Fulmer in the Bahamas

#126
#126
LAVol1 said:
He earned the chance to turn it around. It was the perfect storm that led to his demise. Saban at Bama, Spurrier at USC, Urban Meyer at UF and Richt at UGA combined to hurt Vols recruiting, resulting in 4-5 fewer four and five star recruits every year. That, more than any reason led to the decline from a top 4 program to a top 20 program. Then came the demand to hire a OC to add some pop to the offense. Fulmer complied and hired Clawson, but as was pointed out by numerous fans, his offense took a full year to install successfully. When his first year didn't go well, Hamilton pulled the plug and the years in the football wilderness began with the short-sighted contract with Kiffen. Hindsight says we would have been much better off giving College Football Hall of Fame Coach Fulmer at least one more year. Fulmer's situation was very similar to Bobby Bowden at FSU and JoPa. Both had down years late in their careers and fans were clamoring for them to be fired because "the game had passed them by". Both turned it around. Fulmer may have as well.
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Disagree on this. What had Fulmer done to earn a chance as an AD? His NC? That’s not a qualification that makes him an eligible AD. If the UT administration had actually cared at that point, they would have done what they did when they hired DW. Go and look for an established AD who knows what they are doing. Fulmer didn’t know anything about being an AD and it showed.

Now I will say this. While it’s technically his fault with the Pruitt hire, I can’t fault him too much for that. I mean Kirby Smart is a Saban acolyte and look at what he has done at UGA. I mean I don’t think there were tons of coaches eager to want the UT job. So taking a Bama DC can’t really be faulted. But, this also goes back to the botch med job by the UT administration in hiring Fulmer as an AD. If they had hired an established AD, that person would have likely had a bigger net of possible coaches to hire.

At the end of the day Fulmer should have never been hired as an AD. And let’s face it the only reason he was, was because of the good old boy culture crap. Oh he has big ties to TN and is a VFL. Well DW had zero ties to TN and look at what he has done.
 
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#130
#130
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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It’s not “people”. There’s only one poster who keeps repeating that ridiculous statement and I’ve decided that’s his trolling mechanism. I told him that he got a sabbatical—a permanent one— but he doesn’t seem to understand. It’s all he contributes so I guess the Ignore button is the only solution.
 
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#131
#131
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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OK, two posters repeating this ridiculous notion. But I don’t think VFL-JP is a troll. Just misguided on that subject.

And the revisionist history is also mind blowing.
 
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#132
#132
He is so conservative my guess is he would never take a card that will bust him. His skill was in the living room and he recruited enough talent for 3 national championships. Other SEC schools hired coaches to out recruit him and they did. It was over for him when Cutcliffe left for Ole Miss. At that point he no longer had the best players and no offensive game plan.
 
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#133
#133
Let’s go back to this time if we can…college football had been Sabanized. Nick Saban came in January 2007 with all of this self made hype. Here’s an example. You don’t have fans (female) in an Alabama jersey hugging and kissing a coach when he gets off of the jet. This was staged for the cameras to bring attention to Alabama and it worked all orchestrated by Saban and it was genius.

Now, take the fact that he came in like the hard nosed coaches of old, kicking cancers off of the team and holding everybody accountable, his style worked and his previous record at LSU got him respect. Then…rumor gets out that if you make all American and when you’re done with Alabama completely, you and momma get a brand new car from a booster that owns high end dealerships in south Alabama. Come from somebody I really trust. And trust me Saban never got involved because he’s smart. Just let the boosters do it all. Somebody got to the boosters and schooled them on how to get players without a paper trail like the old days.

Point being, Fulmer didn’t have the stomach to go all gimmicky and hype and Saban was the master of it. I know for a fact that all of the press conference blow ups were staged because one reporter that had total access told me they were. Those outburst turned the recruits on and they flocked to Alabama and for obvious other reasons. Did y’all ever see the cars those guys were driving???

I think Fulmer staying would’ve been better for us but eventually he would’ve been let go because without the Jimmy’s and Joe’s that Saban had, nobody was going to be able to compete unless they were willing to go on the “let’s risk it and hype this program up” train and like I said, Fulmer wasn’t about that.
 
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#134
#134
#1fulmerite said:
He “didn’t suddenly forget how to coach”.
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He didn't have a whole lot he could have forgotten. He was never a very good coach except for the recruiting part of it. When some of our competition got capable coaches who could recruit as well as him, his goose was cooked. No sabbatical would have made him competitive in the SEC.
 
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#135
#135
Who gives a rats ass where he is. He came back hired Pruitt and that was complete mess.PHIL got a big salary for AD job and hired Kevin Steele as interim. He was on the payroll for about two weeks and my understanding had to pay him about $900,000.00 and that was a total waste. UT let FULMER GO as AD and had to pay him for 2-3:years. That was a lot of money spent on these two people. AD White and Donna Plowman has to hire a new coach to straighten out the program. We are in better shape today than 2020.
 
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#136
#136
EasternVol said:
He didn't have a whole lot he could have forgotten. He was never a very good coach except for the recruiting part of it. When some of our competition got capable coaches who could recruit as well as him, his goose was cooked. No sabbatical would have made him competitive in the SEC.
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He was probably one of the best Offensive Coordinators we’ve ever had.
 
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#137
#137
EasternVol said:
He didn't have a whole lot he could have forgotten. He was never a very good coach except for the recruiting part of it. When some of our competition got capable coaches who could recruit as well as him, his goose was cooked. No sabbatical would have made him competitive in the SEC.
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Exactly right. All you have to do is compare our NFL draft picks between 1995 and 2001 versus 2002 to 2007. There was a significant drop off. That falls directly to lapses in recruiting and development and ultimately to the head coach.
 
