Who Deserves the Blame?

[Jax_Vol]

I blame Mike Hamilton

 

[XknoxvolsX]

How was the other 2 years? We were considered cellar dwellars in the SEC at any point in those last 4 years? Were we a laughingstock? It was nowhere near broken. Was it as good as it once was? No. Was tge program in a ditch? Not even close. We were still a high profile program that should have been able to land a top flight coach. But because of brain dead leadership, we hired loser after loser.

I agree with the leadership problem

But, since the end of the 2001 season, we were headed down! Then the '05 and '08 seasons happened. So, yeah, we were broke!

 

[photovol]

If Pruitt somehow doesn’t get us 6-7 wins into a Bowl game this season, is it fair to blame Pruitt or the Administration for putting the program in bad position for the future HC’s of Tennessee?

Say what you want too but I believe even the best proven coaches, would have a hard time recruiting this year due to having zero draft picks in the NFL and poor development from Butch Jones.

Pruitt was used to being at a place where they put their program in the best position to win. Bama is serious about winning, we were not.

This is why I’m hoping Fulmer can turn this culture around, someone who truly cares about Tennessee athletics and not just the money in their pockets.

Pruitt is a really knowledgeable guy who understands football. He’s said over & over again that he wants to win right away but it seems like he’s having a lot of negative things going against him right now.

I don’t think it’s entirely his fault because I don’t think even he knew, it would be this hard of a job to win here considering the circumstances.

Tennessee must first learn to become Vanderbilt, then and only then can the Vols progress to the next level,
WoW I can’t believe I said that, but things have definitely changed from the good old days of Tennessee football and not for the better
STILL
GO VOLS

 

[chargervol]

I agree with the leadership problem

But, since the end of the 2001 season, we were headed down! Then the '05 and '08 seasons happened. So, yeah, we were broke!

People pointing out Cutcliffe, while also saying we were in such horrible shape, doesn't make sense to me.
If one OC hire had us in the SEC championship, suggests we were a really good staff hire away from being in contention.

We were in need but broken? Disagree, we were like Florida in need of Mullen. "Broke" is what we are now. And that's a major difference.

 

[PEPPERJAX]

Pruitt's biggest liability is his personality. And he doesn't seem to care.

If he wins, then no UT fan will really care about his personality.

 

[XknoxvolsX]

People pointing out Cutcliffe, while also saying we were in such horrible shape, doesn't make sense to me.
If one OC hire had us in the SEC championship, suggests we were a really good staff hire away from being in contention.

We were in need but broken? Disagree, we were like Florida in need of Mullen. "Broke" is what we are now. And that's a major difference.

The comment about the OC hire and staff is a valid point. So much so that I have to agree. However, since it happened the way it did and we had the coaching personnel that we did, I have to regress and say that we were breaking back then. Coach Cut temporarily interjected life into the program. But, the trajectory is still prevalent.

 

[chargervol]

The comment about the OC hire and staff is a valid point. So much so that I have to agree. However, since it happened the way it did and we had the coaching personnel that we did, I have to regress and say that we were breaking back then. Coach Cut temporarily interjected life into the program. But, the trajectory is still prevalent.

Just thinking about what the right hire could've done for us, we were still very fixable. As upset as I can be with any coach, those that hired them hold more accountability with me. I will always look at them as the true source of this mess.

 

[sjt18]

The fact is Fulmer ran nothing into a ditch. And who. Knows what he would have done in 2009. Kiffin sucked so PF would have at least been as good as LK.

Go look at the roster he left. He most certainly did. He left a mess.

Not only that... have you really forgotten the embarrassing lack of team discipline during Fulmer's last few years? Recruiting was down. He took the program to great heights... he also left it broken.

 

[sjt18]

Pruitt's biggest liability is his personality. And he doesn't seem to care.

What don't you like about his personality?

 

[sjt18]

Nobody here has argued that Fulmer wasn't better with Cut, but Fulmer without Cut was in a virtual statistical tie with our all time program winning percentage which is good enough for 10th among college football programs, that's hardly running the program in the ditch. Was Fulmer the greatest coach of all time? No, but at the time he was fired, the odds were very slim that we'd get anyone better. Hiring and firing coaches is like playing black jack. Firing Fulmer, one of the handful of active coaches then in the game with a national championship, and a 75% career winning percentage, one year removed from the conference championship game was like playing black jack and sitting on 18 and choosing to hit, sure, we could have caught just the right card to hit 21, but it was WAY more likely we'd bust, and boy did we ever. Those who clamored to run Fulmer out of town, and the power brokers who yielded to that mob, that's who really ran the program into the ditch.

