orange+white=heaven
VN GURU
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TFP's Mark Wiedmer weighs in...again..
I have one word for all the Tennessee Volniacs out there who believe firing Phil Fulmer will assure the Big Orange of big success every season: Michigan.
Yes, the Vols and Wolverines have the same record at the moment, each standing a disappointing 2-4. The Maize and Blue even have a victory over then-No. 9 Wisconsin to shout about.
But Michigan also has a 13-10 loss to Toledo to deal with this week. And just to put that in further perspective, Toledo improved to 2-4 with that shocker inside UM’s Big House.
Point is, new Wolverines boss Rich Rodriguez was supposed reverse this train wreck of a program when Lloyd Carr was forced to retire last season.
And it was clearly a record in need of reversing. Carr only won 75 percent of his games, one national championship (sound familiar, Volniacs?) and five Big Ten titles or co-titles in his 13 seasons.
What a failure.
But much as Carr couldn’t hold his own against archrival Ohio State — losing six of his final seven games against the Buckeyes — Fulmer finds the Big Orange Nation’s bullseye squarely on his back, front and forehead for his own failings against the Southeastern Conference’s elite.
Fair or not, that’s what happens when you make over $2 million a year, you just signed a long-term contract and you’ve lost four straight games to Florida, four straight to Auburn, five of the last eight to Georgia, three of the last four to LSU and two of the last three to Alabama.
In fact, the momentum for his dismissal has apparently grown so loud that Fulmer told his players after Saturday’s 26-14 loss to Georgia to tell anyone who asks about the state of the team to say, “I’m not quitting.”
He added, “Everybody in the world is going to talk about me. They’re going to talk about our staff. They’re going to talk about (the players) and what kind of backbone we’ve got. You stay in this business long enough you’re going to have ups and downs. I’ve won a lot more than I’ve lost. I’m not going to do anything but keep fighting.”
Yet there also comes a point in every coaching career where you have to balance what’s best for the program against what’s best for you.
Yes, Fulmer can keep fighting. But at what long-term cost? Can he reverse the Vols’ current slide in a year? Two? Three? Fan apathy is already growing. How long before they seal his fate by sealing their pocketbooks until UT athletic director Mike Hamilton makes a change?
Barring a Fulmer surprise retirement, nothing should happen this season. With an economic climate far worse than UT’s current record, it’s preposterous to think Hamilton would change coaches, knowing that the buyout of Fulmer and his current staff — plus the expense of hiring a new coaching staff — could reach $15 million.
This is not to say Fulmer shouldn’t make a few changes, beginning with discipline and execution.
The Big Orange Nation can whine all it wants about the validity of the personal foul on Demetrice Morley on the Bulldogs’ final drive of the opening half — and maybe it was questionable in slow motion, especially to those who watch NASCAR in hopes of seeing a wreck — but that doesn’t explain away the three other personal foul penalties.
One other thought. If you’re going to play rock-’em, sock-’em football in a year when the officials are making hits to the head a point of emphasis you might want your media relations office not to use Morley’s quote — “We want to have people scared to come across the middle ... we want to put fear in people’s hearts” — in your pregame notes.
Fans may think officials can’t read, but just in case, quotes such as those make the Vols look as if they’re playing foot-in-mouth-ball.
Moreover, it was Fulmer who said, “Personal foul penalties are usually a loss of composure.” It is a coach’s job to limit that loss of composure.
Not that Fulmer is the only college football coach in east Tennessee who should consider his future these days. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Rodney Allison should consider officially stepping aside as soon as possible.
This isn’t to say there’s any doubt about his departure. He has no contract after this year. The Mocs now stand 1-6 overall and 0-3 in the Southern Conference. Allison couldn’t be more done if he were Lehman Brothers.
But he has a chance to go out with great style and dignity. He should call a press conference and thank UTC for believing him for six years. He should then tell the public that he has concluded that it’s in everyone’s best interest to part ways and head in different directions.
Such an announcement gives the Mocs a head start on targeting their next head coach and gives Allison and his staff a head start on finding their next job. It might become his biggest UTC victory.
But Fulmer is clearly in a different place. This is his school and his state and counting his UT playing career he has devoted 34 years of his life to Big Orange football. Throw in the 1998 national championship, the .750 winning percentage and his 13 seasons in the Top 25 and he deserves — at least for now — to determine his own fate.
But as the fans fume around him, Fulmer should consider Carr’s words when he announced his retirement: “My timing is based on one thing, what is best for Michigan football.”
At the same time — the Vols’ and Wolverines’ current 2-4 records not withstanding — UT fans should ponder if they’re ready to endure what their Michigan counterparts are suffering through in Carr’s absence.
Change is only good when it makes things better.
hmy:
