
The Vols ranked 67th nationally in total offense in 2003. If that doesn't give you chills, how about this: They averaged 211 yards per game fewer than Texas Tech and only 19 more than Vanderbilt.
When UT can't project a future NFL draft pick at every offensive skill position, it wrings its hands and screams for more defense. A more creative offense isn't an option.
Other offenses not only get by, but flourish with less talent than UT's. You can turn on your television any Saturday afternoon in the fall and see them producing bigger numbers and better entertainment.
Ticket prices are going up. Stats are going down. Is that any way to fill 104,000 seats?
Remember the empty seats you saw last year? You will see more of them this season if the Vols go belly-up against Georgia, and their offense plods along at the same pace as last year.
Athletic director Mike Hamilton has emphasized the importance of raising millions of dollars to refurbish Neyland Stadium. But the program needs more than structural improvements.
It needs a creative spark, a different act. As the head coach and entertainment director, Fulmer should understand that.