I actually defended Fulmer through his first losing season and right up to the point where the 2008 season was a lost cause. I warned at the time that once you get on the coaching carousel you never know how long it will be before you get off. But Fulmer didn't do his part. The trajectory of the program was continuing to get worse. Cut saved his bacon or the end might have been sooner.

The problem wasn't just the decline in wins and competitiveness on the field. He wasn't recruiting at a top level any more. Discipline within the program was pathetic. He was loyal to coaches when he should have held them accountable and changed them if necessary. But based on his own words... he was stubborn. He publicly said "We've won a lot of games around here doing what we're doing... and we ain't changing now". But the game was changing. Saban and Meyer were the new realities. The world of sports media and the internet wouldn't let you hide discipline problems or get favorable Police help. The game changed with new schemes. Recruiting changed as did the sophistication of recruits. Fulmer let the game pass him by.

 

[Jeepkuntry]

Eventually we as fans have to pump the brakes and pray that things come together. The problem with Butch was he was a used car salesman. Started with a bang, then people began to recognize that he sucked on gameday. He also chose to hire his buddies instead of a competent staff. Pruitt has far better coordinators, so it's time to see the whole product. To notice if players are developing moreso than how many wins we have. That'll come.

 

[Remy]

The fact is Fulmer ran nothing into a ditch. And who. Knows what he would have done in 2009. Kiffin sucked so PF would have at least been as good as LK.

Kiffin sucked only in that he left us and has the integrity of your basic garden snake. He now coaches the #25 ranked team in the nation coming into this season at a school that didn't have a football program in 2009. He's slimey and shady but he's a winner. Had he stayed at UT not a doubt in my mind we'd have the NCAA crawling all over the campus but we'd have won while he was on The Hill , big time winning.

 

[XknoxvolsX]

Just thinking about what the right hire could've done for us, we were still very fixable. As upset as I can be with any coach, those that hired them hold more accountability with me. I will always look at them as the true source of this mess.

I have to agree with this. It seems to me after all was said and done and a few years later, the retrospect was that Fulmer was trying to bring in the players that would have fit the scheme Clawson was trying to implement. What we see now across all of college football, the spread, is what he was trying to do. Unfortunately, he failed miserably at doing so. That year, 2008, was just lost. That was so evident when he tried to go back to the basic Tennessee offense half way through the season.

On a side note, I remember the last Vol Calls of 2005. I believe it was on a Monday night. Fulmer literally stated he was glad the season was almost over!

 

[SKBubba]

What don't you like about his personality?

Dour, distant. Not outgoing, doesn't project intelligence or confidence.

 

[PhoenixAZVol]

We all love Fulmer because he’s a VFL, is extremely loyal to UT, and has the highest level of integrity. With that said, 95% of us likely realized that it was time for him to go in 2008. He was never a great game day coach, even during the glory years as we always seemed to lose a game we should have won or didn’t play competitively in games where we were evenly matched or underdogs. We tend to look back more favorably on his tenure more than we did 10+ years ago because we have been horrible and we understand what a great person he is. He was definitely part of the downfall but certainly not THE reason or even the main reason.

 

[Volgrad98]

I've thought about this for a while. I've decided I will direct all blame towards bama. Why? I'm glad you asked, because f bama. That's why.

 

[DiderotsGhost]

With 11 years of futility, there's a lot of blame to go around, but the list goes something like this:

1. Haslam. The common denominator behind all of our years of misery is him.

2. Hamilton. The worst AD in UT history. Ran the program into the ground financially. Hired Kiffin and Dooley.

Plenty of others, but those are the big 2 IMO. Everyone else is far down the list.

 

[ShoNuff]

FIFY, unless you meant just in your mind? If so, my apologies.

yes that sounds better

 

[sjt18]

Dour, distant. Not outgoing, doesn't project intelligence or confidence.

So... you have a personal dislike and that makes it true?

I don't care how he deals with the media. I do care how he deals with the team and coaches. I don't necessarily want him to be their "buddy". I want him to be their leader... and there's a huge difference.

