Fulmer’s Legacy at Tennessee

#202
#202
iluvsmesumdooley said:
Fulmer got it done because of a Stoerner fumble, what Majors built, and Cutty.
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For the second time in a week I remind the world of the following.

First, the short version is that the fumble would have been to preserve the win if the officials had not messed up a call on their last punt. The ball went over the punters head, it was rolling about the 8 yard line on the ground, he kicked it off the ground backwards out of the back of the endzone. We were awarded a safety. We should have been awarded the ball at the Arky 4 yardline after a half the distance penalty from where he kicked the ball. Had the ball been in the end zone it would have been the correct call. Anyway, Chesse was a solid bet to run those 4 yards as evidenced by his carries after the fumble. Check it out, we got a letter from the SEC to clarify their error. I get so tired of this Stoerner redemption without this being referenced. Of course we would have to live with the bad snap I guess.

edited to add the backup
from SDS article 2 years ago by Dave Hooker

Footnote:
What is seldom if ever mentioned about the Arkansas ’98 game is the safety. Arkansas was set to punt and the snap sailed over the punter’s head. He chased it down and kicked it out the back of his own endzone from about the 5.

The refs awarded a safety to Tennessee to make it 24-22, Arkansas. The correct call would have been an illegal kick. Penalty of half the distance to the goal, First and goal Tennessee. After that, it’s “Give him six” time for Travis Henry which makes it 26-24 before the extra point attempt.

Apart from the ref’s error, the Stoerner fumble might never have happened.
 
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#204
#204
JonGrudensAgent said:
37500$ a month can buy a lot of love.
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Sure, over $1,000 everyday not to come back to campus, he let the program slide into oblivion, multiple Level I and Level II violation while he phutzed around trying to be relevant to a football program he was supposed to fix, he fixed it all right, ran it in the ditch twice now and will have pulled over $7.335 million dollars just to go away and let capable minds and talented administrators fix his freaking mess yet again, why can we not put Fulmer in the transfer portal once and for all
 
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#205
#205
Fulmer's legacy will be winning a national championship and being under qualified to be an athletic director.
 
#207
#207
NeverWe'llSever said:
1 National > 3 SEC. Sure, maybe some staff members helped carry the load. But Fulmer got it done. Can’t dismiss it. Tennessee stood atop the college football mountain under Fulmer, not Majors. Majors was an excellent coach, but he didn’t get it done.
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Majors has a national title too.

Coaching ability.

1) Neyland
2) Majors
3) Dickey
4) Wyatt
5) Fulmer

Coaching Accomplishments

1) Neyland
2) Majors
3) Fulmer
4) Dickey
5) Wyatt

Fulmer is the only one of the better coaches who coached here that didn't have to build. He took over a roster full of NFL talent and a coaching staff put in place by Majors for the most part and rode that to a great record.

The sad thing is Neyland is the only coach we had that was always the best in the conference during his career. Majors probably was from 1985-1989 but the SEC had uninspiring coaches then outside of Pat Dye. Fulmer never managed to be the best in the league. He should have been by 2002 but Saban re-wrote that story.
 
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#208
#208
Fulmer was a mixed bad:

Excellent- OL coach, fund raiser
Good-coordinator, recruiter, game manager
Average-motivator, maintaining a program
Fair-hiring assistants
Poor-leading athletic department
 
#209
#209
......should have ended long ago. The guy did less with more then many coaches. To play with manning was great for his recruiting and lead to a stacked team that won a title but Phil couldnt maintain. He had some awesome defensive players and RBs along with stellar oline and WRs. Struggled to beat florida under Steve and urban. Had better luck with zook..the gators Dooley.
What would have happened if Tennessee brought steve home in the late 80s. For that matter what if one of the really good coach of that era was there? I think tennessee would be better off if someone else was here then how bout a mack Brown or Patterson? Where would we be now? This has been a decade of under pure bad for the moat part. Our record vs rivals, if you can call it that, is horrible.
 
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#210
#210
NeverWe'llSever said:
That’s a plausible argument even though 1967 is a fraudulent national title. If we had beaten Oklahoma, then it’d be legit. He had some pretty great wins and the Vols from 1967-1971 were elite. But I still put Fulmer over him. Longevity. Tennessee was elite from 1985-2007 and Fulmer was the coach for most of that.
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We weren't elite after 2001
 
#213
#213
CubsFanTN said:
Haven't read a single post in this thread. Phil is a national champion and the reason we're not romanticizing about the 1970s instead of the 1990s. He stuck around long enough to become the villain instead of the hero, as some old adage goes, but he will always be a hero to me.
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Well if you just look at win-loss records, I can see that. But if you had been keeping up with the events that surrounded the decline, and how he responded to them? Plus a few that came to light a few years afterward? You can polish his portrait above your fireplace that has Jesus on one side and Elvis on the other all you want. Bottom line was there were issues beyond his on field results that led to his dismissal. Notably, the decline of the culture of the team. It still mattered back then.
 