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#138
#138
BigOrangeTrain said:
Disagree on this. What had Fulmer done to earn a chance as an AD? His NC? That’s not a qualification that makes him an eligible AD. If the UT administration had actually cared at that point, they would have done what they did when they hired DW. Go and look for an established AD who knows what they are doing. Fulmer didn’t know anything about being an AD and it showed.

Now I will say this. While it’s technically his fault with the Pruitt hire, I can’t fault him too much for that. I mean Kirby Smart is a Saban acolyte and look at what he has done at UGA. I mean I don’t think there were tons of coaches eager to want the UT job. So taking a Bama DC can’t really be faulted. But, this also goes back to the botch med job by the UT administration in hiring Fulmer as an AD. If they had hired an established AD, that person would have likely had a bigger net of possible coaches to hire.

At the end of the day Fulmer should have never been hired as an AD. And let’s face it the only reason he was, was because of the good old boy culture crap. Oh he has big ties to TN and is a VFL. Well DW had zero ties to TN and look at what he has done.
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He deserved the chance to turn around the program when he was coaching. He failed as AD. Most pundits thought Pruitt was by far the best hire we could make under the circumstances. Fulmer's hire as AD was done to put emphasis on football and rally donors. It was, in hind sight, a bad move, but at the time, don't know where else we could turn.
 
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#139
#139
Delmar said:
It’s not “people”. There’s only one poster who keeps repeating that ridiculous statement and I’ve decided that’s his trolling mechanism. I told him that he got a sabbatical—a permanent one— but he doesn’t seem to understand. It’s all he contributes so I guess the Ignore button is the only solution.
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I thought 2005 was a sabbatical for Phil.
 
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#140
#140
EasternVol said:
He didn't have a whole lot he could have forgotten. He was never a very good coach except for the recruiting part of it. When some of our competition got capable coaches who could recruit as well as him, his goose was cooked. No sabbatical would have made him competitive in the SEC.
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Not a very popular opinion but I agree 100%. I never hated him, even now I don't, but I never liked him.

I try not to argue over him out of respect. But the day I heard he was fired I thanked the football gods.
 
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#142
#142
EasternVol said:
He didn't have a whole lot he could have forgotten. He was never a very good coach except for the recruiting part of it. When some of our competition got capable coaches who could recruit as well as him, his goose was cooked. No sabbatical would have made him competitive in the SEC.
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As usual a dumb take from you
 
#144
#144
EasternVol said:
It's accurate. And I didn't mention him becoming entitled and complacent on top of mediocre.
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He was one of the best OL coaches and OCs in the sport during the 1980s-90s

He was a Hall of Fame coach and the most successful in the UT modern era.

Complacent and entitled and mediocre makes you sound like the child you are, at least intellectually.

Fulmer has a lot of faults like any other HC, but you are simply wrong, as you are on 99% of topics out there
 
#145
#145
Rickyvol77 said:
He was one of the best OL coaches and OCs in the sport during the 1980s-90s

He was a Hall of Fame coach and the most successful in the UT modern era.

Complacent and entitled and mediocre makes you sound like the child you are, at least intellectually.

Fulmer has a lot of faults like any other HC, but you are simply wrong, as you are on 99% of topics out there
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🤣🤣🤡🤡 Sure thing Vickie.
 
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#146
#146
Rickyvol77 said:
As usual a dumb take from you
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Dont act like hes got a monopoly on dumb takes. Ive seen some of yours and boy, Im sure you seen some of mine. And to be fair there are some dumb takes on both sides of the Great Fulmer Debate.

Pretty much everything Ive seen here (VN) was correct about Fulmer. And Majors for that matter.
 
#147
#147
EasternVol said:
He didn't have a whole lot he could have forgotten. He was never a very good coach except for the recruiting part of it. When some of our competition got capable coaches who could recruit as well as him, his goose was cooked. No sabbatical would have made him competitive in the SEC.
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That’s a major part of why folks say the game passed him by. Credit needs to be given to Majors for Fulmer learning how to recruit.
 
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#149
#149
Fulmer did a lot of things right in the 90s that he deserves credit for. We always had excellent OL play. We had an excellent S&C program. We were always at or near the top in recruiting. Our defenses were generally pretty solid.
He also inherited a solid program from Johnny Majors that was on the cusp of competing for a title. He also had to compete against the likes of Ray Goff, Curly Halman, and Mike Dubose.
I give him credit for a decade of some very good football, that we haven't had since then, but the SEC got a lot more competitive towards the end of his tenure. Richt, Saban, and Meyer changed the game for him. The loss of Cutcliffe changed the game for him. Maybe he would have adapted, maybe not. But it certainly wasn't trending well.
 
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#150
#150
Godfatha said:
Fulmer did a lot of things right in the 90s that he deserves credit for. We always had excellent OL play. We had an excellent S&C program. We were always at or near the top in recruiting. Our defenses were generally pretty solid.
He also inherited a solid program from Johnny Majors that was on the cusp of competing for a title. He also had to compete against the likes of Ray Goff, Curly Halman, and Mike Dubose.
I give him credit for a decade of some very good football, that we haven't had since then, but the SEC got a lot more competitive towards the end of his tenure. Richt, Saban, and Meyer changed the game for him. The loss of Cutcliffe changed the game for him. Maybe he would have adapted, maybe not. But it certainly wasn't trending well.
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Have to add the great Gerry Dinardo and awesome Woody Woodhaulfer (sp).
 
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