Maybe I've been wrong...

[0059862]

In the past, I just could not let myself believe that our coach and athletic director could be so inept. I think that's a failing of mine in that I tend to give people too much credit. Maybe the University should start giving IQ tests before hiring anyone! I thought it was a serious mistake in the past to turn Mike Leach away. He has been successful everywhere he coached and definitely would have given UT an advantage in the football minds category. I don't think a dummy could make it through law school. But then again, maybe I'm still wrong with pruitt and fulmer being smarter than all of us as their salaries are absolutely ridiculous for probably the worst job performance in college football! or probably in America anywhere! Let's be honest here - fulmer should be working for free, he's stolen so much money already from UT.

 

[DaddyChad]

If it’s a battle of intelligence I’ll take our average fan vs Pruitt.

 

[Vfl2407]

Is our Coach smarter than a fifth grader?

 

[Ten_Titans]

In the past, I just could not let myself believe that our coach and athletic director could be so inept. I think that's a failing of mine in that I tend to give people too much credit. Maybe the University should start giving IQ tests before hiring anyone! I thought it was a serious mistake in the past to turn Mike Leach away. He has been successful everywhere he coached and definitely would have given UT an advantage in the football minds category. I don't think a dummy could make it through law school. But then again, maybe I'm still wrong with pruitt and fulmer being smarter than all of us as their salaries are absolutely ridiculous for probably the worst job performance in college football! or probably in America anywhere! Let's be honest here - fulmer should be working for free, he's stolen so much money already from UT.

Visit the PF and you'll change your mind on that real quick.

 

[loservol]

For head coach/AD, an IQ test should be a necessary requirement and the results should be made available to the public. Imagine all the money UT could have saved over the past decade.

 

[0059862]

Nevermind! How could I forget about lawyer Dooley!

 

[N.ohio vol]

I keep telling myself the University wont let this go on forever. I just hope my 4 year old gets to see what i seen growing up. Back when the vols dominated.

 

[VolBricks]

Let's face it there are no slam dunk hires out there right now. Urban Meyer is the best coach out there and I do not think he is interested in coaching again right now. Freeze is not the answer and has way too much baggage. There are some up and coming coaches but no one we would be positive could make us a winner next year. I think Fulmer has done the only thing he can do at this time and that is to stay put with Pruitt. Will Friend left and I expect more changes on the staff. This is the make or break year (2021) for Pruitt and his coaching staff.

 

[GAVol]

If it’s a battle of intelligence I’ll take our average fan vs Pruitt.

Don’t put any money on that lol.

 

[Skippy95]

Let's face it there are no slam dunk hires out there right now. Urban Meyer is the best coach out there and I do not think he is interested in coaching again right now. Freeze is not the answer and has way too much baggage. There are some up and coming coaches but no one we would be positive could make us a winner next year. I think Fulmer has done the only thing he can do at this time and that is to stay put with Pruitt. Will Friend left and I expect more changes on the staff. This is the make or break year (2021) for Pruitt and his coaching staff.

Please. No slam dunk hires? There’s one our there and it’s his dang dream job.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

In the past, I just could not let myself believe that our coach and athletic director could be so inept. I think that's a failing of mine in that I tend to give people too much credit. Maybe the University should start giving IQ tests before hiring anyone! I thought it was a serious mistake in the past to turn Mike Leach away. He has been successful everywhere he coached and definitely would have given UT an advantage in the football minds category. I don't think a dummy could make it through law school. But then again, maybe I'm still wrong with pruitt and fulmer being smarter than all of us as their salaries are absolutely ridiculous for probably the worst job performance in college football! or probably in America anywhere! Let's be honest here - fulmer should be working for free, he's stolen so much money already from UT.

Mike Leach: 142-97 (59%) ... 3-7 (30%) as SEC coach
Phillip Fulmer: 152-52 (75%) ... 96-34 (74%) SEC

When it comes to football, all available evidence says Phillip is a helluva lot smarter than Mike.

I think your thread title nailed it: you're just wrong.

 

[photovol]

Soon you’ll be censored for opposing Pruitt and Fulmer, so get used to it!

 

[KnoxRealtorVOL]

Pruitt is not an idiot, he’s actually extremely smart. Pruitt will forget more about football than 99.999999% of us will ever know.

Pruitt’s problem is he has no idea how to steer a ship this big through the countless icebergs that make up the SEC schedule. He tries to apply very elementary principles (“whoever practices the best plays the most”) while running an extremely complex 3-4 system. You can run these systems at Alabama, where you can replace a 5* who isn’t doing his job with another 5*

We can neither afford to be simple, nor complex, instead must be extremely dynamic and creative if we want to claw our way back into relevance. To find success here a coach must not only be unpredictable, he must also think outside the box when it comes to who he puts on the field. He has to understand what’s between the ears of players when the lights come on, not just who is throwing the best ball in practice.

