Tennessee football coaches

Fulmer was done! The problem does not lay with his firing. It lays with the next three hires.

Even with Spurrier's worst teams, he still seemed to beat Fulmer.
Spurrier lost 27 games in 12 years at Florida....who did he not beat?

That said, Tennessee has 7 wins vs Florida the last 33 games....Fulmer has 5 of them.
 
Spurrier was 122-27-1 with 6 SEC titles and a national title at Florida. Pardon me if I don’t think he sucked atFlorida because he didn’t have an undefeated season.

Ftr, Nick Saban, inarguably the greatest collegiate head football coach in history imho, has only had 1 undefeated season in his career, some 10 seasons ago.
I think the SEC was more balanced, in the 90's, after UT and Florida. It was more difficult to go undefeated, in conference. The SEC didn't get many Natty's, in the 90's, due to knocking each other off. Bama 92', UT 98', UF 96?
 
I think the SEC was more balanced, in the 90's, after UT and Florida. It was more difficult to go undefeated, in conference. The SEC didn't get many Natty's, in the 90's, due to knocking each other off. Bama 92', UT 98', UF 96?

The SEC was mostly dreck after UT and UF in the 90s. The conference has been so much stronger since the turn of the century.
 
  • Like
Reactions: vettefool
Dickey left for Florida right before Bryant switched to the wishbone. It's all speculative, but since no one had any sustained success against the Bama wishbone attack, I think it's unlikely that Dickey would have had any either.
Yeah maybe, but Dickey was a very good coach. Would have been fun watching him and the bear battle it out. I often wonder if he regretted going tp Florida. He had things rolling here. Always held a grudge against him. Some major contributors must not have felt that way since he ended up as ad.
 
Spurrier lost 27 games in 12 years at Florida....who did he not beat?

That said, Tennessee has 7 wins vs Florida the last 33 games....Fulmer has 5 of them.

Five out of 16 years. You are speaking of a misnomer.

He does receive credit for the '92 Florida game when he won with Majors team. If you take that one away, he only won twice against Spurrier. Therefore, trying to skew his record against Spurrier is not going to work, here. How many SECC and NC game appearances would he have had if not for Spurrier? Then again, who did not beat Florida while Zook was there?
 
Fulmer was done! The problem does not lay with his firing. It lays with the next three hires.

Even with Spurrier's worst teams, he still seemed to beat Fulmer.

Don't know about that, but it was proven that one of his best teams got beat up by Fulmer. And it was so devastating, Spurrier left the SEC.

And X. You are fake news. Fulmer did get credit (deserved) for the 92 Florida win.

And Bamawriter, you can speculate all you want but Tennessee beat Alabama the last 3 times Dickey coached against them and went to Legion Field and beat them so badly in the last one (1969) that Steve Kiner stood in front of the Alabama sideline and berated the Tide players for quitting on the Bear. The only thing that killed Tennessee's momentum in the early 70s was hiring an Alabama guy as their HC (Battle) who spoke openly of his disdain of recruiting.....and it showed.
 
Last edited:
Does anyone remember who else was in consideration to replace Fulmer besides Kiffin? Was it Gary Patterson ?
 
And X. You are fake news. Fulmer did get credit (deserved) for the 92 Florida win.

Two losing seasons in four years, what is fake news about that? It is a fact that the program had been going down hill the last seven seasons.
 
And Bamawriter, you can speculate all you want but Tennessee beat Alabama the last 3 times Dickey coached against them and went to Legion Field and beat them so badly in the last one (1969) that Steve Kiner stood in front of the Alabama sideline and berated the Tide players for quitting on the Bear.

That Alabama team went 2-4 in the SEC and 6-5 overall. Dickey didn't have some special recipe for beating Bryant. The Bear had lost his touch. Bama was behind on integration, the NCAA had restricted the tackle-eligible play (which was a major part of Bryant's offense), and his teams simply hit a wall.

Bama's first black players took the field in '71, and Bryant switched to the wishbone. Over the next nine seasons Bama went 97-11 and won the SEC every year but '76. Maybe Doug Dickey would have had the magic answer to all of that. Of course, his Florida teams played against the Bama wishbone 4 times and lost by an average of 30-8, but maybe Tennessee would have made all the difference.
 
Five out of 16 years. You are speaking of a misnomer.

