Defending Fulmer

I dunno, how long did it take johnny majors to clean up after battle?

Majors stunk, and used Battle as his excuse. In fact, the roster Battle left him had the 3rd most NFL talent in the SEC upperclassmen at the time, Bear Bryant would retire by 1982, while Georgia and Florida were rarely on the SEC schedule. Even still, with solely their own players, compare these two sets of results...

Majors 1980-1988
All: 66-36-5
SEC: 31-22-2
Non-SEC: 35-14-3
Top-20: 9-18-3
Unranked: 57-18-2
SEC Top-20: 6-14-2
SEC Unranked: 25-8
Median Wins Per Season: 7
% of Weeks Ranked Per Season: 20%
Record vs. National Title-Winning Coaches: 1-6
NYD Bowl Wins: 2
Record vs. Rivals: 3-10

Fulmer 2000-2008
2000-2008
All: 76-38
SEC: 47-25
Non-SEC: 29-13
Top-20: 15-25
Unranked: 61-13
SEC Top-20: 10-19
SEC Unranked: 37-6
Median Wins Per Season: 9
% of Weeks Ranked Per Season: 80%
Record vs. National Title-Winning Coaches: 10-8
NYD Bowl Wins: 3
Record vs. Rivals: 11-16

Look for 2010-2018 to look a lot more like the pre-Fulmer days than the "horrible" Fulmer days of the last decade.
 
Maybe once we get the roster back from the sorry state it was left in by Fulmer's last two and Kiffin's first recruiting classes?

We have as many contributors from the 07-08 recruiting classes as anyone else in the SEC; it's the 09 class that is unusually low in contributors this year.
 
1999 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
National Championship Game
Tennessee Volunteers Florida State Seminoles
(12-0) (11-1)
23 16
Head coach:
Phillip Fulmer Head coach:
Bobby Bowden
AP Coaches BCS
1 1 1
AP Coaches BCS
2 2 2

1 2 3 4 Total
Tennessee 0 14 0 9 23
Florida State 0 9 0 7 16


Date January 4, 1999
Season 1998
Stadium Sun Devil Stadium
Location Tempe, Arizona
MVP Peerless Price, WR
Dwayne Goodrich, CB
National anthem Southwest Iowa and Mountain Pointe High School bands
Referee Gordon Riese (Pac-10 Conference)
Attendance 80,470
United States TV coverage
Network ABC
Announcers: Keith Jackson, Bob Griese
Fiesta Bowl < 1997 (Dec) 2000

LETS GET BACK TO THIS, AND ALL WILL BE WELL IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL.

GO BIG ORANGE
 
So let me know...when are we going to do this, on average, in a given season:

2002-2008
Avg. Record: 8-4
Avg. SEC Record: 5-3
Weeks Ranked: 80% of the time
Wins Over Top-20 Foes & Rivals: 2 per season
National Broadcast TV Games: 4-5 per season

Since Fulmer's firing...
Avg. Record: .500
Avg. SEC Record: below .500
Weeks Ranked: 0% of the time
Wins Over Top-20 Foes & Rivals: less than 1 per season
National Broadcast TV Games: 2-3 per season

Come on dude, I loved Fulmer as much as any other Vol did when he was in his prime but it was time for him to go. If you can't see he was going down hill I don't what else to tell ya. He went down hill after he muffed up the 2001 SEC champ game.
 
If he can get the Syracuse defense...Florida kicker...and Arkansas QB to hand him three victories, it shouldn't be long at all.

Oh...left out an MSU corner and 3rd string FSU QB. All played critical roles.

Much sooner than Fulmer, if he gets the same breaks.

Having a Martin, Bryson, Lewis, Wilson, and Price would help, of course.

Go Vols.

Go Vols?

How can you say that after this BS?

Really? I guess a pass bouncing off a Missouri players foot into the arms of the Nebraska receiver for a TD on 4th down and winning a game for eventual NC Nebraska wasnt a break.

Breaks happen. Great teams take advantage of the breaks and do what it takes to win.

The Syracuse game. Guess Tee Martin starting his FIRST game on the road in the carrier dome should have put up 60 points, Im sure one of Nick Saban's QB's would.

Florida kicker? That game was a hard fought hard hitting, the defenses played lights out. It was even, we made the FG, they didnt.

Arkansas, yeah they handed the ball to us late. but we had to go half the field and proceeded to do so right down there throats. We won.