Pruitt’s not an idiot, he just has never been made to understand these concepts.

 

[ThreatLevelOrange]

In the past, I just could not let myself believe that our coach and athletic director could be so inept. I think that's a failing of mine in that I tend to give people too much credit. Maybe the University should start giving IQ tests before hiring anyone! I thought it was a serious mistake in the past to turn Mike Leach away. He has been successful everywhere he coached and definitely would have given UT an advantage in the football minds category. I don't think a dummy could make it through law school. But then again, maybe I'm still wrong with pruitt and fulmer being smarter than all of us as their salaries are absolutely ridiculous for probably the worst job performance in college football! or probably in America anywhere! Let's be honest here - fulmer should be working for free, he's stolen so much money already from UT.

No shame to have expectations.

 

[docterjaws]

In the past, I just could not let myself believe that our coach and athletic director could be so inept. I think that's a failing of mine in that I tend to give people too much credit. Maybe the University should start giving IQ tests before hiring anyone! I thought it was a serious mistake in the past to turn Mike Leach away. He has been successful everywhere he coached and definitely would have given UT an advantage in the football minds category. I don't think a dummy could make it through law school. But then again, maybe I'm still wrong with pruitt and fulmer being smarter than all of us as their salaries are absolutely ridiculous for probably the worst job performance in college football! or probably in America anywhere! Let's be honest here - fulmer should be working for free, he's stolen so much money already from UT.

how sad it is for someone to speak about fulmer in this manner - he is all tennessee as a player/coach and AD - he had two losing seasons as a coach in 15 years bouncing back from 5 - 7 to 9-4 then 10-4 and got fired for another 5 - 7 season. Hall of fame - national champion but people like you get people like fulmer fired. I understand the aggravation with pruitt even in a covid year but you should be ashamed of criticizing fulmer in this way.

 

[Skippy95]

how sad it is for someone to speak about fulmer in this manner - he is all tennessee as a player/coach and AD - he had two losing seasons as a coach in 15 years bouncing back from 5 - 7 to 9-4 then 10-4 and got fired for another 5 - 7 season. Hall of fame - national champion but people like you get people like fulmer fired. I understand the aggravation with pruitt even in a covid year but you should be ashamed of criticizing fulmer in this way.

I think CPFs biggest problem, especially with younger fans, is he comes across as he knows what’s best and that’s what Tennessee is going to do. It feels like the CJP hire is the worst hire Tennessee has made out of the three headed monster that is Dooley-Jones-Pruitt. I don’t think anyone faults CPF for making the hire, but bowing his back in support of Pruitt has turned people.

 

[ThreatLevelOrange]

how sad it is for someone to speak about fulmer in this manner - he is all tennessee as a player/coach and AD - he had two losing seasons as a coach in 15 years bouncing back from 5 - 7 to 9-4 then 10-4 and got fired for another 5 - 7 season. Hall of fame - national champion but people like you get people like fulmer fired. I understand the aggravation with pruitt even in a covid year but you should be ashamed of criticizing fulmer in this way.

It’s possible to love UT and not be good at your job. Both appear to be true for Fulmer.

 

[volfannbama]

How do folks come up with this stuff

 

[onevol74]

Mike Leach: 142-97 (59%) ... 3-7 (30%) as SEC coach
Phillip Fulmer: 152-52 (75%) ... 96-34 (74%) SEC

When it comes to football, all available evidence says Phillip is a helluva lot smarter than Mike.

I think your thread title nailed it: you're just wrong.

Horrible comparison. Fulmer was handed a completely built program and Leach has been busy building programs. There is a reason Fulmer was not hired after UT. Programs that need coaches are looking for someone to rebuild and Fulmer has never done that. UT had won 3 SEC championships in the previous 6 years when he took over. He was only able to win 2 SEC championships in the next 17 years. You can not compare the situations that Leach walked into to Fulmer. Fulmer wasted more talent than Leach has seen in his entire career.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Horrible comparison. Fulmer was handed a completely built program and Leach has been busy building programs. There is a reason Fulmer was not hired after UT. Programs that need coaches are looking for someone to rebuild and Fulmer has never done that. UT had won 3 SEC championships in the previous 6 years when he took over. He was only able to win 2 SEC championships in the next 17 years. You can not compare the situations that Leach walked into to Fulmer. Fulmer wasted more talent than Leach has seen in his entire career.

Do you ever wonder why it is that you always seem to argue in favor of the guy who has NEVER been a Volunteer, and argue against the guy who was, is, and always will be?

I frequently wonder why you and others do this.

