Fulmer’s Legacy at Tennessee

#226
#226
MWAVolfan said:
We don't need the money we are paying him. Very small potatoes. I'm glad to pay him to walk away.
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It's more of the principle that he is getting paid for doing a terrible job. If any of us performed like that at our jobs, we would be done. I'm not saying to treat him like Pruitt, that's why I said respectfully accept his "resignation" and let it go.
 
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#227
#227
I'm glad we are paying him. Anything to waste the Haslems money. Hopefully they will run out and leave our program alone. They have been the only constant since the start of our down fall.
 
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#228
#228
All this Fulmer hate . Best I remember is most fans were thrilled when he stepped into a hot mess and at the time brought in what everyone, including the national media, thought was a very good hire. I guess some folks are forgetting how toxic things were. We couldn't get a coach to look at us. Is/was he the smartest guy in the room, no, but we all knew that. He's don't more for UT than most ever could. Sure he'll get paid just like everybody else in his situation. Folks clammering for him to not accept money is just stupid. Would you turn it down? Hell no and if you say you would , sorry not believing you. Let's move on. Damn.
 
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#231
#231
Supposedly, his buyout terms are the exact same terms as if he was let go. But regardless, when he came into the AD role, a change was definitely needed. He did his best, he rides off into the sunset. I am fine with that.
 
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#232
#232
Pruitt is walking around with a giant knife sticking out of his back that Fulmer put there with the help of Tee. This nonsense about Phil not knowing what was going on is silly. I think the endgame was to rid themselves of Pruitt without a buyout and no one would want the job once they blew the whistle on their own team and are likely to be sanctioned. So Phil tells Tee, hey if you turn them in you can be offensive coordinator for a year or two and Ill be the head coach then turn it over to you. I think once folks in Knoxville saw Phillip's play they ushered him out the door. Should he get a dime? Absolutely not, but I think the university is doing it to save themselves the embarrassment of revealing what really happened.
 
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#233
#233
tribe80 said:
All this Fulmer hate . Best I remember is most fans were thrilled when he stepped into a hot mess and at the time brought in what everyone, including the national media, thought was a very good hire. I guess some folks are forgetting how toxic things were. We couldn't get a coach to look at us. Is/was he the smartest guy in the room, no, but we all knew that. He's don't more for UT than most ever could. Sure he'll get paid just like everybody else in his situation. Folks clammering for him to not accept money is just stupid. Would you turn it down? Hell no and if you say you would , sorry not believing you. Let's move on. Damn.
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You thought Pruitt was a good hire? No head coaching experience, can't talk to media or boosters, and is a die hard bama alum? I would've rather had Fulmer just step back in than to hire a project coach that grew up hating Tennessee. To each their own.
 
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#234
#234
VFL 24/7 said:
You thought Pruitt was a good hire? No head coaching experience, can't talk to media or boosters, and is a die hard bama alum? I would've rather had Fulmer just step back in than to hire a project coach that grew up hating Tennessee. To each their own.
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I didn't say he was a good hire. I said most fans and the media did. I didn't think much about him to be honest. I think many on here thought we had another Kirby Smart situation and were ok with the hire.
 
#236
#236
Now that Fulmer is gone, I’m gonna remember him the same way I would remember an unethical underhanded corrupt greedy politician.
All theses years of suffering that he is a big part of was not worth the NC.
I wish we had stuck with Majors even if he didn’t take us to the promise land.
 
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#237
#237
If we ever return to winning again people will remember him kindly. If we don't, he will be remembered forever as the man most responsible for our collapse.
 
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#240
#240
Malivol said:
Pruitt is walking around with a giant knife sticking out of his back that Fulmer put there with the help of Tee. This nonsense about Phil not knowing what was going on is silly. I think the endgame was to rid themselves of Pruitt without a buyout and no one would want the job once they blew the whistle on their own team and are likely to be sanctioned. So Phil tells Tee, hey if you turn them in you can be offensive coordinator for a year or two and Ill be the head coach then turn it over to you. I think once folks in Knoxville saw Phillip's play they ushered him out the door. Should he get a dime? Absolutely not, but I think the university is doing it to save themselves the embarrassment of revealing what really happened.
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Years ago, I saw a similar situation play out in a business. So, I'm not going to say I fully believe this scenario, but I recognize that life is sometimes stranger than fiction. It would be unlikely situation to actually play out in a way that Fulmer could have become the head coach, but we know that Fulmer jumped at the chance to replace Johnny Majors in an unusual scenario.

Overall, I enjoyed the late '90's immensely, and even the early 2000's were pretty darn good. I was ready for him to leave when he was fired. Then, I never expected him to be hired as AD, but thought he kind of saved our butts in the Pruitt hire. He may have messed things up this past year, but at least we are starting out with a clean slate now. So, I certainly don't hate him. I guess at this point, I look quite favorably on his time at UT. I know that could change if a lot of bad stuff comes out.
 