FSU QB - Backup QB's never win do they (i.e. 2001 SECCG)

I'll admit I've BS'd on here especially with KPTVOL about this whole CPF thing.
But I have to say if the 1998 team and season doesnt hold a special place in your heart, and you think they were just "lucky", you and whover thinks this needs to go, I dont care who was coaching.

I dont know if theres any room left on the Alabama bandwagon, but Florida may have a few.

GBO
 
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Go Vols?

How can you say that after this BS?

Really? I guess a pass bouncing off a Missouri players foot into the arms of the Nebraska receiver for a TD on 4th down and winning a game for eventual NC Nebraska wasnt a break.

Breaks happen. Great teams take advantage of the breaks and do what it takes to win.

The Syracuse game. Guess Tee Martin starting his FIRST game on the road in the carrier dome should have put up 60 points, Im sure one of Nick Saban's QB's would.

Florida kicker? That game was a hard fought hard hitting, the defenses played lights out. It was even, we made the FG, they didnt.

Arkansas, yeah they handed the ball to us late. but we had to go half the field and proceeded to do so right down there throats. We won.

FSU QB - Backup QB's never win do they (i.e. 2001 SECCG)

I'll admit I've BS'd on here especially with KPTVOL about this whole CPF thing.
But I have to say if the 1998 team and season doesnt hold a special place in your heart, and you think they were just "lucky", you and whover thinks this needs to go, I dont care who was coaching.

I dont know if theres any room left on the Alabama bandwagon, but Florida may have a few.

GBO

gotta agree
the Syracuse game call was right on the money which kept our drive alive
Florida game, they missed a kick plain and simple, nothing lucky about that
Arkansas fumble-it happened because Billy Ratliff came to the sideline and told Tee he would get the ball back and he stepped on center foot causing him to stumble which caused him to step on Stoerner foot which caused him to drop the ball-reference "decade of dominance" if totally true then not lucky just skill and determination
FSU qb-well he was good enough to beat Florida in the swamp if I recall right.

People can say we lucked into the title game all they want but it was good coaching and strong leaders on the team which won us the title.
 
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We have as many contributors from the 07-08 recruiting classes as anyone else in the SEC; it's the 09 class that is unusually low in contributors this year.

Excuse me....I'm calling BS on this. Please provide some names that Fulmer recruited that are helping out now. Tauren Poole, Prentiss Waggoner and Dallas Thomas are the only ones I can think of.

I fail to see how we are worse off now than we were with Fulmer still here. The Vols were stale and boring with zero future and falling further and further behind our rivals with him seemily oblivous to that fact.

I guess when Dooley loses to UF by 39 and an overmatched Bama team by 24 pts, then he will be on par with Phil.
 
I remember the Fulmer years well. Alot of jubilation and alot of disapointment.

There was just alot more jubilation than disapointment.
 
Excuse me....I'm calling BS on this. Please provide some names that Fulmer recruited that are helping out now. Tauren Poole, Prentiss Waggoner and Dallas Thomas are the only ones I can think of.

I fail to see how we are worse off now than we were with Fulmer still here. The Vols were stale and boring with zero future and falling further and further behind our rivals with him seemily oblivous to that fact.

I guess when Dooley loses to UF by 39 and an overmatched Bama team by 24 pts, then he will be on par with Phil.

Off the field we have many,many ex Fulmer players that are helping the university enormously....some bad I know but just like his overall record here the good far outwiegh the bad.
 
Off the field we have many,many ex Fulmer players that are helping the university enormously....some bad I know but just like his overall record here the good far outwiegh the bad.

We're not talking about Fulmer's career, we're talking about the recruiting classes from '07 to '09, which are doing us very little good.
 
folks will be jumping up and down i n celebration, if Dooley goes 8-4 the next two years...

Couple of things....

If Dooley can pull 8-4 with the depleted roster and lack of talent he was dealt then he should be coach of the year.

Second thing, we play three of the four past NC's, plus the team that won the East last year. Our three opponents from the West are predicted to be the top three teams over there, and two of those games are on the road.

So yes, if we finish 8-4, people will be jumping up down for good reason. Sounds like if we have a good year you will be upset because Phil isn't here. True Vol fan.
 
Off the field we have many,many ex Fulmer players that are helping the university enormously....some bad I know but just like his overall record here the good far outwiegh the bad.

Completely understand what you are saying and I agree. However I don't think it can be argued that recruiting under Fulmer left alot to be desired his last few years. Great looking in February but come August it looked terrible.
 

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