gallion may me a little over the top.but it did show how unethical fullmer is.it's not that he told on alabama.it's the sneaky way in which he did it. :shakehead:
love him or hate at least the ol ball coach in gainsville had the stones to tell dubose to his face in 2000.
Fulmer crossed the line this time
COMMENTARY by RAY MELICK
BIRMINGHAM POST-HERALD
Schools turn in schools to the conference and NCAA office all the time. In fact, Bill Curry says that when he was head coach at the University of Alabama, "we were turned in every day, it seemed like. I know it was at least once every couple of weeks."
So the fact that University of Tennessee football coach Phillip Fulmer supplied information to the NCAA regarding allegations against the University of Alabama is nothing that isn't done fairly routinely in NCAA circles. As a lawyer involved in one of the many legal fronts that have evolved from this mess Alabama finds itself in told me, "if it's a conspiracy, then it occurs in every investigation, because all investigation comes down to people relying on rumors and hearsay and then investigating those things to find out whatever they can find."
But schools are not supposed to investigate other schools. Head coaches are not supposed to spend their own time investigating other programs.
Fulmer apparently did, and that crossed a line into unacceptable behavior; a line established by former Southeastern Conference commissioner Roy Kramer, as well as one established by the American Football Coaches Association, of which Fulmer is the outgoing president.
According to documents obtained by former Alabama booster Logan Young's attorney, Jim Neal of Nashville, who then apparently made copies available to Montgomery attorney Tommy Gallion, who represents former Alabama coaches Ronnie Cottrell and Ivy Williams in a multi-faceted lawsuit against, among others, the NCAA, Fulmer spent eight hours interviewing Tom Culpepper, a self-proclaimed recruiting expert, about violations committed by Alabama, which he then reported to the NCAA.
Protocol is that a head coach with a suspicion of rules violation against another school is supposed to first notify that school which Fulmer apparently did not do with Alabama in the summer of 2000 then, if he is not satisfied with the response from that school, notify the conference office. There is no evidence that Fulmer notified anyone other than the NCAA of the results of own eight-hour interview of self-proclaimed recruiting expert Tom Culpepper.
However, there is evidence that the NCAA did know of potential rules violations by Alabama as early as the summer of 2000, and there is evidence that the NCAA kept that information to itself instead of letting the university know, violating the NCAA's own code of cooperation, which was part of Alabama's appeal to the NCAA for reduced sanctions.
In the end, however, it still comes back to the question of whether Alabama was guilty of certain NCAA violations or not. Clearly the university's own investigation into the matter admits that violations did occur, an admission that is backed up by the fact that two high school coaches in the Memphis area plead guilty in federal court, costing themselves their jobs and their good names. That a federal grand jury has indicted Young on similar charges, based on evidence uncovered by federal investigative agencies with far more power than that of the NCAA, only seems to back up the NCAA's findings in Memphis. And in the midst of all the supposed "bombs" that Gallion keeps lobbing, it must be remembered that neither Cottrell nor Williams were cited by the NCAA for any major violations, and there is no NCAA "show-cause" in the NCAA file on either coach that would keep another school from hiring them.
What Gallion, Cottrell and Williams continue to refuse to accept is the possibility that maybe, just maybe, nobody wants to hire Cottrell and Williams. Maybe other coaches know of the chaos that was former Alabama head coach Mike DuBose's staff, of the infighting that went on between Williams and other members of the staff, infighting that occurred in the hallways of the football building, in front of players and visitors alike; of the belief among other staff members that Cottrell answered only to Logan Young and not DuBose.
In short, maybe Williams and Cottrell ruined their own reputations as coaches, and it had nothing to do with either Phillip Fulmer, the University of Alabama, the SEC or the NCAA.
DuBose hasn't been able to get another job either, but he seems to accept some responsibility for that. At least, he hasn't sued anyone.
Still, that doesn't excuse Fulmer's behavior. It's doubly appalling when you realize that Fulmer is the out-going president of the American Football Coaches Association, an organization that was formed, in part, to promote ethical behavior. In fact, the AFCA's own code of conduct includes admonitions to "cultivate the confidence and respect of rival coaches, to look upon them as colleagues and friends and to treat them, and to talk to them, as such."
As a very young head coach at Georgia Tech, Curry once promised Tech supporters that he was aware of what other coaches at other more successful programs were doing, and that he would turn them in and, in his words, "bring them to their knees."
"I was on the Ethics Committee of the AFCA at the time," Curry said. "They took me off that committee until I had time to simmer down and learn my lesson. I never did anything that irresponsible again. I faced a negative reaction from my colleagues, and I deserved it. From that point on, I tried to let my colleagues know that if I came across a violation, first I'd let them know, then I'd report it to the conference and the NCAA.
"That's the unwritten code, and we talked about it at SEC meetings. I don't know what Phillip Fulmer did or didn't do, but I do know that you don't talk unless you have specifics, and even then you tell the other coach first."
That didn't happen with Fulmer. Whether or not it was part of some "vast conspiracy" remains to be seen.
But it was unethical behavior.
correction that's 1.6opps ugsteps out of bonds game ove roll tide!45-42