Firing Philip Fulmer was the worst mistake a major program has ever made

This argument again huh. Please provide proof he didnt get all kinds of offers.

You and the other University of Fulmer fans are as delusional about him as he was about himself. He interviewed at both Louisville and Kansas. neither offered. In fact there's an article about his interview at Kansas. Look it up.

No one of significance made an offer. It's a fact. Sorry
 
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he was not interested in other coaching jobs and other schools knew he was a VFL he would not go anywhere if he thought he might have to coach against UT

Simpleton ignorance. Fulmer stated publicly on many occasions that he was "still hungry to coach" and "still had fire in his belly". He put his name in the hat at USF, UoL, where he interviewed and Kansas, where he also interviewed.

I guess him saying he was still interested in coaching isn't enough proof for dumbares
 
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complete nonsense. I clearly mentioned '01. I can't help it if you can't read. 10-4 in '07 and we lost 100-37 to alabama and florida, also lost to lsu. Once again we were miles behind the top sec programs terrible.

04, not nationally relevant but looked like we should be in '05. Fell absolutely flat. Should have been fired after that vandy lost.

03, beaten by tuberville, got absolutely destroyed by richt. Looked like we might recover for a top 5 finish, got destroyed by clemson in the peach bowl.

You basically made the point that his talented teams severely underachieved, he wasn't able to beat the top coaches in the league. Was a million miles behind alabama and florida. Had a couple of shots to keep us nationally relevant and fell flat each time.

Add in the fact that his recruiting had fallen apart. His assistant hires stunk and he was generously the 6th best coach in the sec and his firing was justified prior to 2008.

fact
 
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Everyone likes to focus on Wyoming and a couple of dismal seasons. You completely skipped over
'01 - 11-2.
'03 - 10-3.
'04 - 10-3.
'07 - 10-4.
I'd give your left nut to see a 10 or 11 win season again!
Not to mention.. a couple of those seasons we were just a play away from competing for a BCS title.

Let me give a little lesson, Vanbo. Stats are meaningless without detail. In 03, we lost at home to Georgia, 41-14 and lost to an unranked Clemson team 27-14, in the bowl game.

Only a dummy would gloat about '07

FAce the FACT: we were never nationally relevant after 2001. He drove the program into mediocrity
 
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Also I remember you from the time Fulmer was fired and you were one of the more vocal proponents of it. Glad you showed up to reveal to everyone that you make poor decisions.

Are you sure? I'm thinking TAF is around 14 or 15. I don't think he would have been old enough to have posted back then?
 
The internet and talk radio fans got exactly what they wanted by not getting anything they expected.
 
And would it have been necessary to hire anyone had we just hung on to one of our top 2 coaches of all time? No.

See this is logic. Continue using it.

It was time for him to go. His performance was starting to slide. I think his lack of post-TN coaching opportunities reflect that as well.

We can disagree on that but it is true.

We probably agree that his firing was handled poorly and will always be a dark moment for UT.

Again, moving on from a former coach, the next two hires are what hurt the program.
 
If you have a coach that had us in the sec championship game the year before he was terminated....and then the following 10 years have seen us become the laughing stock of college football...

Is it...or is it not...a bad decision in retrospect to set the entire chain of events off in the first place by firing the coach who had us as a top 10 program?!

This same coach also won us a national championship. When was the last national championship for Tennessee before that?

We may have the worst fan base in america..
 
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If you have a coach that had us in the sec championship game the year before he was terminated....and then the following 10 years have seen us become the laughing stock of college football...

Is it...or is it not...a bad decision in retrospect to set the entire chain of events off in the first place by firing the coach who had us as a top 10 program?!

This same coach also won us a national championship. When was the last national championship for Tennessee before that?

We may have the worst fan base in america..
Yep, full of idiots too that continue this BS about Fulmer

Do you get that we were NEVER nationally relevant after 2001? Could you not see how the program was sliding after 2001? Did you not watch how awful our special teams had gotten during that stretch? Have you forgotten how we were losing to our biggest rivals on a regular basis AT HOME?

The firing and subsequent hiring are 2 mutually exclusive events....It was time for Fulmer to go.

Thanks for helping to dumb down our fan base
 
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No, it was the correct decision handled poorly.

What hurt the program were the following two hires.

Yeah, well, the couple of prostheses that didn't work out were secondary to the fact that you stupidly cut off your arm. See some things don't matter if you didn't take the first stupid step. Now there may be some room for debate about whether the injury or the choice of Hammy for a doctor was more damaging.
 
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I liked Phil but, he was out of ideas on how to coach. He had no offensive play caller on his staff and the team was stale as Mike Hamilton's underwear. No mistake at all but, everything the school has done since has been.

Fulmer's two biggest errors were trusting the process not to out him for helping the blind NCAA find the nut that put AL on probation and letting Sanders hang around too long.

Of course, both Fisher and Sanders started out as a couple of people we might want as HC according to experts around here. Fisher let Sanders hang around too long and he's paying the price for it. Wonder if Fisher will get fired at the end of next year when a new post Sanders OC fails to get it done.
 
Yeah, well, the couple of prostheses that didn't work out were secondary to the fact that you stupidly cut off your arm. See some things don't matter if you didn't take the first stupid step. Now there may be some room for debate about whether the injury or the choice of Hammy for a doctor was more damaging.


