Its November 2nd, 2008. Your'e the AD of Tennessee. What do you do to Fulmer?

#51
#51
EconVol92 said:
Should have retired on top after 98 and Cutcliffe should have taken over. Otherwise he should have been fired after 2004 at the latest as he was just coasting trying to get more wins than the General.
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He arguably did his best coaching job in 04 by winning the East with 2 True freshman QBs and Rick Clausen. You couldn’t fire him after that.
 
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#52
#52
RDU VOL#14 said:
He arguably did his best coaching job in 04 by winning the East with 2 True freshman QBs and Rick Clausen. You couldn’t fire him after that.
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Nope but could have and should have been fired after the '05 season.
 
#55
#55
RDU VOL#14 said:
He arguably did his best coaching job in 04 by winning the East with 2 True freshman QBs and Rick Clausen. You couldn’t fire him after that.
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That 2004 team was sneaky good. Freshman QBs + Rick as you said. 2 of the 3 losses were to an Auburn team that went 13-0 and should have been in the national title game. The win at UGA when they were #3 (and finished the season 10-2 and #7) was one of Phil's better wins as head coach and it gets kind of forgotten about for some reason. ND loss at home hurt though.
 
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#56
#56
05_never_again said:
That 2004 team was sneaky good. Freshman QBs + Rick as you said. 2 of the 3 losses were to an Auburn team that went 13-0 and should have been in the national title game. The win at UGA when they were #3 (and finished the season 10-2 and #7) was one of Phil's better wins as head coach and it gets kind of forgotten about for some reason. ND loss at home hurt though.
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The Notre Dame loss was bc we tried to get a late score in the first half and Ainge got hurt. That injury really had a massive butterfly effect . Clausen doesn’t take over and play well, it’s Ainge’s team going into 2005 and then who knows how things unfold. That 2005 defense was nasty, but what a disaster the offense was.
 
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#57
#57
It's Vols or nothing! said:
And if you do anything to Fulmer, what are your plans to change the trajectory of the program which resulted in the worst period of football we have seen in modern times
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The bigger problem is that 2008 was too late. The right time was after 2005. The Vols had stopped beating anyone that mattered. As AD, you'd have a front row perspective on the recruiting decline and what other programs were doing to beat Fulmer who was once King of the Coffee Table. You also have the lack of discipline under Fulmer off the field The signs were plain for anyone to see.

So... I would have urged Fulmer to "retire" and take a role in the AD. I probably would have tried to bring Cut back as HC but there were other good coaches that UT could have had. The roster was still in decent shape. The program image was still good. The NC was still fairly recent.

It would have taken guts to do it. But that was the right time.
 
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#58
#58
RDU VOL#14 said:
The Notre Dame loss was bc we tried to get a late score in the first half and Ainge got hurt. That injury really had a massive butterfly effect . Clausen doesn’t take over and play well, it’s Ainge’s team going into 2005 and then who knows how things unfold. That 2005 defense was nasty, but what a disaster the offense was.
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Not sure Ainge would have ever been able to shake those panic throws that proved costly for us in a few games. Remember it was his job in 2005 until he threw that crazy ball out of the back of the end zone at LSU
 
#59
#59
sjt18 said:
The bigger problem is that 2008 was too late. The right time was after 2005. The Vols had stopped beating anyone that mattered. As AD, you'd have a front row perspective on the recruiting decline and what other programs were doing to beat Fulmer who was once King of the Coffee Table. You also have the lack of discipline under Fulmer off the field The signs were plain for anyone to see.

So... I would have urged Fulmer to "retire" and take a role in the AD. I probably would have tried to bring Cut back as HC but there were other good coaches that UT could have had. The roster was still in decent shape. The program image was still good. The NC was still fairly recent.

It would have taken guts to do it. But that was the right time.
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Exactly what I was thinking
 
#60
#60
Surely…this is a resurrected thread from years past? We’ve had several dozen just like it it seems! It was a proverbial rock and hard place. I agree with another poster…”thank goodness fall practice is here” 🥵🥵. Maybe it’s becoming a Tradition! 1785947382696.png
 
#61
#61
Savannahbayvol said:
159-52. Combined scores of the 07 and 08 Florida and Alabama games. Once the toothpaste is out of the tube there is no replacing it. He missed the opportunity in 2002 to right the course.
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It wasn’t just those 2 teams either. We stopped being competitive against ranked teams. I disagree with those saying he should’ve been fired after 2005, but after 2008 makes total sense.
 
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#62
#62
Boston Vol said:
The whole Bill Cowher was talk radio/message board bs. He had zero interest in the job.
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We should’ve hired Peyton as HC!

What’s funny is I actually expected someone to say it. I’ve seen that plenty in the past.
 
#64
#64
hUTch2002 said:
It wasn’t just those 2 teams either. We stopped being competitive against ranked teams. I disagree with those saying he should’ve been fired after 2005, but after 2008 makes total sense.
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It seems like every game he began to rely on luck and either a penalty or turnover to win the game. You’re correct, teams just were not competitive.
 
