Firing Philip Fulmer was the worst mistake a major program has ever made

[Cdywolfe]

We play that everywhere..

It's probably the most white trash tradition in CFB. Needless to say it doesn't surprise me that most Bama fans are proud of it.

 

[carolinaviking]

I don't like the way CBJ is being treated in the least. I hated the way Fulmer was treated and thought it reflected very poorly on the school. But I have to admit that his play-calling was stale and we looked like a 1950s football team against many rivals who were more progressive and creative with their air attack and defense.

However, what I think is most telling, and quite sad really, is that there is not a living coach from UT who ended on good terms with the school. Johnny Majors is still bitter and isn't seen much around campus. Fulmer started coming round in recent years when his bitterness subsided enough and now he is involved again, but I don't think that relationship is necessarily healthy. $100,000 per year job on campus? After what Fulmer did to Alabama for a decade? Considering what UT paid Dooley AFTER Dooley left? I see a lot of love for Manning, but did Manning win us a National Championship? No! Did Fulmer? Hell yes! UT should be ashamed. It's pathetic to think of it that way, that all...ALL...of our coaches in the past 30 years have been run off of the campus by the fans. Where is our Bear Bryant? Where is our Spurrier? Where is our Lou Holtz? Was Fulmer was worthy of that level of admiration and remembrance? I think so. Look at him in the light of UT history. Sadly, it won't happen.

 

[jortfreeTN]

Yes he did. It's just the manner that they did it. It forever chased away top coaches.

Bet Florida has no problem finding a new coach after their debacle this season. We let our brand new coach interview for his dream job the very next season. We have given Butch Jones ample time to prove he deserves to be fired even though there were signs he was in over his head years ago... all in all Coaches aren't afraid to come here because they are afraid they might be mistreated.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

There is no ability to hire coaches by our AD/boosters.

If you'd still opt to fire Fulmer after the last 9 seasons then you're a special kind of stupid.

If Jeremy Foley was our AD it was the right decision. With Mike Hamilton in charge I wouldn't let that guy fire Fulmer - ever.

If you're trying to judge the situation in 2008 basing it on what's happened 10 years later, you're a special kind of stupid.

 

[JonGrudensAgent]

I just don’t agree with that. It was time for a change.

If we’re gonna play revisionist, imagine if Patterson had been hired instead of Kiffin.

I was there for every second of that game and anyone who still defends Fulmer after that is a fan of the coach and not the school.

Five years of Jones has gotten a 34-27 record.

The last five years of Fulmer resulted in a 39-24 record.

This program isn't any worse off by cycling through coaches as they have done than keeping a stubborn coach who sat and watched the game pass him by and worried more about getting his contract extension than actually doing his job.

 

[VolRoger]

The East decline started with Fulmer leaving Tennessee

No sir, it didnt. Look I get your point about the post Fulmer years. They have been horrible!!! However, can you not see that the program was already in decline well before 2008? Tennessee had no competition in the east after Spurrier resigned at Florida. The Gators made a horrible hire in Zook yet Fulmer couldn't win a championship. 2004 was really his last good year. Fulmer lost to Shula twice during this time. Even with Cutcliffe, his team's were road graded by Florida and Bama in 2007. He should have been relieved of his duties in 2005, but fortunately Coach Cut was available to come in and rescue him from Randy. Just look at how the Oklahoma situation was handled before the season. Wouldn't it been great to see Fulmer retire after 2004. It would never happen because Fulmer had no one waiting to take the helm like Stoops.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

I think at a minimum they should have given him another year to fix it.

Compared to what we've seen since that seems like the most reasonable choice that could have been made.

I've already said he should have been given another year.

But anyone acting like he would have somehow returned to the 90s standards are straight up dreaming. He would have continued the path he was on.

And considering the heat was already turning up, if he had gone 7-5 the next year, the calls for his firing and apathy would have skyrocketed. Too many people are trying to judge 2008-2009 by what we've gone through.

 

[Volunteer_Kirby]

So Fulmer was fired and could not get a job ANY WHERE. Mark Reicht was fired and had a job a month later and now has his team undefeated. I can't believe people are still on here saying they should have kept Fulmer. It's unreal.

So tired of seeing this argument...

Philip Fulmer Alma Mater - Tennessee

Mark Richt Alma Mater - Miami

Fulmer was a Tennessee boy through and through. Also 58 by the time he "resigned". No major P5 school wanted him because he lost his recruiting touch, that's the truth. He could've found a job elsewhere at a lower tier school if he really wanted but I think even he realized the game passed him by - without ace assistants Fulmer was nobody - just a (once) tireless recruiter with some genuine southern charm - so he no longer had his most important skill-set firing on all cylinders, which was his recruiting ability - it was time to let him go, but not like how we did it - that was down-right cruel and short-sighted. Richt on the other hand, his recruiting hadn't really slumped, he left UGA at 55 and at the perfect time to go back to his alma mater - with stocked cupboard no less, thanks to Al Golden (great recruiter, lousy coach - sound like anyone?). The only thing they were similar in was age and W/L record. Both coaches came from different eras. Not to mention we fired our head coach for LANE KIFFIN - someone who had NO AFFILIATION to our program, meanwhile UGA fired Richt for someone who actually had an affiliation with the program and played college football there.