He does receive credit for the '92 Florida game when he won with Majors team. If you take that one away, he only won twice against Spurrier. Therefore, trying to skew his record against Spurrier is not going to work, here. How many SECC and NC game appearances would he have had if not for Spurrier? Then again, who did not beat Florida while Zook was there?
1. According to Merriam&Webster, a misnomer is “the misnaming of a person of object in a legal instrument”, “a use of a wrong or inappropriate name”, and “a wrong or inappropriate designation”. So, misnomer? I don’t think that’s the word you were looking for.

2. As I mentioned, Tennessee has beaten Florida in Football only 7 of the last 32 times we’ve played them. Majors beat them once, Kiffin was 0-1, Dooley was 0-3, Jones was 1-4, Pruitt is 0-1.......Fulmer, while serving as Tennessee’s head football coach, beat them 5 times. Fact is, in 1992, Majors went 5-3 with the same players Fulmer went 4-0 with....Fulmer beat #14 Georgia, #4 Florida and #16 Boston College, while Majors lost to unranked Arkansas, #4 Alabama and unranked SCar. So don’t give Fulmer credit, but you’ll be in the majority since everywhere else Fulmer is (rightfully) credited with the W

3. I’m talking about beating Florida, not Spurrier at Florida, seeing as how pretty much no other Tennessee head coach has ever beaten Florida since the mid 1970s no matter who the coach was/is.

4. Who didn’t beaten Ron Zook while he was at Florida? Well, since he went 23-14 overall (and 16-8 in the SEC), I’d say 14 teams did and 23 didn’t.
 
1. According to Merriam&Webster, a misnomer is “the misnaming of a person of object in a legal instrument”, “a use of a wrong or inappropriate name”, and “a wrong or inappropriate designation”. So, misnomer? I don’t think that’s the word you were looking for.

2. As I mentioned, Tennessee has beaten Florida in Football only 7 of the last 32 times we’ve played them. Majors beat them once, Kiffin was 0-1, Dooley was 0-3, Jones was 1-4, Pruitt is 0-1.......Fulmer, while serving as Tennessee’s head football coach, beat them 5 times. Fact is, in 1992, Majors went 5-3 with the same players Fulmer went 4-0 with....Fulmer beat #14 Georgia, #4 Florida and #16 Boston College, while Majors lost to unranked Arkansas, #4 Alabama and unranked SCar. So don’t give Fulmer credit, but you’ll be in the majority since everywhere else Fulmer is (rightfully) credited with the W

3. I’m talking about beating Florida, not Spurrier at Florida, seeing as how pretty much no other Tennessee head coach has ever beaten Florida since the mid 1970s no matter who the coach was/is.

4. Who didn’t beaten Ron Zook while he was at Florida? Well, since he went 23-14 overall (and 16-8 in the SEC), I’d say 14 teams did and 23 didn’t.

Misnomer, for what you are referring to in your other post, pertains to the incorrect embellishment of Fulmer's accomplishments as a Head Coach against Florida. But, what was his actual record against them when Spurrier was coaching? Of course, you are going to use "I’m talking about beating Florida, not Spurrier at Florida,". Because your argument for Fulmer is skewed when doing that. Everyone here is aware that we did not play Florida often throughout our history until alignment. Therefore, having a 2-8 record against a team (Florida) with the same coach (Spurrier) is not all that good! There is just no way you can flip, twist or spin that! That, my old sparring partner, is fact!

A 23 to 14 record is a smudge over 60 %. I'm not going to research the records of every coach and school that played Florida while Zook was coaching to determine their record. But, if you think a sixty-percent win ratio is speaking volumes, there is not much else to debate. That is, unless, you want to rave about Fulmers record against Florida while only Zook was coaching them.

For years, you have consistently debated on here how great Fulmer was and quick to defend even in the presence of facts. However, I do see some of your points as valid, most of the time. This includes receiving credit for things while Majors was still head coach. But, then again, you claim Fulmer should be given credit for the good teams from the late 80's when he was named coordinator till his firing. If so, does he not deserve credit for those three loses when Majors came back in '92? Or, just the wins. You have to know he split the team by doing what he did. One has to think about this: no other school even wanted to interview him for coaching.

One has to know that he did stab him in the back. People also have to know he did some shady things to oust Majors so that he could become the HC. Having said that, I was one of those fans wanting that to happen.
 