#214
#214
Somewhere around the year 2080, the last person who paid close attention to Phillip Fulmer taking the head coaching job from Johnny Majors will pass on.

At that point, Fulmer will be remembered as a coach who led Tennessee's football team to championships. Not the only coach who did, and not the greatest (that will be either Neyland, or someone we haven't seen yet). But one of several great championship coaches for the University of Tennessee.

And that's it. None but the historians will know he was AD for a few years. Few will know any details of his tenure as coach, either...just what leaps off the pages of the record books. Championships. 75% win rate. That's it.

Right now, Fulmer's legacy is far more complicated. Maybe 50/50, give or take. Half loved, half hated, half over-appreciated, half under-appreciated. Whatever your viewpoint, you'll probably think your half is the bigger half, of course.

But as the years between now and 2080 tick away, we'll slowly, ever so slowly, shift from the complex view to the simple one.

So yeah. To arrive early: his legacy is as one of several Tennessee championship-winning head coaches.
 
#217
#217
Maybe I’m too far on the side of the ghost and the king but I think Fulmer resigned out of love for Tennessee. I think that he figured that the NCAA would take it easier on us if we cleaned house. He’s made mistakes but I can’t help but love the man who did so much here
 
#218
#218
ThreatLevelOrange said:
Fulmer was a mixed bad:

Excellent- OL coach, fund raiser
Good-coordinator, recruiter, game manager
Average-motivator, maintaining a program
Fair-hiring assistants
Poor-leading athletic department
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One more time for me please....

Outside of the devastating end to his one FB hire, what other aspects of his AD career do you rate poor? Which sports by name regressed due to or even during his tenure?

Thanks in advance.
 
#219
#219
By far the best thing about Fulmer was his pure, unadulterated hatred for all things bammer....he would go to any length to stick it to that verminous pack of entitled a**holes........he did his best to keep the NCAA stationed on the corner of McFarland Blvd. and University Ave. He took unspeakable joy in kicking their a**es and he did it consistently. He was not intimated by that football factory of lying, cheating scum and I will always love him for that.
 
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#220
#220
GUNTERSVOL said:
One more time for me please....

Outside of the devastating end to his one FB hire, what other aspects of his AD career do you rate poor? Which sports by name regressed due to or even during his tenure?

Thanks in advance.
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First, he became AD to “fix football.” He mismanaged Pruitt’s raise and extension, and was allegedly unaware of all the transgressions. Second, he mismanaged Rick Barnes and was set to lose him until Randy Boyd came to the rescue. I don’t think most people would rate the AD by how the non revenue sports perform.
 
#221
#221
ThreatLevelOrange said:
First, he became AD to “fix football.” He mismanaged Pruitt’s raise and extension, and was allegedly unaware of all the transgressions. Second, he mismanaged Rick Barnes and was set to lose him until Randy Boyd came to the rescue. I don’t think most people would rate the AD by how the non revenue sports perform.
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Well he was dumb enough to give Holly Warlick a raise and extension. Just like he did Pruitt, then fired her a little later. Jury still out on her replacement, can’t commit on baseball and the minor sports.
 
#223
#223
Instead of him using the UT FACULTY discount (50%) for tuition for children, he forced a scholarship ( like he couldn’t afford it) for his daughter that played softball, so then it wasn’t available for a young lady that actually needed it. I lost what little bit of respect after that and recent events only make me want to share truth more so people understand how greedy he is!
 
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#224
#224
The fact that Fulmer is accepting his buyout is tarnishing his legacy in my opinion. His leadership had a part in what got us into this mess, so if we are going to fire Pruitt with cause, we can respectfully ask Fulmer to "resign" with no buyout without embarrassing him. I get it, a lot of you are big Fulmer fans because of the greatness he brought to Tennessee football 20+ years ago. However, hiring Pruitt and showing negligence might put us so far in a hole that we haven't seen before. Go retire, quit milking UT for more money, and be done with it. It's a shame how far this once proud program has continue to fall. It's not the "fans" fault, it's the administration and lack of competence shown by the leaders of this program.
 
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