Dabo and Bama

#27
#27
05_never_again said:
Every school has a long history of bad decisions. The question is are your good decisions good enough to make people forget the bad ones.

Alabama swung and missed a bunch of times, then hired Saban. If you go 1-5 with 4 Ks but your one hit is a game-winning grand slam in the bottom of the 9th, nobody remembers how bad you looked in the previous at-bats.
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We haven't hit a grand slam since the General.
 
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#28
#28
hog88 said:
We haven't hit a grand slam since the General.
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Fulmer wasn't bad. He was the last good football hiring decision, and even he came into the job under shady/weird circumstances.

At this point, given that we've been bad for so long, even if we do get it turned around I bet some people will still remember how bad we were for so long. Nebraska too.
 
#29
#29
05_never_again said:
Fulmer wasn't bad. He was the last good football hiring decision, and even he came into the job under shady/weird circumstances.
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About Fulmer, what if Shuler doesn’t complete that pass to Ronald Davis on 4th and long against UGA? Don’t know how everything would have unfolded in regards to Majors/Fulmer after that if UT doesn’t win that game.
 
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#30
#30
05_never_again said:
Fulmer wasn't bad. He was the last good football hiring decision, and even he came into the job under shady/weird circumstances.
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Fulmer was a gnats hair triple. Blew way too many chances to be a home run let alone an grand slam.
 
#31
#31
hog88 said:
Fulmer was a gnats hair triple. Blew way too many chances to be a home run let alone an grand slam.
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Eh...he won 75% of his games, won a national title, won 2 conference titles, appeared in the SECCG 5 times, second-best coach in school history behind Neyland.

I'd call that a home run...it's just that on that scale somebody like Saban is a 12-run homer. He's been so good, it is like that shouldn't even be possible.

However, overall I do think it is fair to say Fulmer has a mixed legacy here. You have to balance his 1992-2001 coaching performance against his 2002-2008 coaching performance + tenure as athletic director.
 
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#32
#32
Boston Vol said:
About Fulmer, what if Shuler doesn’t complete that pass to Ronald Davis on 4th and long against UGA? Don’t know how everything would have unfolded in regards to Major/Fulmer after that if UT doesn’t win that game.
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What if Stoerner doesn't fumble or Hall missed the FG at Syracuse? Does Fulmer survive 2005?
 
#33
#33
hog88 said:
What if Stoerner doesn't fumble or Hall missed the FG at Syracuse? Does Fulmer survive 2005?
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Probably not, no. Fulmer began coasting after 1998; even former players of his and guys Fulmer recruited after 1998 but did not commit here have said that.

He was able to have a good program for several more years after that, and recruit well for several more years after that because of inertia, but it's like he never resumed putting his foot back on the gas at any point after that.
 
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#34
#34
I hope no one wants to follow up when satan leaves. I hope every coach worth a damn will realize that's those are a huge pair of shoes fill, and they wont want to try... Then bama falls into the abyss of shi*ville forever.

That's just me though.
 
#36
#36
05_never_again said:
I mean, ya could, but I was thinking about just the post-Fulmer era.

While that is an incredible alternate reality in which Spurrier becomes a Tennessee legend instead of a Florida legend, if he ended up coaching at UT instead of Florida I wonder if the history of our program is any different. Both Fulmer and Spurrier had awesome records and each won a national title. We probably would have had won more SEC titles and a much better record against Florida though.
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Ive always felt like Spurrier would have built an empire here that would rival what Bama has accomplished in the last 10 or so years.
 
#37
#37
DWright39 said:
Ive always felt like Spurrier would have built an empire here that would rival what Bama has accomplished in the last 10 or so years.
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I doubt it - he wasn't able to do anything approaching that at Florida, so why could he have done it here? I'd say it is slightly easier to win there than here.
 
#39
#39
05_never_again said:
I doubt it - he wasn't able to do anything approaching that at Florida, so why could he have done it here? I'd say it is slightly easier to win there than here.
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Probably just the fan in me. I’ve always felt like a Tennessee program at its true full power would be damn near unstoppable. And honestly I think that’s what keeps me coming back as a fan. The whole “No one is gonna like it when Tennessee is good again”. I remember telling my younger brother that very thing about Alabama after Saban was hired.
 
#40
#40
hog88 said:
What if Stoerner doesn't fumble or Hall missed the FG at Syracuse? Does Fulmer survive 2005?
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He does not. That national title (and Cutcliffe) bought him another year.

Here’s a great one: David Cutcliffe was supposed to be the Notre Dame OC in 2005 after he got fired but had to have emergency heart surgery and left the program. Let’s say that doesn’t happen, he stays at ND with Weiss instead of coming back to UT, Fulmer falters in 2006…then Tennessee fires him…would Saban have been more interested coming to UT? Do we hire Rich-Rod?
 
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#41
#41
Another fun one: What if an Alabama booster doesn’t leak to ESPN the Rich-Rod deal was done before he told his team at WVU? That was the reason he backed out.
 
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#42
#42
DWright39 said:
Probably just the fan in me. I’ve always felt like a Tennessee program at its true full power would be damn near unstoppable. I don’t know if that would ever be the case in today’s college football world.
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Tennessee is one of several programs that if they hired the right coach could go on a massive run. There's really no reason why it wouldn't be able to. I don't think Spurrier could go on a Saban-like run anywhere though.
 
#43
#43
zjcvols said:
He does not. That national title (and Cutcliffe) bought him another year.

Here’s a great one: David Cutcliffe was supposed to be the Notre Dame OC in 2005 after he got fired but had to have emergency heart surgery and left the program. Let’s say that doesn’t happen, he stays at ND with Weiss instead of coming back to UT, Fulmer falters in 2006…then Tennessee fires him…would Saban have been more interested coming to UT? Do we hire Rich-Rod?
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Oh heck, good one. I forgot about Cut going to ND.

Would the admin had the cajones to even go after Saban in 2006?
 
#44
#44
hog88 said:
Oh heck, good one. I forgot about Cut going to ND.

Would the admin had the cajones to even go after Saban in 2006?
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That would have been the key. Along with the 8 years/$32M they basically let Saban do whatever he wanted program wise. Would Tennessee be willing to do that? I’d argue we were a better program in 06’ than Alabama…but idk. I’m not sure Saban would have liked with working Hamilton.
 
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#45
#45
Pete Carroll leaving USC is such a great butterfly effect. I need to do some research and see how many programs that affected. I bet it’s 20-25 programs easy.
 
#46
#46
For example:

Carroll leaves
Kiffin takes over at USC
Sark takes over for Kiffin, leaving Washington
Chris Petersen takes the Washington job
 
#47
#47
zjcvols said:
He does not. That national title (and Cutcliffe) bought him another year.

Here’s a great one: David Cutcliffe was supposed to be the Notre Dame OC in 2005 after he got fired but had to have emergency heart surgery and left the program. Let’s say that doesn’t happen, he stays at ND with Weiss instead of coming back to UT, Fulmer falters in 2006…then Tennessee fires him…would Saban have been more interested coming to UT? Do we hire Rich-Rod?
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Doubtful that Saban would have taken Tennessee over Bama. Rich Rod and Bobby Petrino would have been favorites for the job.
 
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#50
#50
Kirby reminds me of early Fulmer in the 90’s won alot of games and had a ton of talent on his teams but can’t quite get over the hump. Fulmer couldn’t beat Spurrier and Florida and Kirby can’t beat Saban. Now Phil eventually won a national title in his 6th full season, Kirby is now in his 6th season
 
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