If Fulmer back half of his career mirrored the front half he would clearly be at the same level as Neyland. Neyland did only win the one consensus Natty but had a few more Blended’ nattys. Quite honestly I think there was voting bias back in those days because there were I few undefeated seasons, including one where opponents didn’t even score, where I’m shaking my head trying to understand why we WERE NOT consensus champs.
We claim 6 so I say we won 6. One of those in the 60's was pretty dubious but we also got screwed out of some well before that. The polls definitely had regional bias in those times
 
Misnomer, for what you are referring to in your other post, pertains to the incorrect embellishment of Fulmer's accomplishments as a Head Coach against Florida. But, what was his actual record against them when Spurrier was coaching? Of course, you are going to use "I’m talking about beating Florida, not Spurrier at Florida,". Because your argument for Fulmer is skewed when doing that. Everyone here is aware that we did not play Florida often throughout our history until alignment. Therefore, having a 2-8 record against a team (Florida) with the same coach (Spurrier) is not all that good! There is just no way you can flip, twist or spin that! That, my old sparring partner, is fact!

A 23 to 14 record is a smudge over 60 %. I'm not going to research the records of every coach and school that played Florida while Zook was coaching to determine their record. But, if you think a sixty-percent win ratio is speaking volumes, there is not much else to debate. That is, unless, you want to rave about Fulmers record against Florida while only Zook was coaching them.

For years, you have consistently debated on here how great Fulmer was and quick to defend even in the presence of facts. However, I do see some of your points as valid, most of the time. This includes receiving credit for things while Majors was still head coach. But, then again, you claim Fulmer should be given credit for the good teams from the late 80's when he was named coordinator till his firing. If so, does he not deserve credit for those three loses when Majors came back in '92? Or, just the wins. You have to know he split the team by doing what he did. One has to think about this: no other school even wanted to interview him for coaching.

One has to know that he did stab him in the back. People also have to know he did some shady things to oust Majors so that he could become the HC. Having said that, I was one of those fans wanting that to happen.
Misnomer, for what you are referring to in your other post, pertains to the incorrect embellishment of Fulmer's accomplishments as a Head Coach against Florida. But, what was his actual record against them when Spurrier was coaching? Of course, you are going to use "I’m talking about beating Florida, not Spurrier at Florida,". Because your argument for Fulmer is skewed when doing that. Everyone here is aware that we did not play Florida often throughout our history until alignment. Therefore, having a 2-8 record against a team (Florida) with the same coach (Spurrier) is not all that good! There is just no way you can flip, twist or spin that! That, my old sparring partner, is fact!

A 23 to 14 record is a smudge over 60 %. I'm not going to research the records of every coach and school that played Florida while Zook was coaching to determine their record. But, if you think a sixty-percent win ratio is speaking volumes, there is not much else to debate. That is, unless, you want to rave about Fulmers record against Florida while only Zook was coaching them.

For years, you have consistently debated on here how great Fulmer was and quick to defend even in the presence of facts. However, I do see some of your points as valid, most of the time. This includes receiving credit for things while Majors was still head coach. But, then again, you claim Fulmer should be given credit for the good teams from the late 80's when he was named coordinator till his firing. If so, does he not deserve credit for those three loses when Majors came back in '92? Or, just the wins. You have to know he split the team by doing what he did. One has to think about this: no other school even wanted to interview him for coaching.

One has to know that he did stab him in the back. People also have to know he did some shady things to oust Majors so that he could become the HC. Having said that, I was one of those fans wanting that to happen.
1. Again, I’m simply stating the obvious.....no coach since 1976 has beaten Florida’s football team, regardless who their coach was, more than once.....except Fulmer, who beat Florida 5 times. I’m only speaking in that context. You’re arguing something different, which is Fulmer’s record vs Spurrier....I don’t disagree, haven’t said I disagree, not trying to spin anything...just saying you’re arguing something different.

2. Fulmer was great, that’s unarguable and the college football hall of fame concurs. To be more accurate, what I said about Fulmer as Majors’ OC, is that there is a correlation between Majors FINALLY putting together some back to back consistent seasons after he elevated Fulmer to OC in 1989...prior to 1989, Majors was wildly inconsistent year to year, one good/great year followed by one decent/bad year, then rinse and repeat. He won 57% of his games prior to Fulmer becoming his OC, then won 78% of his games in the 3 full seasons with Phil as his OC....I don’t think that’s a coincidence. the numbers don’t lie, look it up.

