Question for those in the know

#76
#76
WaywardVol said:
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.
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This all makes sense to me. Sounds right.
 
#77
#77
LAVol1 said:
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.
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Yes but what got him in the end was not being able to hire offensive coordinator. Without David Cutcliffe we were mediocre considering the talent we had. No ill feelings towards Coach Fulmer but it was time. Do you honestly think Doug Dickey would have put up with it? No he wouldn't have
 
#79
#79
SWC - GBO said:
There was a rumor at the time, when everybody knew Dooley was going to be fired, that Cutcliffe was interested if he could bring his whole staff from Duke. Which UT rejected.
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Cut was actually announced on some news outlets as the new head coach. It was that close to being a thing. If we had hired Cutcliffe instead of Dooley--Butch--Pruitt, we would have never been worse than an 8-win team. Would have had a fun offense to watch. Recruiting would have been mediocre... so high floor, low ceiling. I also think Cutcliffe would've given us plenty notice of his retirement, which would've given us time to find the right successor (not saying UT Admin wouldn't have screwed that up).

I've mentioned before in other threads. Not hiring Cutcliffe in 2010 was the turning point for the whole program.
 
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#80
#80
SpookyAction said:
There was talk of Fulmer getting interest from other programs and the Jaguars. I think all of that was agents' whispers for raises from the AD. With all his faults, Fulmer was a UT guy and wasn't going to coach elsewhere.

I do think the last 2 decades would have been better if Fulmer had been coach during the Kiffin and Dooley years.

Gary Patterson of TCU is the wild card possibility we missed. I think he could have been successful here.
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He had a house in Maryville, designs or had started one in the mountains, daughters attending UT, and a wife happy with their life here….., don.‘t have a clue what he was making with that financial firm he was with, but with his buyout life was pretty solid. Doubt he could stand the thought of wearing any other color like every bonafide VFL.

Hate his second bad fit hire cost him again, but the fact he hung around insulated his bosses from further NCAA scrutiny and he played his bulletproof integrity cards to the max. That stint as prez of the coaches group came in handy,

The most documented pay for play scheme ever cost us, but it could have been way worse since the rot was accepted as from Pruitt and down and they were quickly surgically carved out. Not sure what the whistleblower had in the arsenal.
 
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#82
#82
a vol n tears said:
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.
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Yes😃should have hired Kippy Brown as the interim head coach. As I recall he wanted the job.
 
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