Fulmer in the Bahamas

#101
#101
goldvol said:
Well, 1. it’s a football forum. It’s full of baseless conjecture. 2. You think a good AD was unaware of the level of cheating they accused him of?

Hard to believe an experienced NC winning coach would take a guy who’s never been a college coach and give him a long leash. Pruitt doesn’t have the connections alone to finance the kind of payments he was accused of making.
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Fulmer was known for meddling except with Cutcliffe. There's no way he let Beldar do his own thing.
 
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#102
#102
goldvol said:
that's a great sighting.
2 things: We should have had a better plan in place for transitioning in 2007 / 2008, and he was a terrible AD, who hired the worst possible candidate for head coach of Tennessee football, before then throwing that coach under the bus for cheating when in all likelihood, he was following Fulmer's own directives. Then quietly rode away into the Bahamian sunset
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Never should have fired him !! PERIOD!! It took 15yrs to get a coach !!! He was 58 the day he was fired ! Ranked 5th in recruiting with Tajh Boyd and Bryce Petty both committed ! His firing set UT back 2 decades
 
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#105
#105
wmcovol said:
I’d liked to seen Tajh Boyd play here than at Clemson.
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Fulmer woulda’ had Trevor Lawrence and Tee Higgins too.
I was furious and saddened by that firing - it was the dumbest thing we could have done. It was gonna cause the Battle days…..And it did. We should have given him plenty of time to fix it- he earned that. But we didn’t, and got what we deserve.
The one we have over there is a good one, and I hope we hang on to him for a long time and have learned from our past..
 
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#106
#106
Iravolfan said:
Never should have fired him !! PERIOD!! It took 15yrs to get a coach !!! He was 58 the day he was fired ! Ranked 5th in recruiting with Tajh Boyd and Bryce Petty both committed ! His firing set UT back 2 decades
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The firing didnt set us back two decades as much as Hammy running the football program like a mid major in hiring his replacement(s)....
 
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#109
#109
BigOrangeMojo said:
The firing didnt set us back two decades as much as Hammy running the football program like a mid major in hiring his replacement(s)....
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There were some good options available that Hamilton passed on. I don't care what anyone says but Kiffin was not the same coach back then as he is now. His time at USC proved that and other people can spare me what he inherited at USC. Heupel's situation was similar and he survived. From what I remember, MH thought Gary Patterson wasn't good enough to coach at UT. Pretty telling if you ask me.
 
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#111
#111
Iravolfan said:
Never should have fired him !! PERIOD!! It took 15yrs to get a coach !!! He was 58 the day he was fired ! Ranked 5th in recruiting with Tajh Boyd and Bryce Petty both committed ! His firing set UT back 2 decades
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Hulavol said:
Fulmer woulda’ had Trevor Lawrence and Tee Higgins too.
I was furious and saddened by that firing - it was the dumbest thing we could have done. It was gonna cause the Battle days…..And it did. We should have given him plenty of time to fix it- he earned that. But we didn’t, and got what we deserve.
The one we have over there is a good one, and I hope we hang on to him for a long time and have learned from our past..
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hog88 said:
He should have been fired after the 2005 season.
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If only he had been given a sabbatical.
 
#112
#112
The "Fulmer should have been given a Sabbatical" line is so weird, so ridiculous, so completely inane and so often repeated that I HAVE to respond.

What was going to happen? Were we going to bring in a lame duck coach, and send Fulmer out to the Nevada desert with a tent and a bag of 'shrooms and wait for him to experience the universe open up to him?

For him to have a Don Draper "Coca Cola" like moment and suddenly see that waddling around like a beached whale clapping your hands every time Saban runs the same damn play and rams it up your #$$ for 5 yards is not the way to enlightenment?

For him to raise his arms, and exclaim to Gaia that letting Randy Sanders call a 5 yard out pattern on 3rd and 7 is a losing strategy?

Maybe the stars would spell out another secret that watching game film of the above was not going to result in eternal wisdom and 'workin' like heck' is not a mantra to universal knowledge?

Or perhaps he WOULD have a true "Tony Soprano raising your arms to the heavens" moment and realize that perhaps hiring competent people would NOT result in someone doing to him what he did to Majors? That it would, in fact, result in a better team?

Good grief people, give it a rest. He let his foot off the gas, cruised, and collected checks after 1998. That's not something new, it's human nature. Some coaches NEVER lose the drive, ala Saban, but it has been my experience that once it's gone, its GONE!

Please. Stop.
 
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#114
#114
VolInNW said:
The "Fulmer should have been given a Sabbatical" line is so weird, so ridiculous, so completely inane and so often repeated that I HAVE to respond.

What was going to happen? Were we going to bring in a lame duck coach, and send Fulmer out to the Nevada desert with a tent and a bag of 'shrooms and wait for him to experience the universe open up to him?

For him to have a Don Draper "Coca Cola" like moment and suddenly see that waddling around like a beached whale clapping your hands every time Saban runs the same damn play and rams it up your #$$ for 5 yards is not the way to enlightenment?

For him to raise his arms, and exclaim to Gaia that letting Randy Sanders call a 5 yard out pattern on 3rd and 7 is a losing strategy?

