Fulmer’s Legacy at Tennessee

[N.ohio vol]

it would make sense, to me anyway, that if Fulmer knew about it Pruitt would have used that information to try and get his buyout if not save his job. To say it now just doesn't make sense and gets him nothing. IMO

The point I was trying to make was my view of his legacy won't really change unless he really knew what was going on with Pruitt. It appears he didn't but if he did what a dumb way to go down for what little money was really being thrown around.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

How does this Tennessee news affect Phil Fulmer’s legacy?

View attachment 474743

His legacy as a coach is intact. He remains the 2nd-best head coach in Tennessee football history. Maybe one day Josh Heupel can surpass him. But 152 wins and a 75% win rate is an awfully high bar.

His legacy as an AD is in tatters. And will likely never recover. He will go down in history as one of the worst Athletic Directors we've ever had.

How can one man be so Jekyll and Hyde? *shrug* Life is complicated.

Go Vols!

 

[Jravol78]

Gonna have to work like heck on controlling the narrative

 

[Clad in Big Orange]

Fulmer tarnished his coaching legacy by what he couldn't sustain after the '98 NC. Heard an interesting conversation on the radio the other day about coaches with a NC title who years from now people will wonder how they ever did that. Orgeron, Les Miles and Gene Chizik were prime examples. I think Fulmer belongs in that group also. Took over at the right time, assembled a lot of talent, had a great OC & DC for most of that time, needed a ton of good fortune to be in a title game, and won by 7 over a team with a back-up stiff at QB. Still, he deserves to be appreciated and rightly remembered as the #2 coach is school history.

As an AD, he has to be remembered as a complete failure.

 

[MAD]

Fulmer tarnished his coaching legacy by what he couldn't sustain after the '98 NC. Heard an interesting conversation on the radio the other day about coaches with a NC title who years from now people will wonder how they ever did that. Orgeron, Les Miles and Gene Chizik were prime examples. I think Fulmer belongs in that group also. Took over at the right time, assembled a lot of talent, had a great OC & DC for most of that time, needed a ton of good fortune to be in a title game, and won by 7 over a team with a back-up stiff at QB. Still, he deserves to be appreciated and rightly remembered as the #2 coach is school history.

As an AD, he has to be remembered as a complete failure.

Probably could add Louisiana-Monroe HC Terry Bowden to that list, his first year at Auburn they went 11-0 but were on probation and weren’t able to play in a bowl.

 

[PlanetVolunteer]

Fulmer tarnished his coaching legacy by what he couldn't sustain after the '98 NC. Heard an interesting conversation on the radio the other day about coaches with a NC title who years from now people will wonder how they ever did that. Orgeron, Les Miles and Gene Chizik were prime examples. I think Fulmer belongs in that group also. Took over at the right time, assembled a lot of talent, had a great OC & DC for most of that time, needed a ton of good fortune to be in a title game, and won by 7 over a team with a back-up stiff at QB. Still, he deserves to be appreciated and rightly remembered as the #2 coach is school history.

As an AD, he has to be remembered as a complete failure.

Now I'm 28 so I don't remember what it was like to watch it all in real time, but it obviously comes down to how bad the offenses were.

I have gone back and watched a ton of games and it just seemed like he was way too conservative.

Like even in 98 there were tons of drives where it was just run the ball up the gut three times and punt. He was obsessed with just playing field position.

Like how in the absolute eff could they have possibly lost to a 5-6 Memphis team in 96? We were a top 5 team back then with Peyton Manning and we just refused to impose our will.

Like just throw the freaking ball deep? How are they stopping Joey Keny, Marcus Nash and everyone else?

That's something you NEVER see with Saban, Urban Meyer, Ryan Day, Dabo, Spurrier etc.

There is no way in hell any top 5 team they have could possibly go lose to a 5-7 G5 team. It would never even be close.

There were just so many games like that. I think he was just trying to be Neyland and coach like he did. Which worked, but he had to make his offense more contemporary.

 

[Boston Vol]

Fulmer tarnished his coaching legacy by what he couldn't sustain after the '98 NC. Heard an interesting conversation on the radio the other day about coaches with a NC title who years from now people will wonder how they ever did that. Orgeron, Les Miles and Gene Chizik were prime examples. I think Fulmer belongs in that group also. Took over at the right time, assembled a lot of talent, had a great OC & DC for most of that time, needed a ton of good fortune to be in a title game, and won by 7 over a team with a back-up stiff at QB. Still, he deserves to be appreciated and rightly remembered as the #2 coach is school history.

