Question for those in the know

[vols40]

Personally I think we woulda been better off keeping Phil around a year or two longer. Should’ve seen more success once Clawson got the offense going

Maybe but seems like I saw clawson mention that he didn't feel the o line got anything he was trying to implement. That says way more about Phil's inability to hire good offensive coordinators. Randy Sanders... Love him but that was a bad hire looking back.

 

[hog88]

Personally I think we woulda been better off keeping Phil around a year or two longer. Should’ve seen more success once Clawson got the offense going

Fulmer would have canned Clawson at seasons end.

 

[LWSVOL]

Which big donors wanted Fulmer out?

only 1 mattered. no one else would push it if Jim as not on board with it. He told Hamilton, go ahead but if you screw it up it will cost you and it did.

 

[LAVol1]

Hamilton was a big part of the problem. He was a feckless, pencil sharperner, who lacked the command that Dickey had. Trust me, Dickey has his faults, but he could go to Fulmer and say, focus on football, quit privately investigating Bama and hire an OC you can entrust the offense to 100%. Hamilton mishandled the firing and certianly mishandled the next hiring. Still, we’ve seen programs survive much worse and not have the extended cycle of suck we experienced. There was a lot of behind the scenes failures that shipwrecked the program.

Fulmer couldn’t see the forest for the trees. The fact that he never seriously pursued coaching again is all the evidence one needs to see where his heart was. He didn’t try to restore his legacy and show he still had it. He just quietly retired. Well, until he returned to finish the demolition he had started.

Re: Fulmer. Pretty harsh and some baseless conjecture. There was nothing to restore--he won more games than any Tennessee head coach in our lifetime and was 11-5-1 vs. Bama (the primary reason they hate him so much). He was without question the greatest recruiter in our history. He didn't achieve what he did by being incompetent. Stop the groundless bashing and give the man his due. He is the very epitome of VFL.

 

[bigorangepoppa]

If I remember correctly, everyone said that Clawson's offense took a year to learn, then in it's second year, you would see the results.

 

[IndianaVol]

From what I have always heard, Haslam and gang put pressure on Hamilton in '07 to make changes.
Hamilton leaned on Fulmer and he hired Clawson.
Then '08 happened and the Haslam/Hamilton regime felt Clawson wasn't the answer...so out the door with Phil.


That is all rumor and speculation and only things I heard at the time...no real facts.
Also, not sure if Haslam was the only big money person behind the dealings...could have been others.

 

[kcvols1]

During that time SEC was just in the beginning stages of going all in on football. Tenn still had a good rep as a good program. They messed up not keeping the staff and naming one of them as interim HC. As I remember, some wanted to go that route.

Or, you know, just let Cut name his staff and price.

 

[P.O.T.S. VOL]

If I remember correctly, everyone said that Clawson's offense took a year to learn, then in it's second year, you would see the results.

Hope that's not entirely true of Knowles.