I think he projects both intelligence and confidence. He doesn't speak in sound bites... which to me reek of ignorance and phoniness. I don't claim to know whether he will succeed or fail. But he's much more of a real football coach than any of the guys since Fulmer. It is true there's not much "polish"... which I find refreshing especially following the used car salesman approach of Jones.

Every re-run of "The Waterboy" I see when one of the coaches was reading "Coaching Football for Dummies"... I think of Jones.

 

[SKBubba]

So... you have a personal dislike and that makes it true?

I don't care how he deals with the media. I do care how he deals with the team and coaches. I don't necessarily want him to be their "buddy". I want him to be their leader... and there's a huge difference.

I think he projects both intelligence and confidence. He doesn't speak in sound bites... which to me reek of ignorance and phoniness. I don't claim to know whether he will succeed or fail. But he's much more of a real football coach than any of the guys since Fulmer. It is true there's not much "polish"... which I find refreshing especially following the used car salesman approach of Jones.

Every re-run of "The Waterboy" I see when one of the coaches was reading "Coaching Football for Dummies"... I think of Jones.

Yeah, I suspect he may actually be a good football coach. (Has he ever been a head coach anywhere?)

Anyway, not sure I would hire him to be CEO of a multi-million dollar operation with lots of moving parts, based on his demeanor so far.

I was all on board for the hire and had high hopes. Still waiting. Maybe he'll grow in to it. We'll see.

P.S. Butch is gone. And comparing Pruitt to him sets a pretty low bar. But whatever.

 

[kbear01]

There's too many involved to name them all, but I will start with Mike Hamilton and the Haslams. Hammy's failures, combined with the stubbornness of the Haslam regime, followed by the subsequent failures of the next couple AD's got us into this pickle. There are too many factors involved to discuss since then, but mismanagement of the program under their control is how we fell so far so fast.

There's not a coach in the world that could inherit what Pruitt inherited and have instant success.

Hamilton's inability to motivate Phil to recruit like a madman, and make him understand that 8-5, and getting blown out by ACC ****, in the Peach Bowl, was not acceptable, was the huge failure that started the ball rolling. Phil got complacent, and he needed Hamilton to put his foot up his ass!

 

[zjcvols]

If Pruitt can’t win 6 games this year we might as well fire him because it would pretty obvious he isn’t the guy.

 

[VOLnMiami]

Tennessee makes a lot of money from ticket sales and multiple items they sell around the world...Winning at football is a secondary thing...They KNOW they can hire on the cheap and keep people intrigued until that coach runs his course and they go out and get another one who will get the fanbase excited again...For awhile...And then the cycle repeats itself...All they care about it putting butts in those seats and they can care less if they are wearing orange and white or crimson red as long as they are spending that money...Teams like Bama and Florida who go after top coaches everytime they have a vacancy care about winning and they will spend whatever it takes to get who they want...UF hasn't had the best success doing that as they wanted Chip Kelly and Scott Frost but they got better offers and moved on so they went after a familiar face who we were rumored to be interested in....Yet why is it every top coach we SEEM to be interested in says no?...I don't have those answers and I am sure nobody else on here does either....But it makes you wonder.

 

[VOLfrombama]

Hamilton's inability to motivate Phil to recruit like a madman, and make him understand that 8-5, and getting blown out by ACC ****, in the Peach Bowl, was not acceptable, was the huge failure that started the ball rolling. Phil got complacent, and he needed Hamilton to put his foot up his ass!

Totally agree. His biggest issue was waiting too long to do anything about it

 

[zjcvols]

Tennessee makes a lot of money from ticket sales and multiple items they sell around the world...Winning at football is a secondary thing...They KNOW they can hire on the cheap and keep people intrigued until that coach runs his course and they go out and get another one who will get the fanbase excited again...For awhile...And then the cycle repeats itself...All they care about it putting butts in those seats and they can care less if they are wearing orange and white or crimson red as long as they are spending that money...Teams like Bama and Florida who go after top coaches everytime they have a vacancy care about winning and they will spend whatever it takes to get who they want...UF hasn't had the best success doing that as they wanted Chip Kelly and Scott Frost but they got better offers and moved on so they went after a familiar face who we were rumored to be interested in....Yet why is it every top coach we SEEM to be interested in says no?...I don't have those answers and I am sure nobody else on here does either....But it makes you wonder.

People want to say this but it’s simply not true.

People would rather believe in a conspiracy theory than pure incompetence as the issue.

Tennessee just has had dumbass hires the last 10 years. It’s really that simple