GrizzlyVol
VFL
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- Dec 9, 2017
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I don't think UT will be back until they have leadership at the top (president, board of trustees) who are committed to the football team being big winners. Bammer found this out during their wilderness experience. We're where we are because the leadership has been so bad really since Johnson retired. Great leadership at the top yields good AD's who get good coaches. That and a lot cheating in recruiting.
HAMILTON.....biggest mistake The Vols have ever made was hiring that buffoon!
If you really think the football program is a “minor extracurricular activity” for the university then you have no perspective.You do realize education is the prime objective of the university and sports are just a minor extracurricular activity?
Either you didn't play close attention or you're intentionally misrepresenting the facts. We went 5-7 twice in Fulmer's last four years. And one of those years we were ranked in the top five going into the season (2005).
A couple of years ago, UT spent a big bag of money on a New, state of the art, weight training facility-come Saturday we'll see if it is paying off. Someone told me GS doesn't even have a S&C coach, if true, it exemplifies that it may not be how much you spend, but how well you coach, ...just saying.Tennessee failed to invest in upgraded facilities in Fulmer's last few years. Other programs (Alabama) built better facilities while we were cutting costs.
The single-worst decision of the last decade was the panic hire of Dooley after Kiffin left. That was even dumber than hiring Kiffin, because let's be real, nobody saw his departure coming and something like 95% of the fanbase was energized by him. There's a lot of revisionist history in this fanbase about how we "never liked" Kiffin and whatnot.Amazing how one man can play such a large role in completely derailing a dominant program like ours. Overlooking Gary Patterson, hiring loose-cannon Kiffin, and then hiring completely unproven Dooley still haunt this program to today. Urghhh... all this still hurts!
You seem to lack basic reading comprehension. I wasn't purporting to make an exhaustive cataloging of all of Fulmer's achievements and failures in those five years; I merely pointed out that the post I was replying to contained a pretty significant misrepresentation of the facts by virtue of implying that Fulmer was canned just for having one bad year, when that was not the case.You also failed to mention that Tennessee went to 2 SEC Championship Games in Fulmer's last 5 years. How many times have the Vols been since that time.
You seem to lack basic reading comprehension. I wasn't purporting to make an exhaustive cataloging of all of Fulmer's achievements and failures in those five years; I merely pointed out that the post I was replying to contained a pretty significant misrepresentation of the facts by virtue of implying that Fulmer was canned just for having one bad year, when that was not the case.
The single-worst decision of the last decade was the panic hire of Dooley after Kiffin left. That was even dumber than hiring Kiffin, because let's be real, nobody saw his departure coming and something like 95% of the fanbase was energized by him. There's a lot of revisionist history in this fanbase about how we "never liked" Kiffin and whatnot.
We were in a bad position no matter what, but the proper course of action at that time was to hire Cutcliffe and all his Duke assistants or appoint someone (Chaney or Kippy Brown were fine candidates) as interim and have a full year to conduct a normal coaching search. Instead Hammy panicked in order to preserve that year's recruiting class and gave the job to a guy who by his own admission wasn't cut out for it. That Dooley hire is truly staggering when you think about it...Dooley hadn't even been a coordinator before taking that job.
Honestly, the landscape might not be as different as you think because Hamilton was such an incompetent. He would've had a full year to conduct a search, but remember he had already passed on chances to hire Gary Patterson (picked Kiffin instead) and Cutcliffe. His judgment on personnel decisions was awful. That very well could have ended up being a totally botched decision as well and we still end up in the same place.100% agree.
I would have been fine with Kippy for at least one season... either we would have kept him longer or would have had time to get the right guy in place, and with both those scenarios, we likely don't ever end up with Dooley or Jones. Landscape would be much different now, I think.
Butch's 2015 and 2016 teams should have won at least 10 games. You can make argument the 2015 team should have won 11 games.Man that was a tough wAtch, and that recap of the 2015 season was brutal. That team was a playoff contender with a few bounces falling our way, you need a little luck to win a title (98) and we just didn’t have it that season. (Oklahoma at home, gator game up so late, up in Tuscaloosa with 2 mins left) what could have been that season. Such a shame.
This more than anything. I have always said that if they had allowed Fulmer to exit gracefully with a successor that he picked we would never have been in this situation. One of the reasons that no big-name coach would touch it is because the coaching community felt that Fulmer had been treated very unfairly and wanted no part of it.It all started with the firing of Fulmer. He had a bad start to a season then...gotta fire his catfish eating azz. They should of kept him on as face of the program. Like PSU did with Paterno...or FSU with Bowden. Paterno and Bowden weren't calling X's and O's near the end. No way. Paterno hardly knew where he was...same with Bowden...but they had good assistants running things...and having them as the "face" of the program helped keep the recruiting train rolling. Same could of been done with Fulmer...and we don't go through all these years of exile in the wilderness. UT did this to themselves. Thinking they were so above slipping ONE YEAR. Oh no...can't have that at UT. Now look where we're at.
I have a lot clearer understanding of sports than you do. Unlike you, I don't misrepresent facts just to further my agenda. Two 5-7 seasons out of four is not "a bad season every now and then;" at the time, it was the worst four-year stretch for UT football in 99 years. One has to go back to the 1906 through 1909 seasons to find the last time, prior to Fulmer's last four years, that UT had lost six or more games twice within a four-year span.You fail to have any understanding of competitive sports. The overall condition of the program was strong and consistent winners. A staff bad hire or a series of injuries can make for a bad season every now and then. But, you can't argue that even in Fulmer's worst of times, his teams were going to the SECCG every three years and going to NYD Bowl Games on average 3 or 4 out of 5 years.
As I just posted in response to another Fulmerite, just because we were better when he was fired than we are now in no way means that he was not responsible for the beginning of the decline. Those two seasons with 6 and 7 losses respectively were the first time in 99 years that UT had lost six or more games twice in a four-year span.And your point? Are we really better off today? I think not.
Again what is your point? Since then many, many more records have fallen. The idea that he is responsible for the decline is simply your opinion. As a matter of fact, you and those that wanted him gone are partially responsible for the debacle we find ourselves in now. Let that sink in. You can try to defend it, but it's indefensible given the ongoing state of the program since he was fired. Spin it how you want. You wanted change, you got it. Congratulations!As I just posted in response to another Fulmerite, just because we were better when he was fired than we are now in no way means that he was not responsible for the beginning of the decline. Those two seasons with 6 and 7 losses respectively were the first time in 99 years that UT had lost six or more games twice in a four-year span.
99 years - let that sink in for a second.