Fulmer in the Bahamas

[BigOrangeTrain]

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.

So you are saying that Fulmer, a guy who had ZERO previous AD experience was the best we could have done? If that’s the case then our administration was beyond incompetent. They should have done their due diligence and performed a detailed search for an established AD.

 

[BowlBrother85]

I saw the Fulmers at the Texas Roadhouse in Alcoa in 2004. Rude people were taking pics of him left and right. Phil took it in stride .... but I could tell Vicky was peeved.

 

[ETV]

does he split Aces and 8s?

Hit a soft 16 or 17?

If it’s anything like his recent football performance, he’s doubling down on a 5.

 

[#1fulmerite]

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.

OP, I concur with this post. Best I remember, everyone on here was raving about the Pruitt hire. Seems they were crediting him with all of Saban’s success and Georgia’s as he was a top notch coordinator. People on here were claiming we were going to be the next Bama and so on. Also, seems at the time and I did agree with this sentiment, just who was going to come here? You just know that Fulmer wasn’t going to offer Kiffen or anyone associated with Curry’s trying, including the Pirate. So, if not Pruitt, who then?

Would we have been better off with Fulmer stepping in as interim for a year.?

 

[BigOrangeTrain]

OP, I concur with this post. Best I remember, everyone on here was raving about the Pruitt hire. Seems they were crediting him with all of Saban’s success and Georgia’s as he was a top notch coordinator. People on here were claiming we were going to be the next Bama and so on. Also, seems at the time and I did agree with this sentiment, just who was going to come here? You just know that Fulmer wasn’t going to offer Kiffen or anyone associated with Curry’s trying, including the Pirate. So, if not Pruitt, who then?

Would we have been better off with Fulmer stepping in as interim for a year.?

Good lord. No we wouldn’t have been better off with Fulmer as an interim. See you are making the point that our administration was a complete joke. They thought oh well Fulmer is a VFL and a former coach, so he should be the best pick for an AD. Should we do our due diligence and do a nation wide search for an actual qualified, proven AD? Nah let’s snag the guy who knows nothing about being an AD simply because of his coaching job.

And what kind of search did Fulmer do? Probably not much of one because he didn’t know what he wa doing. He made what he thought was a safe hire. A Bama DC. But imagine if we would have had a real AD who has made good hires and knew what he was doing maybe we would have gotten a Drinkwitz or an up and comer like a Cignetti type. But no that didn’t happen because Fulmer didn’t know what he was doing. That’s why it’s hard for me to fault him for the hire because he was simply ignorant and was in over his head.

 

[LWSVOL]

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.

Hammy screwed it up.

He had Kiffin hired before convincing powers that he could fire Fulmer and replace with Kiffin.

After firing, he went through a farce of talking to others, including Patterson, about the job with no intention of hiring. He talked with about 7 others.

Then when Kiffin bolted, none of those coaches even would talk to him. It filtered out what he had done year before. Patterson refused his phone call. He would have taken the job.

That is why we ended up with Dooley.

 

[LWSVOL]

OP, I concur with this post. Best I remember, everyone on here was raving about the Pruitt hire. Seems they were crediting him with all of Saban’s success and Georgia’s as he was a top notch coordinator. People on here were claiming we were going to be the next Bama and so on. Also, seems at the time and I did agree with this sentiment, just who was going to come here? You just know that Fulmer wasn’t going to offer Kiffen or anyone associated with Curry’s trying, including the Pirate. So, if not Pruitt, who then?

Would we have been better off with Fulmer stepping in as interim for a year.?

No chance to get a decent hire. Tennessee administration looked totally lost and incompetent. Fulmer was leaning elsewhere but an important booster insisted on Pruitt.

 

[LWSVOL]

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.

The only reason he was hired as AD was due to the incompetence of Tennessee’s administration. They were not convincing any competent AD to look at Tennessee and they couldn’t afford a long process to try and convince someone to take job. Football coach was needed.

To not recognize how messed up the administration was is missing the biggest issue with the whole mess.

 

[Rickyvol77]

Hammy screwed it up.

He had Kiffin hired before convincing powers that he could fire Fulmer and replace with Kiffin.

After firing, he went through a farce of talking to others, including Patterson, about the job with no intention of hiring. He talked with about 7 others.

Then when Kiffin bolted, none of those coaches even would talk to him. It filtered out what he had done year before. Patterson refused his phone call. He would have taken the job.

That is why we ended up with Dooley.

I will go to my grave insisting that Gary Patterson would've had massive success here and we never wouldn't went thru the 15 years of dysfunction

 

[Flipdaddy]

I will go to my grave insisting that Gary Patterson would've had massive success here and we never wouldn't went thru the 15 years of dysfunction

I will go to my grave insisting that Gary Patterson would've had massive success here and we never wouldn't went thru the 15 years of dysfunction

I definitely agree with this. At the time, we needed a good X and O coach.

 

[#1fulmerite]

Good lord. No we wouldn’t have been better off with Fulmer as an interim. See you are making the point that our administration was a complete joke. They thought oh well Fulmer is a VFL and a former coach, so he should be the best pick for an AD. Should we do our due diligence and do a nation wide search for an actual qualified, proven AD? Nah let’s snag the guy who knows nothing about being an AD simply because of his coaching job.

And what kind of search did Fulmer do? Probably not much of one because he didn’t know what he wa doing. He made what he thought was a safe hire. A Bama DC. But imagine if we would have had a real AD who has made good hires and knew what he was doing maybe we would have gotten a Drinkwitz or an up and comer like a Cignetti type. But no that didn’t happen because Fulmer didn’t know what he was doing. That’s why it’s hard for me to fault him for the hire because he was simply ignorant and was in over his head.

I always felt the Fulmer AD hire was due to the former chancellor’s thought that she needed to save her job. I never will forget that stupid smile she carried on her face announcing him as AD. Also, I’m sure people were pushing her to hire him as AD, as well. His AD hiring was to provide stability to the program and hopefully not turn into something bad, which unfortunately, it did. Now, wether a prominent booster pushed him to hire Pruitt, I do not know. I do however, think he liked the hire for a couple of reasons. One, it was him making the selection. Two, he thought Pruitt was a hard nose throw back coach and would maybe, prove his way of coaching had not become obsolete.

 

[TennesseeTarheel]

Bahamas instead of ice storm?! Go figure.

 

[WaywardVol]

Am at the Atlantis Resort. He was playing black jack. Good for him!

Spending his buyout?

 

[GiveEmSix]

He was there for a wedding. A friend of mine was speaking at the reception and said Fulmer would be there too