As an AD, he has to be remembered as a complete failure.

I’ve made my opinion on Fulmer pretty clear over the years, but it’s ridiculous to put him in the same group as Chizik and Orgeron. Neither of those guys are going to be in the college football hall of fame. Fulmer belongs in the same group with guys like Mack Brown and Lloyd Carr.

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

Took over the machine Majors built from the ground up, got the credit, eventually ran the program down, plotted his way back, flushed the program down the toilet again, forced to retire in disgrace.

 

[DaddyChad]

His legacy as a coach is intact. He remains the 2nd-best head coach in Tennessee football history. Maybe one day Josh Heupel can surpass him. But 152 wins and a 75% win rate is an awfully high bar.

His legacy as an AD is in tatters. And will likely never recover. He will go down in history as one of the worst Athletic Directors we've ever had.

How can one man be so Jekyll and Hyde? *shrug* Life is complicated.

Go Vols!

The man just really never should’ve been AD. He wasn’t qualified. No other major program would’ve even given him an interview as an AD. Just a failure of leadership all the way up to the highest level of the university. There’s plenty of blame to go Fulmer’s way but mostly we should blame the leaders of our university for allowing him to be hired. Really had a void in the leadership at the AD position for decades anyways; whatever Haslam said was what would happen and he just really sucks at making football related decisions.

 

[Sarms58]

Took over the machine Majors built from the ground up, got the credit, eventually ran the program down, plotted his way back, flushed the program down the toilet again, forced to retire in disgrace.

I think you give Majors way more credit than he really deserves...he floundered and struggled for years...he picked up some good assistants who could recruit and slowly we came out of the cellar. Compare Majors' years 5-8 with Fulmer's...

 

[Sarms58]

I’ve made my opinion on Fulmer pretty clear over the years, but it’s ridiculous to put him in the same group as Chizik and Orgeron. Neither of those guys are going to be in the college football hall of fame. Fulmer belongs in the same group with guys like Mack Brown and Lloyd Carr.

Agree...Fulmer was a solid overall coach - great recruiter and he did manage to get some good coordinators. He's not as low as the guys listed. But he was never in the same league as guys like Spurrier either. Fulmer was able to assembly enough talent consistently year in year out to keep us always in contention and we did cross the finish line a couple of times. But man did he ever hire some bad coordinators/position coaches and then micromanage. The very skills that he needed to be a good AD were those he displayed weaknesses in as a head coach, so I was never on board with him being hired in that position.

 

[ABINGDON VOL FAN]

How will Phillip Fulmer and his lasting legacy to the University of Tennessee be remembered?

A “Legend” per Phil.

 

[beachvol23]

I remember the back stabbings.

And most people only know about the ones that were public! There were many more behind the scenes! He’s a scumbag!

 

[OrangeTsar]

Fulmer’s legacy at the Golden Corral

 

[OrangeTsar]

Everyone (myself included) rightfully pegs the 2001 loss to LSU in the SEC championship game as the sign that the end was coming and that Fulmer and the program were in decline. But I remember for me, the real sign, and I remember clearly thinking it at the time, was the game against Florida at Neyland on September 21, 2002. 108k + fans turned out and braved a downpour to cheer on the Vols. Tennessee fumbled SEVEN TIMES in the first half. SEVEN. In one series, Clausen was under center and I believe fumbled three out of four snaps. Unbelievable sloppiness even considering the rain. Fulmer Just sat there on the sideline with his by then habitual clapping detachment. Clausen stayed in the game. No fire on the sideline. No getting control of the situation. Cutcliffe would have restored some accountability to that team. Not Phil. THAT is the moment I knew our run was over.

 

[beamerman]

How will Phillip Fulmer and his lasting legacy to the University of Tennessee be remembered?

Like a young woman marrying an old rich guy for money, forcing him to divorce her and hI’m dumb enough to marry her again. Then she offs him. And that is being kind to Fulmer.

 

[VolArmy74]

I think you give Majors way more credit than he really deserves...he floundered and struggled for years...he picked up some good assistants who could recruit and slowly we came out of the cellar. Compare Majors' years 5-8 with Fulmer's...

Majors is the 2nd best coach we've had here.
Majors took over a floundering program, and we've seen how hard it is to stop that over the last 13 years. In less than 10 years Majors had snapped Bama's win streak, won the SEC and finished in the top 5.

