Fulmer's downfall

Reason for Fulmer's downfall

  • Complacency

    Votes: 156 38.0%

  • Cutcliffe Leaving

    Votes: 100 24.4%

  • Dave Clawson

    Votes: 35 8.5%

  • Kelly Washington

    Votes: 5 1.2%

  • Mike Hamilton

    Votes: 69 16.8%

  • Two losing seasons in four years

    Votes: 45 11.0%
  • Total voters
    410
  • Poll closed .
#152
#152
05_never_again said:
Multitude of factors, but the single biggest was the entry of Mark Richt and Urban Meyer into the SEC East.

Fulmer had his greatest run of success when the SEC was a two-team league, Tennessee and Florida, and Florida still got the best of us. His only consistent success against Florida was after Spurrier left. When Georgia, LSU, etc. hired better coaches, Fulmer was nowhere near as competitive. He had a losing record against Florida, Georgia, and Alabama from 2002 until he was fired - I think that says a lot, and I think he still would have been fired even if he didn't have the losing seasons in 2005 and 2008.

Lotta Vol fans don't like to admit this, but we had the most success when the conference wasn't all that good. When the SEC really started to emerge as CFB's premier conference in the mid 2000s and then especially in the late 2000s, the program faded into oblivion and is still in oblivion. I hate to say this, but it is really hard for us to be good if Florida, Georgia, Alabama, etc. are all up. We kind of need for at least one of them to be down for us to be good. We don't control our destiny as much as they do because of their ability to recruit.
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I have repeatedly said this! Our best run was when Dooley retired at Georgia, Dye was marred in controversy, Bama was flipping through coaches and got placed on probation, LSU had Gerry Dinardo and the other SEC teams had nobody coaches and Spurrier left. That all changed first and foremost when Richt landed at Ga and then the two Saban built SEC teams. The death nell for Fulmer wasn't just the Richt hiring but the Urban hiring at Florida. Fulmer was lucky in that he popped in at just the right time.
 
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#153
#153
XknoxvolsX said:
I have repeatedly said this! Our best run was when Dooley retired at Georgia, Dye was marred in controversy, Bama was flipping through coaches and got placed on probation, LSU had Gerry Dinardo and the other SEC teams had nobody coaches and Spurrier left. That all changed first and foremost when Richt landed at Ga and then the two Saban built SEC teams. The death nell for Fulmer wasn't just the Richt hiring but the Urban hiring at Florida. Fulmer was lucky in that he popped in at just the right time.
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Yeah. Spurrier left the conference in 2001, but starting in the early 2000s the quality of coaching in the SEC really began to increase. I remember hearing a lot that when Spurrier left Florida we'd have a lock on the SEC East for years. It was actually the beginning of the end for Fulmer, ironically enough.

Richt and Urban were just a killer recruiting combo at two of our rival schools, and I don't think you can underestimate how difficult Saban made it for Fulmer when he arrived at LSU. Fulmer used to go in there and get some Louisiana kids but once Saban arrived he locked that down. Having Urban lock down Florida honestly wasn't the biggest deal, because Spurrier usually got who he wanted out of Florida in the 90s anyway. Having Georgia and Louisiana more closed off hurt.

Huge oversimplification, but if I had to pinpoint the single biggest occurrence that led to Fulmer's downfall it was Richt arriving at UGA. It's almost like it was meant to be, because he arrived just as Spurrier was leaving Florida (they overlapped during the 2001 season). Saban arrived at LSU in 2000.

Any time there is a big time recruiter at Georgia, he'll make it difficult for Tennessee no matter who our coach is or how good of a recruiter he is. Sucks, but it's true. Schools like Florida, Georgia, Bama, and LSU control their destinies more than we do. Simple location and demographics.
 
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#154
#154
05_never_again said:
Yeah. Spurrier left the conference in 2001, but starting in the early 2000s the quality of coaching in the SEC really began to increase. I remember hearing a lot that when Spurrier left Florida we'd have a lock on the SEC East for years. It was actually the beginning of the end for Fulmer, ironically enough.

Richt and Urban were just a killer recruiting combo at two of our rival schools, and I don't think you can underestimate how difficult Saban made it for Fulmer when he arrived at LSU. Fulmer used to go in there and get some Louisiana kids but once Saban arrived he locked that down. Having Urban lock down Florida honestly wasn't the biggest deal, because Spurrier usually got who he wanted out of Florida in the 90s anyway. Having Georgia and Louisiana more closed off hurt.

Huge oversimplification, but if I had to pinpoint the single biggest occurrence that led to Fulmer's downfall it was Richt arriving at UGA. It's almost like it was meant to be, because he arrived just as Spurrier was leaving Florida (they overlapped during the 2001 season). Saban arrived at LSU in 2000.

If there is a big time recruiter at Georgia, he'll make it difficult for Tennessee no matter who our coach is or how good of a recruiter it is. Sucks, but it's true. Schools like Florida, Georgia, Bama, and LSU control their destinies more than we do.
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The following article seems to be spot on with your sentiment, and, mine.

Tennessee football: Mark Richt the most responsible for Vols decline

I remember when Richt pulled Garner away. I remember thinking how that was going to have a huge impact on our recruiting Georgia!
 
#155
#155
XknoxvolsX said:
The following article seems to be spot on with your sentiment, and, mine.

Tennessee football: Mark Richt the most responsible for Vols decline

I remember when Richt pulled Garner away. I remember thinking how that was going to have a huge impact on our recruiting Georgia!
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Risking turning this into a Fulmer-bashing thread, but the entrance of all these coaches into the conference showed that Phil was at least decently overrated as a recruiter. In his heyday, he was touted as an "ace recruiter" who could go to all corners of the globe, up against any other program, and pull a kid to Knoxville. And there actually was a period of time where he was doing that in the 90s.

The reality appeared to be more like he could do that when he had limited competition in his conference, and when more competition emerged, his recruiting was more inconsistent and outright struggled at times. I wouldn't say that he held his own against those other coaches at all in terms of recruiting.
 
#158
#158
XknoxvolsX said:
I stand corrected Bigun. I remembered when he left. I thought it was Richt.
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Donnan really wanted shut off our pipeline to Georgia since we were getting major talent from there and Garner himself was responsible for Jamal Lewis, Cosey Coleman and Deon Grant. Richt kept him on staff after JD was fired.

Ramsey was hired away to be DC at UGA by Donnan, a really dumb move but he was trying more to hurt the Vols than improve UGA. Ramsey ended up getting fired because his defenses sucked and then claimed racism was the reason and to my knowledge has never coached D1 ball again in any capacity.
 
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