Maybe the stars would spell out another secret that watching game film of the above was not going to result in eternal wisdom and 'workin' like heck' is not a mantra to universal knowledge?

Or perhaps he WOULD have a true "Tony Soprano raising your arms to the heavens" moment and realize that perhaps hiring competent people would NOT result in someone doing to him what he did to Majors? That it would, in fact, result in a better team?

Good grief people, give it a rest. He let his foot off the gas, cruised, and collected checks after 1998. That's not something new, it's human nature. Some coaches NEVER lose the drive, ala Saban, but it has been my experience that once it's gone, its GONE!

Please. Stop.
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VFL-82-JP said:
Yeah, that's why you give the man a one-year sabbatical. To get his bearings back. To get hungry again. To reassess and formulate a new plan, not have to do it on the fly.

You don't kick the man to the curb. Not a championship-winning coach. No smart program does that. Ever.
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VFL-82-JP said:
I actually agree with the wisdom of putting Fulmer on sabbatical for a year after the 2008 season, so can help explain how it might work:
  • AD tells Fulmer to take a year off, reflect on the state of the game of football and where he wants the program to go, that as things are working right now it's not going in a positive direction. Tells him the job is his again after the year has passed, if he still wants it, but that he is to have no contact with the football program, the coaching staff, or the players for those 12 months.
  • The idea is for Fulmer to have a chance to do two things: rediscover his hunger for excellence, and reflect on ways to improve the program, hire new coaching talent in one or more spots perhaps, get things rolling toward championships again.
  • Then the AD calls in Chavis, offers him a one-year head coaching gig, after which time he goes back to being DC. Only thing he's not allowed to do is fire assistant coaches during that year, unless they're doing something illegal/immoral/unethical. It's good for Chavis, good for the program, and keeps a sense of continuity going.
  • When, after the year passes, Fulmer comes back as head coach (assuming he does), he has a fresh start to prove his leadership, just as any new coach would. Things don't go well after three or so years, THEN the AD can fire him.
That's a four-year process, 2009 to 2012. I can guaran-damn-tee you we'd do better than 23-27 over those four years, which is what Kiffin and Dooley did for us. AND even if Fulmer were fired after 2012, our AD (Hart by then) would be MUCH better positioned to get a top candidate on board than he was after the Dooley mess. Instead of a Butch Jones, we'd get a James Franklin or a Sonny Dykes, someone on that tier.

And that's if Fulmer isn't back to winning championships with a strong new offensive coordinator.

That's how a sabbatical could work.


"...just doing time trying to get more wins..."
Friend, isn't that what we pay head coaches to do? Get more wins?

EDIT: Econ, I do see your point. I do. You're saying he was coasting. Just 21 wins behind the General for the title of "winningest coach in Tennessee history," and even if it takes him three or four years to get there, he still reaches that goal, so he's coasting. I get it.

Which is where the idea of a sabbatical fits so well. It threatens that goal while giving the man a chance to rediscover his own competitive spirit (and we all know every head coach in college football is ultra-competitive by nature).

Go Vols!
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#117
#117
vol94fan said:
Met him at an airport in NYC shortly after he was fired from head coach. He was very personable and down to earth. He said he wished they had given him a little more time to turn it around. He's had a great career and deserves to have fun in retirement.
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Met him at hartsfield airport when i work for Delta in 90s he was really kind person and was very hospitable. I met him and Chavis briefly before they boarded the plane. He and Chavis just good people and i asked them what were going to do to beat Florida. Fulmer snickered told me they were working on it :)
 
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#123
#123
@#1fulmerite and @VFL-82-JP

You both DO in fact realize how utterly f-ing insane what you have typed is to a rational mind?

Absolutely bat-^%$# crazy. Yes, we hired a number of incompetent coaches, but none of that was due to Fulmer not getting a freaking SABBATICAL. Fulmer coasted, collected several million dollars, and then seethed when his cushy job for life, or so he thought, was taken away. Its called life.

Good lord. The coach worship that some of our fans indulge in is absolutely mind-blowing
 
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#124
#124
VolInNW said:
@#1fulmerite and @VFL-82-JP

You both DO in fact realize how utterly f-ing insane what you have typed is to a rational mind?

Absolutely bat-^%$# crazy. Yes, we hired a number of incompetent coaches, but none of that was due to Fulmer not getting a freaking SABBATICAL. Fulmer coasted, collected several million dollars, and then seethed when his cushy job for life, or so he thought, was taken away. Its called life.

Good lord. The coach worship that some of our fans indulge in is absolutely mind-blowing
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He “didn’t suddenly forget how to coach”.
 
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#125
#125
#1fulmerite said:
He “didn’t suddenly forget how to coach”.
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No. That’s true. And let me be clear that from all reports he is a good guy and nice person. But, a good person can lose their drive and become complacent. It seemed from all indications that a combination of things happened, which included our competitors finally hiring decent coaches that proved to be equal to or better than Fulmer.

My point is that a sabbatical is an insane idea for a program of Tennessee’s level and likely wouldn’t have worked in any event.
 
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