The state of the program

#1
swami2302

swami2302

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2005
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22
#1
I remember back in the 90's folks wanted Fulmer gone because we couldn't beat Florida most of the time. But back then we were usually the 2nd best team in the SEC. Now I doubt were even the 5th best team in the SEC and haven't been very good in several years. Time for a Change :banghead2:
 
#3
#3
swami2302 said:
I remember back in the 90's folks wanted Fulmer gone because we couldn't beat Florida most of the time. But back then we were usually the 2nd best team in the SEC. Now I doubt were even the 5th best team in the SEC and haven't been very good in several years. Time for a Change :banghead2:
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Spurrier seemed to make Fulmer a better coach...Fulmer seemed to have such a drive to beat him that it made him and his teams better than most of the rest. I think he thought the SEC would be placed in his lap after Spurrier left and hasn't worked as hard in my opinion. He doesn't have the fire anymore.
 
#4
#4
swami2302 said:
I remember back in the 90's folks wanted Fulmer gone because we couldn't beat Florida most of the time. But back then we were usually the 2nd best team in the SEC. Now I doubt were even the 5th best team in the SEC and haven't been very good in several years. Time for a Change :banghead2:
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i agree. florida in the 1990s was more of a monkey on our back. we were right behind them every year. this is a lot different. we are behind florida, georgia, south carolina, and probably kentucky.
 
#5
#5
Our standards are lower and his paycheck is higher....he's got it figured out.
 
#6
#6
TN125 said:
I think he thought the SEC would be placed in his lap after Spurrier left and hasn't worked as hard in my opinion. He doesn't have the fire anymore.
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i have never thought about that...that is a good explanation for what has happened over the last several years.
 
#7
#7
They are to soft on them.Instead of walrus clapping he should have been striking the fear of god into them.
 
#8
#8
Let me preface this post by saying that there are few Vol fans more loyal than I am--that's what is driving me to write this post. I graduated from the University of Tennessee, I've had great success in life so far in large part because of the University of Tennessee, and I have tried to repay that over the past few years in the form of donations and volunteer service to the program and the University.

There have been a great many of us on these boards and elsewhere who have been trying to bring attention to a problem that has been growing over the past couple of years with the UT football program. We are frequently called "nega-vols" by the sunshine patrol, written off as malcontents who will criticize anything short of an annual national championship. I hope that people with a more open mind will read these words and at least consider them.

Let's hop in our time machine and take a look at Florida State University for a second. Once a proud powerhouse with two national titles and countless conference championships, since 2001 Florida State University has been on a severe downslope. I lived in Tallahassee from 2000-2005, and there were critics who questioned if perhaps the great Bobby Bowden, the aging architect of the franchise, had lost his magic as a coach--maybe the game had passed him by. But those people were drowned out by the chorus of "look at his winning percentage over the last 15 years, he's a great coach". The program was still reeling in Top-5 recruiting classes at first, with some of the best talent in the nation. Every once in a while, FSU would win a big game on talent alone, and people wondered if maybe they were back. But as the losses piled up over the years, the talent evaporated and the cupboard went empty. Now look at FSU--unable to beat an ass-sorry Clemson team in the season opener, relegated to the mediocrity of just hoping to be in the Top 25. Competing on a national level is just a memory.

Now let's hop back into the time machine and return to present day. I would argue that in 2005 Tennessee slipped onto the same slope. In 2005 we had the disastrous 5-6 season, scapegoated Randy Sanders, and then 2006 was very much the same except that fewer fumbles in key moments of games allowed us to win some tight games that we would have lost the previous year.

We are not so far down the slope that the program cannot be saved. There is still talent on this team. A coach like Urban Meyer or Steve Spurrier could compete for a national championship with our talent. So the question is this--do we continue on our current path, allowing our appreciation for a man who has brought us great success in the past to drag this program off the national radar, or do we move forward with a coach who understands the modern game and can take our existing talent and return the program to prominence?

I'm willing to bet that if FSU's AD could get a time machine to allow him to go back to 2003 and bring in a more modern coach, he'd do it in a cocaine heartbeat. We have that time machine, and I pray that Mike Hamilton uses it at the end of this season if not sooner.
 
#9
#9
I have a theory about why our beloved program is falling behind. We as vol fans love the history and nastalgia surounding the program, the General Neylands, Doug Dikey's, Johnny Majors, Manning, etc... Walking around Neyland stadium just makes you feel ripe with Traditition, but this tradition (unwillingness to change) is what is keeping our football team from changing with the times. Watching UF's spread offense and their innovative style of play proves to me UT has fallen behind the times. Naturally people are afraid of change but it needs to happen or this team willnever compete again. It seems to me we are running the same plays from 6 years ago and I doubt many teams has to watch much game film as they already know what we are going to run on both sides of the ball. Also, firing Fulmer will not solve our problems, it needs to go much deeper than that. Fulmer no longer has much control over the intricacies of the game. He admitted to it on the Philip Fulmer show. The coaching staff needs to be flipped top to bottom with the exception of a few.
 