Part of me thinks it's a "grass is greener" thing. You looked really closely at Coach Fulmer for so many years (we all did), that you know every blemish, you've heard every snide comment, you get the entire landscape of his persona. Meanwhile, guys like Mike Leach are a distant icon, where you know about the pirate, and the Craig James thing, and the records at Washington State and Texas Tech, but you didn't live through the details, the day-to-day embarrassments and hardships and disappointments (the way the TTU and WSU fans did). So you think Leach is somehow shinier and more interesting. (he is certainly funnier)

But then, I often doubt that can be all of it. Some of it has to be active self-loathing. To turn on your own so fiercely, to bite the hand that literally gave you a national championship and more than one SEC titles...that seems way too personal to just be familiarity-based contempt.

So I don't know what drives you, onevol74, but I know it is not objectivity. Objectively, undeniably, Phillip Fulmer is a FAR better football coach than Mike Leach.

 

[njvols]

For head coach/AD, an IQ test should be a necessary requirement and the results should be made available to the public. Imagine all the money UT could have saved over the past decade.

Dooley was plenty smart enough. Elitism and inability to recruit tanked him.

 

[onevol74]

Do you ever wonder why it is that you always seem to argue in favor of the guy who has NEVER been a Volunteer, and argue against the guy who was, is, and always will be?

I frequently wonder why you and others do this.

Part of me thinks it's a "grass is greener" thing. You looked really closely at Coach Fulmer for so many years (we all did), that you know every blemish, you've heard every snide comment, you get the entire landscape of his persona. While guys like Mike Leach are a distant icon, where you know about the pirate, and the Craig James thing, and the records at Washington State and Texas Tech, but you didn't live through the details, the day-to-day embarrassments and hardships and disappointments (the way the TTU and WSU fans did). So you think Leach is somehow shinier and more interesting. (he is certainly funnier)

But then, I often doubt that can be all of it. Some of it has to be active self-loathing. To turn on your own so fiercely, to bite the hand that literally gave you a national championship and more than one SEC titles...that seems way too personal to just be familiarity-based contempt.

So I don't know what drives you, onevol74, but I know it is not objectivity. Objectively, undeniably, Phillip Fulmer is a FAR better football coach than Mike Leach.

Tell me where my post was not factual.

And speaking of Volunteer dedication, where was this in 1964 when they named a Gator as the new head coach, or in 1992 when Johnny was let out the door?

I have no hate for Fulmer. I just think people fail to compare him adequately to the competition of his time and instead regard him as saintly. He was probably an above average coach in the SEC but declined in stature when excellent coaches showed up in this conference. Fulmer had an opportunity to take over the SEC in 2001 with the retirement of Spurrier at Florida. That did not happen. Spurrier returned and with the addition of Meyer at Florida, Saban at Bama, and MR at Georgia we saw where Fulmer stood. Couple that with the loss to a very inferior Vandy in Neyland in 2005 he became an average coach at a very lucrative SEC program.
I just do not see him in a saintly status as some do.

 

[loservol]

Dooley was plenty smart enough. Elitism and inability to recruit tanked him.

You would also check the candidates resume to see if they are qualified to be head coach. Dooley should have figured out that athletic director was his true calling.

 

[Herman Hickman]

Do you ever wonder why it is that you always seem to argue in favor of the guy who has NEVER been a Volunteer, and argue against the guy who was, is, and always will be?

So I don't know what drives you, onevol74, but I know it is not objectivity. Objectively, undeniably, Phillip Fulmer is a FAR better football coach than Mike Leach.

Fulmer never inherited a dumpster fire. He was given a rock-solid program with a recent track record of SEC Championships. He made it better and got us a national title. He also, by any truly objective analysis, put the program into decline and left Tennessee football in worse shape than when he got it from Coach Majors.

Mike Leach has never been able to take control of an easy job. He has only been given the opportunity at programs with a high degree of difficulty. By any objective measurement, he has never left his program worse off than it was when he took it over.

You say Fulmer is better than Leach. I would love to see what Fulmer would've been able to do with Wazzu. I doubt he would've matched Leach's record in Pullman.

 

[loservol]

Pruitt is not an idiot, he’s actually extremely smart. Pruitt will forget more about football than 99.999999% of us will ever know.

Pruitt’s problem is he has no idea how to steer a ship this big through the countless icebergs that make up the SEC schedule. He tries to apply very elementary principles (“whoever practices the best plays the most”) while running an extremely complex 3-4 system. You can run these systems at Alabama, where you can replace a 5* who isn’t doing his job with another 5*

We can neither afford to be simple, nor complex, instead must be extremely dynamic and creative if we want to claw our way back into relevance. To find success here a coach must not only be unpredictable, he must also think outside the box when it comes to who he puts on the field. He has to understand what’s between the ears of players when the lights come on, not just who is throwing the best ball in practice.

Pruitt’s not an idiot, he just has never been made to understand these concepts.

He's an idiot!