#65
#65
DarkVolder said:
Fulmer should’ve been fired after the 2005 season after starting the season ranked 3 we go 5-6 our first losing season since 1988. He canned Randy Sanders mid season but it was too late he held on to him for far too long. The program had regressed and Fulmer got lazy and it caught up to him. His last good recruiting class was 2005 after that our recruiting tanked but instead we gave him a mulligan , Cutliffe comes back and things improve going 9-4 in 2006 and 10-4 in 2007 and a SEC title game appearance which we should’ve won. Then Cut leaves again and things go to crap again in 2008 with a 5-7 season and the terrible Clawfence. if we would’ve fired him in 2005 we might have gotten some decent coaches , Butch Davis , Kyle Wittingham maybe even Saban.
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Randy quit, he wasn't canned. He wanted to quit immediately after the South Carolina game when he left locker room and his daughters were crying about having to go to school and be abused by other kids. CPF and Cutcliffe spent the night talking him into waiting until the end of the season to quit. Cut told him he would wreck his career quitting in mid-season.

Haslam would have never agreed to a 2005 firing.. his edict to Hammy in 2008 was, if you fire him and screw it up you won't be here long.. football and the Pearl debacle cost Hamilton
 
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#66
#66
LWSVOL said:
Randy quit, he wasn't canned. He wanted to quit immediately after the South Carolina game when he left locker room and his daughters were crying about having to go to school and be abused by other kids. CPF and Cutcliffe spent the night talking him into waiting until the end of the season to quit. Cut told him he would wreck his career quitting in mid-season.

Haslam would have never agreed to a 2005 firing.. his edict to Hammy in 2008 was, if you fire him and screw it up you won't be here long.. football and the Pearl debacle cost Hamilton
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We had a segment of our fanbase who were pretty horrible at that time.
 
#67
#67
LWSVOL said:
Randy quit, he wasn't canned. He wanted to quit immediately after the South Carolina game when he left locker room and his daughters were crying about having to go to school and be abused by other kids. CPF and Cutcliffe spent the night talking him into waiting until the end of the season to quit. Cut told him he would wreck his career quitting in mid-season.

Haslam would have never agreed to a 2005 firing.. his edict to Hammy in 2008 was, if you fire him and screw it up you won't be here long.. football and the Pearl debacle cost Hamilton
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I remember some of the sayings at the time was that Fulmer was overriding many of the offensive calls during Sanders time as OC. Then, he allowed Sanders to take the heat for the lackluster offense. Do you know if that is accurate?
 
#68
#68
LWSVOL said:
Randy quit, he wasn't canned. He wanted to quit immediately after the South Carolina game when he left locker room and his daughters were crying about having to go to school and be abused by other kids. CPF and Cutcliffe spent the night talking him into waiting until the end of the season to quit. Cut told him he would wreck his career quitting in mid-season.

Haslam would have never agreed to a 2005 firing.. his edict to Hammy in 2008 was, if you fire him and screw it up you won't be here long.. football and the Pearl debacle cost Hamilton
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Do you think that because we hired Bruce from a mid major program and had a lot of success doing so that the admins thought they could pull off the same thing with the football program by trying to get a mid major coach and staff on the cheap?
 
#69
#69
The first two posts answered the question, but Tennessee didn't pursue Patterson so Tennessee 🤷 went downhill for about 15 years before getting Huepel.
 
#70
#70
05_never_again said:
That 2004 team was sneaky good. Freshman QBs + Rick as you said. 2 of the 3 losses were to an Auburn team that went 13-0 and should have been in the national title game. The win at UGA when they were #3 (and finished the season 10-2 and #7) was one of Phil's better wins as head coach and it gets kind of forgotten about for some reason. ND loss at home hurt though.
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I was at that game. That ranks as one of my all time favorite in person Wins. As much misery as Greene and Pollack had given us, we cost them big their senior season. Like you said that 04 Auburn was a juggernaut. Cadillac and Ronnie Brown in the backfield, they would’ve given USC all they wanted that season. Better than OU that’s for sure .
 
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#71
#71
Fire Phil for sure.

Hiring Monte Kiffin wasn’t a bad move.

All history now, so time to turn our energies toward hating the Furman Vermon
 
#72
#72
hUTch2002 said:
It wasn’t just those 2 teams either. We stopped being competitive against ranked teams. I disagree with those saying he should’ve been fired after 2005, but after 2008 makes total sense.
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No firing makes sense if you don’t have a couple of aces up your sleeve. Counting on playing the THIS IS TENNESSEE card is just nuts.
 
#73
#73
I wonder if he felt betrayed like Majors did? Then, I wonder if he thought about Majors that day?
 
#74
#74
#1fulmerite said:
I remember some of the sayings at the time was that Fulmer was overriding many of the offensive calls during Sanders time as OC. Then, he allowed Sanders to take the heat for the lackluster offense. Do you know if that is accurate?
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That is not accurate at all. I was around that Staff a lot the last eight years of Fulmers time.
 
#75
#75
RDU VOL#14 said:
Do you think that because we hired Bruce from a mid major program and had a lot of success doing so that the admins thought they could pull off the same thing with the football program by trying to get a mid major coach and staff on the cheap?
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No I don’t think the two are related. The Kiffin staff made a lot more than the Fulmer staff. They weren’t cheap
 
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