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#241
#241
"Fulmer's legacy" is different depending on whether you are a Tennessee fan or not.

If you are a fan, you'll remember the national title first and foremost, with his firing and tenure as AD as something of a footnote. If you are not a fan or a neutral observer, I think you'll remember him a a great coach...at one point in time, and his eventual firing and tenure as AD are pretty large blemishes.

Honestly, and I say this as a UT fan...I think his legacy is quite mixed. Even though he did win a title and 152 games here.
 
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#242
#242
Malivol said:
Pruitt is walking around with a giant knife sticking out of his back that Fulmer put there with the help of Tee. This nonsense about Phil not knowing what was going on is silly. I think the endgame was to rid themselves of Pruitt without a buyout and no one would want the job once they blew the whistle on their own team and are likely to be sanctioned. So Phil tells Tee, hey if you turn them in you can be offensive coordinator for a year or two and Ill be the head coach then turn it over to you. I think once folks in Knoxville saw Phillip's play they ushered him out the door. Should he get a dime? Absolutely not, but I think the university is doing it to save themselves the embarrassment of revealing what really happened.
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So you think? ok, then.:rolleyes:
 
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#243
#243
1) Backstabbed Majors who built the program with Dickey
2) So hard-headed that Randy Sanders had to step down from being our OC on his own
3) Totally started to tank the program after Dickey retired in 2002
4) Let Rodney Gardner blow out of K-Town
5) Snitched on Bama while we were owning them
6) Told us Crompton could not cut the mustard for three years / Just think if Crompton had Kiffin for four years.
7) When the program faltered he could not build it back.

8) Coup'd up and got the AD job, wound up being the all-time wreckage.

Saddened that Fulmer never was able to mature into a non-paranoid hard head.
 
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#244
#244
Myrtleturtle said:
My thought exactly. Lots of sexism on these threads. Women like football also and don't like men who play the alpha male.
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Yep, there are plenty of guys on this site that are intimidated by strong women. Just check out the Politics forum. It’s rampant there. They like em barefoot and in the kitchen. Can’t handle much past that.
 
#245
#245
Delmar said:
Yep, there are plenty of guys on this site that are intimidated by strong women. Just check out the Politics forum. It’s rampant there. They like em barefoot and in the kitchen. Can’t handle much past that.
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You forgot and pregnant.
 
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#246
#246
Delmar said:
Yep, there are plenty of guys on this site that are intimidated by strong women. Just check out the Politics forum. It’s rampant there. They like em barefoot and in the kitchen. Can’t handle much past that.
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LMAO Ridiculous.
 
#248
#248
Until some coach or some coach/AD comes in here and posts at least 2 national titles, I consider him the 2nd best coach in our history behind the General. He had a lot of really good teams,. You can't deny him that. He sent a lot of kids through the NFL. They would have a different life today w/o Fulmer coaching them to be a team and give it your all for Tennessee.
 
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#249
#249
1982Alum said:
Until some coach or some coach/AD comes in here and posts at least 2 national titles, I consider him the 2nd best coach in our history behind the General. He had a lot of really good teams,. You can't deny him that. He sent a lot of kids through the NFL. They would have a different life today w/o Fulmer coaching them to be a team and give it your all for Tennessee.
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Yeah, heh.

DG started a false narrative a couple of weeks ago, without meaning to.

He started a thread arguing that Josh Heupel is the best-qualified hire since Johnny Majors. Unfortunately, he left the word "qualified" out of the thread title. So it just read, "best hire since Majors."

Inside the thread, his argument was pretty persuasive. It started with (a) Fulmer never having been a head coach before, (b) Kiffin just having gotten fired from his only HC job (Oakland), (c) Dooley having a losing record, and (d) Pruitt never having been head coach, either. Now, some thought DG missed the mark a bit, since Butch Jones actually had a better pre-Tennessee head coaching resume than Josh Heupel. But it was still, generally, a persuasive argument in favor of our new coach.

But since then, folks have mis-applied that argument, taking advantage of the missing word, "qualified." They are now trying to argue that Heupel is (somehow already) the best Tennessee coach since Johnny Majors. Not best-qualified for the job, but best coach.

There's only one best coach: Neyland. And there's only one best coach since Majors (even if you include Majors): Fulmer.

That might change one day. I hope it does. I hope Josh is such a shining star for us that he supplants Phillip as our second-best coach ever. Heck, I wouldn't even mind him doing better than the General. We will enshrine him in Tennessee lore forever if he reaches either of those plateaus.

But as of right now, it's Neyland then Fulmer (with a good argument for Barnhill, though his reign was brief), then Majors, then Dickey, then all the rest.

Go Vols!
 
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#250
#250
There was good and there was bad. There was a lot more good than bad. He won 100 more games than he lost. That likely will never be repeated.
 
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