Heard Fulmer speak today.

#26
#26
Fulmer won most of his games by out recruiting everybody and his best hire as athletic director was Kellie Harper as he tried to keep Pat Summitt's legacy alive with the Harper hire.
Agree and disagree. Superior Recruiting usually trumps average coaching over a period of time, but you don’t get to consistent upper level on average coaching...and hiring/retaining the best assistants counts too...and he had some good ones.
 
#29
#29
He tried as AD but just not experienced. I was in favor but not a good move. I do think we wouldn’t have had the depths of long term losing if we stuck with him a few more years to see if he could turn things around but by that time we were spoiled w 10 win seasons and like Spurrier always said, at a certain point coaches reach diminishing return and need to move on...except for Saban obviously.
I think it was a hasty decision. If we had another year like '08 I could understand but not the year after going to Atlanta.
 
#30
#30
And then the second half of his coaching career happened.
He had 2 bad seasons in his whole coaching career. We went 10-4 and went to the SECCG the year before he was fired. Neither of those have happened since he left. As I said in another post, it was a hasty decision. Should've gave him another year and had someone proven lined up if it didn't get fixed.
 
#32
#32
I like the Danny White hire. Not sorry at that expense...

I wish Fulmer hadn't had the need to be so directly involved in Tennessee sports.
There is not a bigger Vol fan than Fulmer, but he always needed better minds around him.

He should have been that 3rd party guy that UT sports could always rely on for recruiting or marketing and never be an actual employee but still get compensated through affiliation.

You know he truly LOVES Tennessee football when he put aside his ego and hired a pure Bama boy in Pruitt. Problem is (again) he needed to hire a better mind, but didn't.
 
#34
#34
As the title says, I got to hear Phil Fulmer speak at city current in Germantown TN today. A lot of it was typical business leadership talk. However, it opened up to a Q&A which I thought got a little interesting. On a series with Memphis football: ( paraphrasing ) Playing UT is like a super bowl for them. Tennessee players don’t really get up for it. Thinks Tennessee/Memphis basketball series is a good idea though.
On NIL/ transfer portal: “ NIL is the way of the future, get on board or get left behind. Not a fan of the transfer portal, doesn’t teach kids to persevere through hard times. Went on to mention he was a LB that got moved to O-line and was the the sixth string guard but ended up competing for playing time ( as a freshman I suppose ).
Pruitt: He wasn’t directly asked but when he was outlining his time with the university he mentioned him ( not by name ) by saying “ Until my coach acted an idiot.” Or something along those lines.
On first becoming a head coach: ( I thought this was kind of cool) “ One of the things I wanted to do was have Tennessee merch in all the major airports across the country.”

A few other things: favorite team I believe was the 94 team when cullquit got hurt and then they had to use Helton who was really supposed to just be there until one of the freshman got schooled up. Asked about how Involved Archie was when Petyon was there. He basically said if he attended a practice you’d never know it, wasn’t vocal or overly involved at all. He was even invited to sit in on some meetings and declined. Asked about the best leaders on the team and basically some of them were second string guys that you would never know about. Mentioned that we all knew about the obvious guys like Al, Peyton, Little etc….

Anyway. Just a few takeaways. I enjoyed hearing him talk and he has a much more interesting perspective now since he’s worn a lot of hats. I understand that some people have mixed feelings about him but I really thought he presented his career on a lot more human level than some coaches may have.
Did he have that look in his eye though?
 
#35
#35
With Cutcliffe on staff Fulmers record was 85-19-1,a winning percentage of nearly 81%. Without Cutcliffe on staff he was 66-33 a winning percentage of 67%.

Fulmer should have retired after 98 like his wife wanted and turned it over to Cutcliffe, but all Fulmer could do was think about himself and win more games than the general did.

Yes, I believe that Fulmer loves Tennessee, but he loves himself much more.

He had no business being named AD, and that hire was botched by not hiring David Blackburn.
 
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#37
#37
He had 2 bad seasons in his whole coaching career. We went 10-4 and went to the SECCG the year before he was fired. Neither of those have happened since he left. As I said in another post, it was a hasty decision. Should've gave him another year and had someone proven lined up if it didn't get fixed.

2002 until he was fired Fulmer had a losing record vs UF, UGA and Bama. He also had a losing record against top 25 teams during that span so by 2008 it was long past time for him to go.
 
#38
#38
Don't care how he won. All I remember is he won a lot more than he lost.

He spoiled this place horribly, then couldn't keep up the same level of spoildom. TN legend whose top accomplishment as AD was ponying up for an elite contract to keep our HoF bball coach in the fold. Our basketball has been relatively spectacular since. We are literally in the conversation now.

He ain't perfect, but he is a legend IMO.
 
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#39
#39
Fulmer managed the football team well for a long time in the 90s and early 2000s. Then he botched hire after hire on staff. His instincts and people failed him. When he got serious about fixing the mess, it was bigger than him and then patience was gone.
I look back and remember the Kiffen hire and see it as swinging for the fences. It was sa very un-UT move. Bold. When our admin had the chance to reset the next year, instead of a homerun hire, they chose to bunt. Pitiful.

