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#76
#76
Fulmer had lost it in recruiting. He was kind of the old man of the SEC at the time. He was losing to Vandie, etc.

The time had past Fulmer by. Let's not have convenient amnesia about his last few years. It was awful and you can almost argue that Fulmer started this mess.

But I will blame Hamilton no doubt. The way he did Fulmer was ****ty. I do think UT needed change. Fulmer had made some awful, awful staff decisions.

Hamilton is to blame for the whole Kiffin and Dooley debacle though....

He wasn't losing it in recruiting. People forget he had Tahj Boyd coming in the following year and Kiffin told him to look elsewhere. If we could've stuck it out we would've been back in the SECCG in another year or 2. He ended up going to Clemson and started creating a winning culture and look at them now. That should be us right now but instead we fired the one guy to win a modern day championship for us.
 
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#77
#77
I blame our AD...fans shouldnt feel regret over that...the fact that they forced his hand and made him resign was ridiculous...the man DESERVED to finish the season, not the crappy hand he was dealt. Hamilton was and still is a POS for the way he handled the dismissal. Buried our program in mediocrity for 10 years because of that move and his subsequent hiring of Kiffin.
 
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#80
#80
You're talking about the greatest coach UT has had in your lifetime. You need to learn some respect. Or go troll another board!

The greatest UT coach in my lifetime? Like that's staying something?

Fulmer
Majors
Kiffin
Butch/Dooley



That's the list. That's like being the principal of a home school.


You need to get the sand outta your lady parts.
 
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#81
#81
I rarely make comments, but it doesn’t come both ways. Either he could’ve stayed, or you get what we’ve had the last nine years. You can’t say “if UT would’ve made the right hire,” everything would be great, because they didn’t. They hired who they did, and that is all we can know for sure. It certainly looks like the results haven’t improved very much.
 
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#82
#82
I rarely make comments, but it doesn’t come both ways. Either he could’ve stayed, or you get what we’ve had the last nine years. You can’t say “if UT would’ve made the right hire,” everything would be great, because they didn’t. They hired who they did, and that is all we can know for sure. It certainly looks like the results haven’t improved very much.

The only way Fulmer looks better is judging him buy the idiots after him. I still am glad they fired him. They just didn't follow through with the most important reason for firing him: hiring better.
 
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#83
#83
The only way Fulmer looks better is judging him buy the idiots after him. I still am glad they fired him. They just didn't follow through with the most important reason for firing him: hiring better.
But that’s the conundrum, is it not? There’s no guarantee, no matter who was hired, that they would’ve been better. It’s having the chance they could vs. the chance they were worse. Looking at results, it appears they’ve been much worse.
 
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#84
#84
But that’s the conundrum, is it not? There’s no guarantee, no matter who was hired, that they would’ve been better. It’s having the chance they could vs. the chance they were worse. Looking at results, it appears they’ve been much worse.

I would not accept 1999-2008 for our next ten years, so I don’t care.
 
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#85
#85
You're talking about the greatest coach UT has had in your lifetime. You need to learn some respect. Or go troll another board!

Respect is earned, not learned. Fulmer was no longer earning respect. If he had been a hot item, other schools would have lined up to talk to him.
 
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#87
#87
No. It was a great run but it ran its course. The last few years were difficult to watch...especially the last year.

The regrets are about our hires. Mostly hiring Dooley was the dumbest thing ever.
 
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#88
#88
He wasn't losing it in recruiting. People forget he had Tahj Boyd coming in the following year and Kiffin told him to look elsewhere. If we could've stuck it out we would've been back in the SECCG in another year or 2. He ended up going to Clemson and started creating a winning culture and look at them now. That should be us right now but instead we fired the one guy to win a modern day championship for us.

He had a good class lined up for 2009 with Boyd but outside of Aaron Douglas (RIP) the '08 class was a disaster. He was no longer a great recruiter at the end.
 
#89
#89
With the "it was the right thing to do logic" that goes on around here, then MI St should have fired Dantonio last year, and Fisher should be on the FSU firing block ... even if he was just on the "must have" list here.

Anyone ever consider that negative recruiting from the Albert Means - AL probation might have been a problem for Fulmer? Remember a guy named Taj Boyd that Fulmer had committed and Kiffen didn't want; he kinda started the ball rolling at Clemson, and they've been poaching our recruits ever since.

I agree with those who say that the game had passed him by, and that he had lost a lot of the passion for coaching. However, I do agree that we had a lot of enemies teaming up against us and doing a lot of negative recruiting. The flip side is that he should have had the wherewithall to counter it. You also never know how Taj Boyd would have done under Fulmer. He might have not been properly utilized to showcase his talents.

The Kiffin experiment failed, but I do not blame the AD so much (but I understand the criticisms). I view it as a bit of a swing for the fences. Now, the Dooley experiment failed, and that is totally on the AD.

To me, hiring Butch has had it's benefits (recruiting), but ultimately, he couldn't get the job done. At least, the stage is set for the next coach to succeed.

Hindsight is 20/20, but it was still the right choice to fire Fulmer. It was the other decisions that sent us down this long and winding road.
 
#96
#96
Yes - it was a huge mistake. Hopefully we get the right coach and move on from this 10 year debacle.
 
#97
#97
Everyone trying to rationalise the worst decision in 50 years of Tennessee football is just sack of hammers dumb. It has taken 10 years of failure to make a run at a worthy successor and we still may screw it up.

Fulmer was successful but struggled to win the SEC against Saban, Meyer, Tebow, Richt, Miles, and Spurrier.

We can't get over the hump of Muschamp, Mason, and Bielema since. Good grief!

Check your grudentude. Hire Gruden.
 
#98
#98
Just like Tom Landry and his last years. "Fans" wanted him gone, but the way he was fired was handled poorly.
 
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#99
#99
Not really accurate for his recruiting. He was fired with a top 10 class set-up (the Taj Boyd class). While it's true (according to Rivals) that his 2008 class was ranked a dismal 35th, and his 2006 class was 23rd, his 2005 class was 4th, and his 2007 class was 3rd nationally. Two top 5 classes in his last 4 years is better than anything since, including Butch's best two classes. Fulmer also had to do this against the backdrop of negative recruiting from all of the SEC coaches who pointed out Mike Hamilton's "expectations". If you will recall, Hamilton, in all of his Jeremy Foley envy, was doing interviews which put Fulmer on shaky ground, didn't extend his contract one year, etc. That had as much to do with Fulmer's recruiting woes as much as any laziness attributed to him. That laziness is largely a false narrative that fans create to make themselves gfeel better about divorcing themselves from an honorable and successful coach like Fulmer.

Fulmer probably would never have gotten UT to the summit again, but he would have been better than this cluster of fun that we have experienced for the past 9 years.

You obviously don't remember how frustrating some of the hires and experiments Fulmer made towards the end. Also, how frustrating and horrible those last few teams performed. I would say jumping from the top 10 to 30 and top 10 to the 20s in recruiting classes is losing it in recruiting. Saban and the younger coaches in the SEC were killing him in recruiting. You just won't accept this fact.

My comments were more so an indictment of Hamilton. I simply stated Fulmer needed to go. How he was let go was ****ty. Fulmer isn't completely innocent. People were calling for his head for several years of underachieving teams. He was actually given many, many opportunities to upgrade his staff and make great hires...he failed miserably with that. Awful....

I appreciate all Fulmer did and also will.

I will never forgive Hamilton for running this program into Oblivion though. He was a fool
 
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