Fulmer was given a top-10 program and a future HC in David Cutcliff (Major's hire). Cutcliff recruited Manning and that created momentum to pull a great classes in '94/95, leading to the NC in '98. Then without Cutcliff and Gardner, recruiting declines, and Fulmer leads Tenn to two losing seasons wrapped around a couple of seasons with Cutcliff winning the SEC-E. Given what happened the last half of his career, and without Cutcliff, you can't say Fulmer was largely responsible for the NC. It was more like Fulmer was there when Tenn won it, and largely because of the program Johnny built and the staff he left. If JM had stayed until 2000 or so, we'd have been much better off as a program the next twenty years till now. Fulmer was a great Vol, average HC, and bad AD.