It's selling Majors way short to downplay his rebuild of the program. It was even harder to rebuild back then because good programs could stockpile more talent because they could give out more scholarships. Take the 20 traditional best teams in the country and add 10 to 20 more players to their roster and look at the talent pool that's left over.

Majors also had to deal with a stacked Clemson that was cheating like heck as he rebuilt and a national championship level Georgia. Fulmer got to coach in the Clemson down era. We struggle and they rise. Georgia was varying degrees of garbage when Fulmer was at his peak. Florida hired Clemson's cheating coach and they were cheating too at the time and got very good. Plus Majors had Bear Bryant at Alabama still. Alabama during Fulmer's peak was a probation ridden mess and at the lowest points in school history.

Fulmer won a lot early on, and it was because Majors had UT humming and producing NFL talent in large part. Plus Majors was good at hiring quality assistants. Fulmer didn't just inherit a ton of talent, from a team that had been to major bowls and won multiple SEC titles recently, he inherited a staff of good coaches.

At the end if their careers both Majors and Fulmer had a national title. Majors rebuilt 3 programs, won more games, got more jobs, and won more conference championships than Fulmer. He hired better assistants and has a much better coaching tree. By any metric Johnny Majors was a better coach than Fulmer.

 

[VolArmy74]

Everyone (myself included) rightfully pegs the 2001 loss to LSU in the SEC championship game as the sign that the end was coming and that Fulmer and the program were in decline. But I remember for me, the real sign, and I remember clearly thinking it at the time, was the game against Florida at Neyland on September 21, 2002. 108k + fans turned out and braved a downpour to cheer on the Vols. Tennessee fumbled SEVEN TIMES in the first half. SEVEN. In one series, Clausen was under center and I believe fumbled three out of four snaps. Unbelievable sloppiness even considering the rain. Fulmer Just sat there on the sideline with his by then habitual clapping detachment. Clausen stayed in the game. No fire on the sideline. No getting control of the situation. Cutcliffe would have restored some accountability to that team. Not Phil. THAT is the moment I knew our run was over.

1999 was it for me. Fulmer returned a loaded national championship roster and went out and couldn't be bothered to change the snap count during a game where one player got about 32 sacks and came as close to single-handedly beating us as anyone I've ever seen. We went on to go 9-3 with that roster, when 11-2/12-1 should have been it's floor.

 

[PlanetVolunteer]

1999 was it for me. Fulmer returned a loaded national championship roster and went out and couldn't be bothered to change the snap count during a game where one player got about 32 sacks and came as close to single-handedly beating us as anyone I've ever seen. We went on to go 9-3 with that roster, when 11-2/12-1 should have been it's floor.

That toss sweep on 4th and 3 against all those fast florida athletes

 

[turdherder11]

1999 was it for me. Fulmer returned a loaded national championship roster and went out and couldn't be bothered to change the snap count during a game where one player got about 32 sacks and came as close to single-handedly beating us as anyone I've ever seen. We went on to go 9-3 with that roster, when 11-2/12-1 should have been it's floor.

96,97,99 and 01 teams all should have been contending for a NC . Losing Cutcliff really hurt him in 99 and 01 and every other season after that

 

[Brave Volunteer]

In terms of his legacy, I was willing to overlook the last few struggling years in Fulmer's coaching tenior and just focus on the positives like a .745 winning percentage, a 152-52 record, 5 SEC East championships, 2 SEC championships, and a national championship. However the absolute piss poor job he did as athletic director has completely soured my opinion of Fulmer. I do not think of him fondly at all.

 

[dduncan4163]

He has destroyed Tennessee football 3 times.
If you include the way Majors was pushed out.

U nailed it

 

[dduncan4163]

I've lost all respect for Fulmer. He's as stubborn as they come and his pride is what lead to his downfall as a coach and a AD. He's done more damage to our program than Hamilton, Currie, Butch and Dooley ever did. I don't care if I never see him around the university again. Just go away and leave us alone

 

[tnutater]

As someone who thought he was smarter and better than he actually is.

Nailed it.

 

[sjt18]

Hopefully in time it can all be put in perspective. He was a good coach in a very particular era of college football. His time came and went. Unfortunately, he lacked the wisdom to see it. He even tried to prove that his brand of football still worked when he hired Pruitt.