Fulmer in the Bahamas

#76
#76
JackWhite said:
Kiffin wasn’t a terrible hire. He was the right hire at the time. What was terrible was the atrocious contract that we had in place with him.

I still wish those Grumors had come true.
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Kiffin was a horrible hire. MANY of us questioned the decision at the time. His one season was average and plagued with off the field drama.

And even if you feel like it wasn't such a bad idea at the time, how can you possibly fail to realize it with the benefit of hindsight?
 
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#77
#77
Big Orange Captain said:
Fulmer really underachieved considering all the talent he had. He should’ve won more than two SEC titles and perhaps another national title, he def should’ve played for the national title in 2001 but got outcoached by Saban in the SEC title game against a LSU team that we were vastly more talented than and had already beat 26-7 in earlier in the year. He let the program slide into mediocrity before he was fired along with recruiting. David Cutliffe was the key behind Fulmers success really and the best assistant coach that he ever had. Give me Johnny over back stabbing Fulmer any day and we should’ve canned Fulmer after the 5-6 season in 2005 there was a number of attractive head coaches available at the time too.
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If we gave you Johnny then have to take our national championship away because he would never have sniffed one
 
#78
#78
I think his time was up, but I wish he would’ve been given one more year. Maybe another program would’ve snatched up Kiffin and he could’ve kickstarted their downfall instead of us.
 
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#80
#80
Hacksaw said:
Kiffin was a horrible hire. MANY of us questioned the decision at the time. His one season was average and plagued with off the field drama.

And even if you feel like it wasn't such a bad idea at the time, how can you possibly fail to realize it with the benefit of hindsight?
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AGREE...IF, big IF, we would have gotten the mature, grown up version of Kiffin, it would have been a great hire...or had someone around at the time that could have kept him in check it would have been a good hire.

As it was,.we got the young, unfounded arrogant, rule "bender" that thrived on the drama. Mike Hamilton was not the guy to keep that in check. Furthermore, as evidenced by both the Kiffin hiring and departure, Hamilton had ZERO plan beyond get rid of Fulmer.
 
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#81
#81
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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It wasn’t Hamilton’s fault fans weren’t showing up to games. Fulmer was on a slow bleed since SECG in 2001. After 2005 was his turn it around season.
 
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#82
#82
rocketskates said:
I think his time was up, but I wish he would’ve been given one more year. Maybe another program would’ve snatched up Kiffin and he could’ve kickstarted their downfall instead of us.
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Yeah but say we wait a year and Kiffin goes to USCw...who was hired that next year that UT would have been in position to get?

That was the year Dabo was hired at Clemson, so maybe?
Jimbo bumped up at FSU?
Chip K.at Oregon?
Someone from the NFL?
The following year was Kelley to ND.

Point being, I'm not sure with the position of the school and the talent available that UT would have done much better the next year outside of Dabo, but remember Dabo was very, very average the first few years at Clemson...would he have done better here?
Who knows, but it would have been fun finding out.
 
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#86
#86
IndianaVol said:
Yeah but say we wait a year and Kiffin goes to USCw...who was hired that next year that UT would have been in position to get?

That was the year Dabo was hired at Clemson, so maybe?
Jimbo bumped up at FSU?
Chip K.at Oregon?
Someone from the NFL?
The following year was Kelley to ND.

Point being, I'm not sure with the position of the school and the talent available that UT would have done much better the next year outside of Dabo, but remember Dabo was very, very average the first few years at Clemson...would he have done better here?
Who knows, but it would have been fun finding out.
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It was all about consistency. It would’ve been better to have an average coach for a few years than one who decimated the program overnight. My biggest beef with Kiffin isn’t even that he left for his dream job—it’s that he caused the panic hiring of Derek freakin Dooley. That was the beginning of the slide.
 
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#87
#87
rocketskates said:
It was all about consistency. It would’ve been better to gave an average coach for a few years than one who decimated the program overnight. My biggest beef with Kiffin isn’t even that he left for his dream job—it’s that he caused the panic hiring of Derek freakin Dooley. That was the beginning of the slide.".
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..he caused the panic hiring of Derek freakin Dooley"

YES!! That first text sent to Dooley begin the spiral..
 
#88
#88
IndianaVol said:
Yeah but say we wait a year and Kiffin goes to USCw...who was hired that next year that UT would have been in position to get?

That was the year Dabo was hired at Clemson, so maybe?
Jimbo bumped up at FSU?
Chip K.at Oregon?
Someone from the NFL?
The following year was Kelley to ND.

Point being, I'm not sure with the position of the school and the talent available that UT would have done much better the next year outside of Dabo, but remember Dabo was very, very average the first few years at Clemson...would he have done better here?
Who knows, but it would have been fun finding out.
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Dabo was a WR coach promoted after Bowden was fired mid-season. He hired people smarter than him to get him started.
 
#89
#89
sigmundoooz said:
"in all likelihood, he was following Fulmer's own directives." This is irresponsible, baseless conjecture.
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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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#90
#90
rocketskates said:
It was all about consistency. It would’ve been better to gave an average coach for a few years than one who decimated the program overnight. My biggest beef with Kiffin isn’t even that he left for his dream job—it’s that he caused the panic hiring of Derek freakin Dooley. That was the beginning of the slide.
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I wouldn’t say panic, we were turned down for 3 weeks by the Cut debacle, Sumlin and Muschamp. It was a reflection of the roster at the time
 
#91
#91
207 others said:
Wish he was given

A. Sabbatical
B. 10 more years of coaching

You put the biggest VFL alive, with the only actual results in my lifetime, in a changing environment and gave him realistically 2 years of learning that evolution. He had not understood and had a bad staff at the time for modern CFB.

Guarantee you he would have had some good years between 2010 and 2020.
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What? It appears that @ful
 
#93
#93
lostsheep said:
Hope he has Cutcliffe with him to tell him which cards to play. Otherwise I imagine he’ll go broke pretty quickly.
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Can you imagine Chavis sitting next to him telling him to (stay) instead of (hit me)? He most likely would “prevent” Fulmer from winning.
 
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#98
#98
I have the pleasure of interacting with Coach Fulmer regularly. We frequent the same restaurant in Maryville pretty often, and I see him at the bar probably every other time we visit. Most of the time he is with family, but the few times I have seen him there alone I give him a "Go Vols" and he has shaken my hand and chatted a little bit about the team. He got a kick out of my kids causing chaos in the outside area of the restaurant trying to play with the oversized connect four.
 
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#100
#100
Mikevol1964 said:
Yeah because everyone was beating down the door to be Tenn coach at that time. Geez get over your Fulmer hate. FDS
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Are you forgetting that Fulmer's predecessor at AD had a proven good coach lined up before Phil weaseled the job away from him?
 
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