There is a massive difference between how UGA did and how UT did it.

 

[SpiritOfNeyland]

Not even close. Period.

We went from an absolute powerhouse blue blood program...to a complete caller dwelling bottom feeder and jokenof all of college football.

If you’re stupid, try to conceal it better. Please. Don’t wear orange in public if you’re going to act like this.

 

[NashVol11]

So Fulmer was fired and could not get a job ANY WHERE. Mark Reicht was fired and had a job a month later and now has his team undefeated. I can't believe people are still on here saying they should have kept Fulmer. It's unreal.

This

 

[Advol]

You can blame the Firing all you want for the demise of Football. I choose to lay it on AD Mike Hamilton. He single handedly brought down multiple programs at UT.
I believe Mr. Currie has NO one in the funnel and is scarred to death.
It will be interesting next few daze and weeks. :hi:

 

[ajvol01]

You can blame the Firing all you want for the demise of Football. I choose to lay it on AD Mike Hamilton. He single handedly brought down multiple programs at UT.
I believe Mr. Currie has NO one in the funnel and is scarred to death.
It will be interesting next few daze and weeks. :hi:

Currie was Hamilton's right hand man in 2008.

He was instrumental in firing Fulmer and finding his replacement.

 

[NashVol11]

The further the Fulmer years get away from us, the more selective the memories get.

Also this.

“Just think guys...we could have a couple more 8-4 seasons!! We really missed out!”

 

[VolsSportsFan]

I just don’t agree with that. It was time for a change.

If we’re gonna play revisionist, imagine if Patterson had been hired instead of Kiffin.

I just don't get this revisitionist garbage. He's acting like the 2017 version of himself with all the knowledge of how things will be would be making that decision in 2008.

In 2008 Fulmer's decline was becoming unacceptable. You can't say "I'd take 7-5, 8-4 over what we have now" because if you go back to 2008, had Fulmer been given another year and gone 7-5, the calls to fire him would have skyrocketed even more. In 2008, 7-5 was not an acceptable standard.

Just because we hired worse garbage after Fulmer has nothing to do with whether it was time to fire him. It's amazing that people can't seem to grasp it's 2 different issues.

 

[NashVol11]

“We could have been in the TaxSlayer Bowl instead of the Music City Bowl! Biggest tragedy in CFB history!”

 

[114VOL]

We went from an absolute powerhouse blue blood program...to a complete caller dwelling bottom feeder and jokenof all of college football.

If you’re stupid, try to conceal it better. Please. Don’t wear orange in public if you’re going to act like this.

We haven't been a national contender since before the SECCG in 2001. That's a fact...so you're saying Fulmer took us from being a blue blood powerhouse to a team of perpetual mediocrity? If so, you're exactly right

 

[rockydoc]

Worse mistake no firing him soon enough.

 

[NCFisher]

Are you impressed with 23-47 SEC record since?

Obviously not, and is what I refer to by "doing the right thing badly".

Again, there's no indication we'd be better if Fulmer had stayed. I think his recruiting propped him up the same way Jones' has; both benefited from a Dobbs Effect. It became harder to pluck players from neighboring states and he became less effective, seemingly unwilling or unable to change with a changing conference with better coaches.

 

[GreveHaller]

This is comparing apples and oranges

fyp

 

[VolsSportsFan]

Obviously not, and is what I refer to by "doing the right thing badly".

Again, there's no indication we'd be better if Fulmer had stayed. I think his recruiting propped him up the same way Jones' has; both benefited from a Dobbs Effect. It became harder to pluck players from neighboring states and he became less effective, seemingly unwilling or unable to change with a changing conference with better coaches.

I think that's the perfect description of how it went down.

 

[NashVol11]

We went from an absolute powerhouse blue blood program...to a complete caller dwelling bottom feeder and jokenof all of college football.

If you’re stupid, try to conceal it better. Please. Don’t wear orange in public if you’re going to act like this.

The guy talking about VN’s “influence” shouldn’t be calling anyone stupid. Especially if he can’t spell the word “cellar.”

 

[Redstater]

I said it first.

 

[NCFisher]

It's probably the most white trash tradition in CFB. Needless to say it doesn't surprise me that most Bama fans are proud of it.

But I'd rather they continue it.

It gives their pre-teens a one day reprieve from primitively hunting hogs with a spear, or noodling with their remaining digits.

 

[lovavol]

period.

bull****, letting Cut go was that decision, phil got lazy or forgot how to win

 

[Mini Cooper]

Apparently no other big 5 school thought enough of him to hire him to coach their team. He publicly stated on several occasions that he still had "fire in his belly" and wanted to continue to coach. As it seems, he was just as delusional about himself as some of our fans are about him.

Great guy, good coach and won a ton of games here. That being said, he didn't have to build it up as a HC and when there was some drop-off, the lack of experience in doing a rebuild as a HC put us into a slide to mediocrity. Probably the reason he didn't get any major jobs when there openings the next couple of years

This.

Fulmer rode in on Johnny Majors' coattails. Majors already had built up Pittsburgh, and won a NC with the program he restored.

Fulmer was, and is, a wheel-sucker.

Jesus. Some of our fans...