A lot of the long term losing could have been avoided if Hamilton would have just hired Gary Patterson after Fulmer was fired

There wouldn’t have been no Lane Kiffin, Dooley, Butch, Pruitt. Patterson was genuinely interested in coaching here long term and we completely botched that opportunity.
 
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#40
#40
A lot of the long term losing could have been avoided if Hamilton would have just hired Gary Patterson after Fulmer was fired

There wouldn’t have been no Lane Kiffin, Dooley, Butch, Pruitt. Patterson was genuinely interested in coaching here long term and we completely botched that opportunity.
Totally agree. He was the right hire and it did not happen and here we are.
 
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#41
#41
As the title says, I got to hear Phil Fulmer speak at city current in Germantown TN today. A lot of it was typical business leadership talk. However, it opened up to a Q&A which I thought got a little interesting. On a series with Memphis football: ( paraphrasing ) Playing UT is like a super bowl for them. Tennessee players don’t really get up for it. Thinks Tennessee/Memphis basketball series is a good idea though.
On NIL/ transfer portal: “ NIL is the way of the future, get on board or get left behind. Not a fan of the transfer portal, doesn’t teach kids to persevere through hard times. Went on to mention he was a LB that got moved to O-line and was the the sixth string guard but ended up competing for playing time ( as a freshman I suppose ).
Pruitt: He wasn’t directly asked but when he was outlining his time with the university he mentioned him ( not by name ) by saying “ Until my coach acted an idiot.” Or something along those lines.
On first becoming a head coach: ( I thought this was kind of cool) “ One of the things I wanted to do was have Tennessee merch in all the major airports across the country.”

A few other things: favorite team I believe was the 94 team when cullquit got hurt and then they had to use Helton who was really supposed to just be there until one of the freshman got schooled up. Asked about how Involved Archie was when Petyon was there. He basically said if he attended a practice you’d never know it, wasn’t vocal or overly involved at all. He was even invited to sit in on some meetings and declined. Asked about the best leaders on the team and basically some of them were second string guys that you would never know about. Mentioned that we all knew about the obvious guys like Al, Peyton, Little etc….

Anyway. Just a few takeaways. I enjoyed hearing him talk and he has a much more interesting perspective now since he’s worn a lot of hats. I understand that some people have mixed feelings about him but I really thought he presented his career on a lot more human level than some coaches may have.
If I ever hear of him speaking, about anything, it will be too soon. Adios Fulmer & stay gone.
 
#42
#42
2002 until he was fired Fulmer had a losing record vs UF, UGA and Bama. He also had a losing record against top 25 teams during that span so by 2008 it was long past time for him to go.
I think the past 14 years proves it was handled very poorly. And every coach we've hired has had worse success than him against them.
 
#44
#44
I agree that the program was severely mismanaged since Fulmers firing but that is a separate issue from the firing itself. He needed to go after the 05 season.
I 100% disagree. I'm not for firing a coach after 1 bad season especially when they were more successful than any coach we've had in 50 years. I mean if this fanbase were Penn State fans, Paterno would've been fired in the early 2000s yet he coached until 2011 and would've been there longer if not for other reasons.
 
#45
#45
I agree that the program was severely mismanaged since Fulmers firing but that is a separate issue from the firing itself. He needed to go after the 05 season.
We demand players to persevere, but demand a NC winning coach to be fired after 1 bad year that had as much bad luck as any in recent memory? Makes sense.
 
#46
#46
I 100% disagree. I'm not for firing a coach after 1 bad season especially when they were more successful than any coach we've had in 50 years. I mean if this fanbase were Penn State fans, Paterno would've been fired in the early 2000s yet he coached until 2011 and would've been there longer if not for other reasons.

2005 wasn't Fulmers 1st failure. It's a good argument that not winning it all in 1999 and 2001 were worse coaching jobs than the 2005 season considering the talent we had.
 
#47
#47
A lot of the long term losing could have been avoided if Hamilton would have just hired Gary Patterson after Fulmer was fired

There wouldn’t have been no Lane Kiffin, Dooley, Butch, Pruitt. Patterson was genuinely interested in coaching here long term and we completely botched that opportunity.

Agree. I have always heard that Fulmer had gotten crossways with the major boosters and Hammy was pressured to fire him, which I agree needed to be done as he was not going to step down voluntarily. However, the boosters apparently didn't realize how totally incompetent Hammy was in replacing him and the rest is history. Not sure if this is really true but several so called knowledgeable people have told me that story.
 
#48
#48
One thing no one can ever take away from Coach Fulmer, is that he has and always will bleed orange. He LOVES UT and will always have our back.
 
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#50
#50
2005 wasn't Fulmers 1st failure. It's a good argument that not winning it all in 1999 and 2001 were worse coaching jobs than the 2005 season considering the talent we had.
Yep. There is a tendency (especially from big Fulmer defenders) to view the fact that the program has been even worse since he was fired as an indication that it was a mistake to fire him.
 

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