Fulmer’s legacy?

How do you view CPF’s legacy as a coach and AD?

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#226
#226
BigNasty said:
Touche’. The point I was attempting to make is Fulmer out talented teams. He rarely if ever out coached them. I remember so many Vandy and Kentucky one score games mid way through 4th quarter. Question: How many games did Fulmer win with equal or lesser talent??
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To be fair, you can say that about any college coach, good or bad, who has ever lived. The entire point of college coaching is to take the field with more talent than your opponent. How many games did Saban, Bobby Bowden, Tom Osborne, and Bear Bryant win with equal or lesser talent? Very little.

One critique about Fulmer that I will make is that he rarely seemed to squeeze all the juice out of the orange (pun intended). He didn't seem to elevate anyone beyond what that player's recruiting assessment would indicate. And towards the end of his tenure, his rosters were littered with busts.
 
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#227
#227
To be fair and, I am a Fulmer fan, the large amounts of money he has been paid by the university doesn’t look good. Other than that, I think his legacy is solid.
 
#228
#228
If he had stayed out of the AD's office in 2017 his legacy would be impeccable. When he was fired, he was one of the deans of football. His actions in 2017 and as AD were horrendous really.
 
#230
#230
Firebirdparts said:
If he had stayed out of the AD's office in 2017 his legacy would be impeccable. When he was fired, he was one of the deans of football. His actions in 2017 and as AD were horrendous really.
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Far from impeccable. Since his NC run in 1998 until he was fired he had a losing record against top 25 teams and our 3 biggest rivals, that isn't close to being impeccable.
 
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#231
#231
I had no expectation he was going to once again match his glory years and therefore had zero problem with the fact he put his job in play with his second losing season. BUT go back and see his record after the first 1.

I do have a big problem with cutting a HOF bound Coach loose without a couple of guys having winked at rhetorical inquiries by our PEOPLE. No way in the world will I believe we reach the depths if we waited till there was an executable plan lined up. Another year? Two??
 
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#235
#235
orangebloodgmc said:
1998 Coach of the Year selected by 4 different national entities, 2003 president of the Am.Football Coaches Assoc., elected by his peers, college football coaches hall of fame. So, yeah, national recognition.
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No, he's not a "dean" of college football. He was a great recruiter, great offensive line coach and a good OC. Was ready for the HC job after Majors. Fulmer took the reigns really well. It was UT centric for him, and he was successful for about 8 years. The insinuation you are making calling him a "dean" is that he is one of the best coaches of all time.
 
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#237
#237
I just think had we given him a sabbatical after ‘08, he may have pulled another SECC or two and maybe another NC.
 
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#239
#239
The sense of entitlement for some here is palpable, acting like they are owed something. What they are owed is honest effort and love for the university. Phil Fulmer checked those boxes, and in addition gave us some great teams and great memories. If that's not enough for you, that's your problem, and should examine your priorities.
 
#241
#241
EconVol92 said:
He squandered quite a bit of talent. He often had as much or more talent throughout the mid 90’s to the mid 2000’s and lost the games that he shouldn’t have and rarely won those that he shouldn’t have.

I’ve said it before and that is coach Cut was the real force for the good years Fulmer had as coach and his time as AD was a failure by anyone’s standard.

To me he was a net negative and that is saying something for a coach who won a national title.
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Greatest UT football coach of your lifetime, consistently a top 5 program for 10+ years, and he was a "net negative"? Absurd. Fulmer was the best recruiter in the country, bar none, for a 10-year period. What did him in was a near-perfect storm: Richt (excellent recruiter) at UGA, Meyer @ UF and Spurrier @ USC. That diminished Fulmer's 4-5* players by 3-5 per year and led to the decline. Do you have any doubt that the Vols would have been far better off if they retained Fulmer for 2-5 more years and let him go out on his own terms vs. the 15 years of hell we endured?
 
#242
#242
LAVol1 said:
Greatest UT football coach of your lifetime, consistently a top 5 program for 10+ years, and he was a "net negative"? Absurd. Fulmer was the best recruiter in the country, bar none, for a 10-year period. What did him in was a near-perfect storm: Richt (excellent recruiter) at UGA, Meyer @ UF and Spurrier @ USC. That diminished Fulmer's 4-5* players by 3-5 per year and led to the decline. Do you have any doubt that the Vols would have been far better off if they retained Fulmer for 2-5 more years and let him go out on his own terms vs. the 15 years of hell we endured?
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We didn't make a mistake firing Fulmer, he should have been fired after 2005. We didn't even make a mistake hiring CLK, where we grenaded the program was the rush hiring of Dooley. Hammy should have taged Brown with the interim HC job and waited until after the 2010 season to make a decision.

It was clear Fulmer could no longer compete at the highest levels by 2005.
 
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#243
#243
#1fulmerite said:
Now that he has been away from the program for a few years now, what would you rate his TOTAL legacy combining both his coaching era and his tenure as AD? I know most of you fellow posters will want to split these into two different judgements but, how do you view his overall legacy now that he has been away from the program?
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A good legacy! He had a winning record against the bammers, the 'biggest' reason they hated him!!
 
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#244
#244
LAVol1 said:
Greatest UT football coach of your lifetime, consistently a top 5 program for 10+ years, and he was a "net negative"? Absurd. Fulmer was the best recruiter in the country, bar none, for a 10-year period. What did him in was a near-perfect storm: Richt (excellent recruiter) at UGA, Meyer @ UF and Spurrier @ USC. That diminished Fulmer's 4-5* players by 3-5 per year and led to the decline. Do you have any doubt that the Vols would have been far better off if they retained Fulmer for 2-5 more years and let him go out on his own terms vs. the 15 years of hell we endured?
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I have quite a bit of doubt.

Fulmer should have retired after the 98 championship like his wife wanted and have Cutt take over as head coach.

Look at this record with and without coach Cutt, there is a noticeable decline.

Fulmer should have been let go no later than 2004 as he was coasting and all he wanted to do was have more wins than Neyland and I believe he admitted at one point that he was just coasting.

I will say he was a great recruiter; however, as I stated before he squandered quite a bit of talent and no one is going to deny that he was worse than a train wreck as AD.

We are just at opposite ends of the spectrum here, but I say that Fulmer set the blocks in place for the decade of dysfunction and he bookended it with his AD performance.
 
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#246
#246
GAVol said:
He actually wasn’t bad against Richt. He lost a few early to him but I think the last 5 years he was competitive with uGA
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Yep. Fulmer went 3-5 against Richt.

It was Urban and Saban that ate his lunch, but whoever the UF coach is always eats our lunch and Saban ate everyone's lunch.
 
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#247
#247
BernardKingGOAT said:
No, he's not a "dean" of college football. He was a great recruiter, great offensive line coach and a good OC. Was ready for the HC job after Majors. Fulmer took the reigns really well. It was UT centric for him, and he was successful for about 8 years. The insinuation you are making calling him a "dean" is that he is one of the best coaches of all time.
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Your words, not mine.
 
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