I like Phil, but his quality of work was slipping. Other programs recognized that as well. Phil did great things for the program that we should be eternally grateful for. He was fired in a manner that we should be eternally ashamed of.

It was time, as is now, to move on. Let's hope better decisions are made this time related to the new coach.
 
Fulmer's two biggest errors were trusting the process not to out him for helping the blind NCAA find the nut that put AL on probation and letting Sanders hang around too long.

Of course, both Fisher and Sanders started out as a couple of people we might want as HC according to experts around here. Fisher let Sanders hang around too long and he's paying the price for it. Wonder if Fisher will get fired at the end of next year when a new post Sanders OC fails to get it done.

The same old "it was everyone else's fault but Fulmer's" shat. Don't forget that Cutcliffe followed Sanders. Don't forget the FACT that Cutcliffe stated publicly when he came back that the Vols were the worst disciplined team he had ever seen. And him saying that on multiple occasions caused some friction between him and Phillip. Of course Fulmer knew he NEEDED Cutcliffe
 
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The same old "it was everyone else's fault but Fulmer's" shat. Don't forget that Cutcliffe followed Sanders. Don't forget the FACT that Cutcliffe stated publicly when he came back that the Vols were the worst disciplined team he had ever seen. And him saying that on multiple occasions caused some friction between him and Phillip. Of course Fulmer knew he NEEDED Cutcliffe

Fulmer had a lot of distraction from the sh!tstorm following the Albert Means scandal and the botched NCAA handling of it all. The SEC didn't even have the balls to step in and point out that there are rules to keep things level, that they don't have real investigative powers, that they rely on self reporting (oh, yeah), and that the actual crime is a lot more important than someone having the courage to report it.

Fulmer didn't attend SEC media days at least once and then was served a subpoena at another having to do with a libel and defamation suit - bad things happen if you attempt to ensure AL follows the same rules other teams do. You think that didn't have anything at all to do with recruiting - getting the best of what he could after AL poisoned the well?

Perhaps the NCAA rules on half-assed qualification should be considered too. Anyway, hiring Hammy if was a close second if not worse than firing Fulmer. A real AD with roots in coaching rather than a bean counter may very well have been the support Fulmer needed both with the the Alabama Mafia and with team discipline. Sometimes I think that the dirty tricks in politics run a poor second to what goes on in college sports.
 
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Fulmer had a lot of distraction from the sh!tstorm following the Albert Means scandal and the botched NCAA handling of it all. The SEC didn't even have the balls to step in and point out that there are rules to keep things level, that they don't have real investigative powers, that they rely on self reporting (oh, yeah), and that the actual crime is a lot more important than someone having the courage to report it.

Fulmer didn't attend SEC media days at least once and then was served a subpoena at another having to do with a libel and defamation suit - bad things happen if you attempt to ensure AL follows the same rules other teams do. You think that didn't have anything at all to do with recruiting - getting the best of what he could after AL poisoned the well?

Perhaps the NCAA rules on half-assed qualification should be considered too. Anyway, hiring Hammy if was a close second if not worse than firing Fulmer. A real AD with roots in coaching rather than a bean counter may very well have been the support Fulmer needed both with the the Alabama Mafia and with team discipline. Sometimes I think that the dirty tricks in politics run a poor second to what goes on in college sports.

I appreciate your loyalty.

For whatever the reasons, his work was slipping.

It was, as it is now, time to move on.
 
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Fulmer had a lot of distraction from the sh!tstorm following the Albert Means scandal and the botched NCAA handling of it all. The SEC didn't even have the balls to step in and point out that there are rules to keep things level, that they don't have real investigative powers, that they rely on self reporting (oh, yeah), and that the actual crime is a lot more important than someone having the courage to report it.

Fulmer didn't attend SEC media days at least once and then was served a subpoena at another having to do with a libel and defamation suit - bad things happen if you attempt to ensure AL follows the same rules other teams do. You think that didn't have anything at all to do with recruiting - getting the best of what he could after AL poisoned the well?

Perhaps the NCAA rules on half-assed qualification should be considered too. Anyway, hiring Hammy if was a close second if not worse than firing Fulmer. A real AD with roots in coaching rather than a bean counter may very well have been the support Fulmer needed both with the the Alabama Mafia and with team discipline. Sometimes I think that the dirty tricks in politics run a poor second to what goes on in college sports.

I know those things played a role, but that's it, just minor roles. The 2002 season was pretty telling of things to come in the next few years. When you have a team full of NFL starters and can't win your big games at home, you're in trouble. Fulmer would have been fired after the 2002 season if not for the NC in 1998.
 
Let me give a little lesson, Vanbo. Stats are meaningless without detail. In 03, we lost at home to Georgia, 41-14 and lost to an unranked Clemson team 27-14, in the bowl game.

Only a dummy would gloat about '07

FAce the FACT: we were never nationally relevant after 2001. He drove the program into mediocrity

You sound a little butt hurt. Fact is, you and the rest of your ignorant fan base ran off a National Champ, Hall of Fame coach. You can twist your words all you want. It won't change the fact Tennessee is in this position because of fans like you.
 
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No one on this or any other message board has an impact on what goes on inside UTAD and over at Pilot Corporate HQ. Too bad. There are many on this forum who could do a better job than those who have been, and are presently, running things with Tennessee athletics.

Agree 100%. I nominate GaVol.
 
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