3. Finally, no, I don’t believe one has to believe anything of the kind. Got any proof or documentation that Fulmer “stabbed him in the back”, other than taking a bitter Majors’ word about it? That ain’t good enough for me. Powers-that-be wanted a belligerent Majors out and took their opportunity when he was ill in 1992 with his heart condition....Fulmer was named interim head coach and then the permanent replacement and took the program to heights unprecedented since the Neyland Era.
 
There is no reason why we shouldn’t have a 50% win pct vs Florida all time. 1999, 2000, 2014, 2015 and 2017 are all years we were evenly matched and lost games due to the coach being too conservative and trying not to lose vs. trying to win. No way we should have lost to Zooks 2002 team either. I understand with rivals you are going to win some and lose some but to basically lose every single time we are evenly matched is ridiculous. We were evenly matched in 1993, 1995, 1996 and 1997 but basically self destructed so much we weren’t competitive.
 
Spurrier lost 27 games in 12 years at Florida....who did he not beat?

That said, Tennessee has 7 wins vs Florida the last 33 games....Fulmer has 5 of them.
. The love and admiration for Spurrier by Tennessee fans is the biggest mystery of my life. Spurrier wins one national title and that was only after using his admittedly “superior” rhetoric to get a rematch with Florida State and influence officiating to flag any contact with his quarterback. Florida had superior talent and was held back by Spurrier. You see the results that Urban had with Florida talent (2 national titles/note plural). Spurrier certainly was entertaining and a legendary athlete, but not a great coach.
 
Last edited:
. The love and admiration for Spurrier by Tennessee fans is the biggest mystery of my life. Spurrier wins one national title and that was only after using his admittedly “superior” rhetoric to get a rematch with Florida State and influence officiating to flag any contact with his quarterback. Florida had superior talent and was held back by Spurrier. You see the results that Urban had with Florida talent (undefeated national titles/note plural). Spurrier certainly was entertaining and a legendary athlete, but not a great coach.

Neither of Meyer's UF NC teams went undefeated.
 
1. Again, I’m simply stating the obvious.....no coach since 1976 has beaten Florida’s football team, regardless who their coach was, more than once.....except Fulmer, who beat Florida 5 times. I’m only speaking in that context. You’re arguing something different, which is Fulmer’s record vs Spurrier....I don’t disagree, haven’t said I disagree, not trying to spin anything...just saying you’re arguing something different.

2. Fulmer was great, that’s unarguable and the college football hall of fame concurs. To be more accurate, what I said about Fulmer as Majors’ OC, is that there is a correlation between Majors FINALLY putting together some back to back consistent seasons after he elevated Fulmer to OC in 1989...prior to 1989, Majors was wildly inconsistent year to year, one good/great year followed by one decent/bad year, then rinse and repeat. He won 57% of his games prior to Fulmer becoming his OC, then won 78% of his games in the 3 full seasons with Phil as his OC....I don’t think that’s a coincidence. the numbers don’t lie, look it up.

3. Finally, no, I don’t believe one has to believe anything of the kind. Got any proof or documentation that Fulmer “stabbed him in the back”, other than taking a bitter Majors’ word about it? That ain’t good enough for me. Powers-that-be wanted a belligerent Majors out and took their opportunity when he was ill in 1992 with his heart condition....Fulmer was named interim head coach and then the permanent replacement and took the program to heights unprecedented since the Neyland Era.

"The Knoxville News-Sentinel reported Fulmer made 26 telephone calls to Bill Johnson, a member of the Tennessee Athletics Board, during Majors’ absence."

https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/tennessee-football/whos-better-peyton-manning-johnny-majors/
 
Here is an off season topic to explore: has Tennessee had a top notch football coach since General Neyland was on the field? Anybody on the level that Coach Summitt was for women’s basketball?

No. The difference between Tennessee and Alabama historically is that Alabama has had two great coaches since Wallace Wade...Bear Bryant and Nick Saban. Tennessee hasn't had a great coach since Neyland. Majors and Fulmer were very good and Dickey was on track for greatness, but derailed that track to go to Florida.

A huge swath of our fanbase wants to claim that Tennessee is at a recruiting disadvantage due to lack of instate talent. That's hogwash for a few reasons:

1) Tennessee, while not Georgia, California, or Texas, produces a decent amount of talent. As a state, it's still in the top 10-12 in NFL talent production and the midstate specifically has started producing talent in bunches. It's not like Alabama, Clemson, and Oklahoma, are sitting in the middle of talent-rich states and those are arguably the top 3 programs in America over the last 5 years. Further, all three of those schools have an instate power 5 rival to contend with, which Tennessee does not have (no, Vanderbilt is not a contender for 4* and 5* talent). But those programs are situated NEAR a lot of talent. Which brings me to my next point...
2) Kids don't care about state borders. "Instate" is less important than "proximate." Tennessee is situated near TONS of proximate talent in Georgia, Middle Tennessee, the Carolinas, Virginia, and even can dip into Florida regularly.
3) Tennessee has produced more NFL draft picks than any school in SEC history. So obviously, getting talent has not been an issue. The reason Tennessee is not the winningest school in SEC history, despite having the most NFL talent since the inception of the NFL, is coaching. It's pretty simple...if you have the most talent, but you're not winning the most, your problem isn't your ability to acquire talent...it's your ability to convert talent into wins.

Tennessee, simply put, has the organic advantages to acquire elite talent and win championships. It simply has to hire the right coach.
 
3) Tennessee has produced more NFL draft picks than any school in SEC history. So obviously, getting talent has not been an issue. The reason Tennessee is not the winningest school in SEC history, despite having the most NFL talent since the inception of the NFL, is coaching. It's pretty simple...if you have the most talent, but you're not winning the most, your problem isn't your ability to acquire talent...it's your ability to convert talent into wins.

Bama and UF both recently passed UT.

1. Alabama-365
2. Florida-349
3. Tennessee-346
 
No. The difference between Tennessee and Alabama historically is that Alabama has had two great coaches since Wallace Wade...Bear Bryant and Nick Saban. Tennessee hasn't had a great coach since Neyland. Majors and Fulmer were very good and Dickey was on track for greatness, but derailed that track to go to Florida.

A huge swath of our fanbase wants to claim that Tennessee is at a recruiting disadvantage due to lack of instate talent. That's hogwash for a few reasons:

1) Tennessee, while not Georgia, California, or Texas, produces a decent amount of talent. As a state, it's still in the top 10-12 in NFL talent production and the midstate specifically has started producing talent in bunches. It's not like Alabama, Clemson, and Oklahoma, are sitting in the middle of talent-rich states and those are arguably the top 3 programs in America over the last 5 years. Further, all three of those schools have an instate power 5 rival to contend with, which Tennessee does not have (no, Vanderbilt is not a contender for 4* and 5* talent). But those programs are situated NEAR a lot of talent. Which brings me to my next point...
2) Kids don't care about state borders. "Instate" is less important than "proximate." Tennessee is situated near TONS of proximate talent in Georgia, Middle Tennessee, the Carolinas, Virginia, and even can dip into Florida regularly.
3) Tennessee has produced more NFL draft picks than any school in SEC history. So obviously, getting talent has not been an issue. The reason Tennessee is not the winningest school in SEC history, despite having the most NFL talent since the inception of the NFL, is coaching. It's pretty simple...if you have the most talent, but you're not winning the most, your problem isn't your ability to acquire talent...it's your ability to convert talent into wins.

Tennessee, simply put, has the organic advantages to acquire elite talent and win championships. It simply has to hire the right coach.
I agree 100%.
 
Bama and UF both recently passed UT.

1. Alabama-365
2. Florida-349
3. Tennessee-346

Fair enough. But up until a couple years ago, Tennessee was #1. Dooley and Butch cost us that spot. Point remains, Tennessee’s ability to acquire talent hasn’t been a problem at all.
 
Fair enough. But up until a couple years ago, Tennessee was #1. Dooley and Butch cost us that spot. Point remains, Tennessee’s ability to acquire talent hasn’t been a problem at all.

Dooley and Butch also cost us all time winning records against most Sec schools. Now we are right in the middle of the pack. I think we were only 10 wins or so from being tied with Bama in the early 2000s as well. This last 10-15 years has pretty much destroyed our legacy.
 
  • Like
Reactions: NighthawkVol

VN Store



Back
Top