#11
#11
dlunsford said:
I have a theory about why our beloved program is falling behind. We as vol fans love the history and nastalgia surounding the program, the General Neylands, Doug Dikey's, Johnny Majors, Manning, etc...
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i would argue that that is what has killed alabama's program over the last several years, but even they're turning the corner. maybe tennessee is next and turns over a new leaf.
 
#13
#13
Great post 78, I share your sentiments. The most frustrating argument I hear is the "who do we get to replace Fulmer?"...my simple answer is "I don't care." If we are going to be mediocre and manhandled by my most hated rivals, I'd rather it be with anyone else at this point.
 
#15
#15
Very true.

But until Hamilton sees red....as in the balance sheet at the end of the fiscal year....he will not pull the trigger.

Lets all hope Fulmer bows out on his own terms.
 
#17
#17
I agree 1978. Although I have never really considered myself a "nega-vol", I know that I will never been labeled as someone on the sunshine patrol. Is it such a sin that we want our team to win and not rest on the laurels of decades gone by?

I whole-heartedly agree that we stand where there is a definite fork in the road. We can choose to be one of those programs that can only recall the good ole days when we won a NC or when Peyton Manning was robbed of the Heisman or we can adapt an overcome (as Clint Eastwood said in the movie Heartbreak Ridge).
 
#18
#18
VolFan1978 said:
Let me preface this post by saying that there are few Vol fans more loyal than I am--that's what is driving me to write this post. I graduated from the University of Tennessee, I've had great success in life so far in large part because of the University of Tennessee, and I have tried to repay that over the past few years in the form of donations and volunteer service to the program and the University.

There have been a great many of us on these boards and elsewhere who have been trying to bring attention to a problem that has been growing over the past couple of years with the UT football program. We are frequently called "nega-vols" by the sunshine patrol, written off as malcontents who will criticize anything short of an annual national championship. I hope that people with a more open mind will read these words and at least consider them.

Let's hop in our time machine and take a look at Florida State University for a second. Once a proud powerhouse with two national titles and countless conference championships, since 2001 Florida State University has been on a severe downslope. I lived in Tallahassee from 2000-2005, and there were critics who questioned if perhaps the great Bobby Bowden, the aging architect of the franchise, had lost his magic as a coach--maybe the game had passed him by. But those people were drowned out by the chorus of "look at his winning percentage over the last 15 years, he's a great coach". The program was still reeling in Top-5 recruiting classes at first, with some of the best talent in the nation. Every once in a while, FSU would win a big game on talent alone, and people wondered if maybe they were back. But as the losses piled up over the years, the talent evaporated and the cupboard went empty. Now look at FSU--unable to beat an ass-sorry Clemson team in the season opener, relegated to the mediocrity of just hoping to be in the Top 25. Competing on a national level is just a memory.

Now let's hop back into the time machine and return to present day. I would argue that in 2005 Tennessee slipped onto the same slope. In 2005 we had the disastrous 5-6 season, scapegoated Randy Sanders, and then 2006 was very much the same except that fewer fumbles in key moments of games allowed us to win some tight games that we would have lost the previous year.

We are not so far down the slope that the program cannot be saved. There is still talent on this team. A coach like Urban Meyer or Steve Spurrier could compete for a national championship with our talent. So the question is this--do we continue on our current path, allowing our appreciation for a man who has brought us great success in the past to drag this program off the national radar, or do we move forward with a coach who understands the modern game and can take our existing talent and return the program to prominence?

I'm willing to bet that if FSU's AD could get a time machine to allow him to go back to 2003 and bring in a more modern coach, he'd do it in a cocaine heartbeat. We have that time machine, and I pray that Mike Hamilton uses it at the end of this season if not sooner.
Click to expand...

good post
 
#19
#19
i cannot tell you one that hurt like this one in a long, long time...it is not the loss, it is what this loss has shown us what the future holds.​
 
#20
#20
i don't care that we are running the same plays as we were years ago (not sure we are, but that is beside the point). florida running the spread option isn't the reason we cannot run up the middle. i mean i will take someone who wants to run the power I all day, as long as they have the team prepared and ready to execute the gameplan.
the fact that we cannot get a 1st down on 3rd and 1 is reason enough to question what is going on. not being aboe to get it once in a while is understandable - not being able to do it as many times as tennessee has failed in the last few years indicates some sort of underlying problem.
 
#21
#21
the truth.....FL is better than us. i really can live with getting beat by a bettet team.

but that's two teams that are better than us in 3 games.

two top 10 teams, nonetheless.

pissed off doens't describe how i really feel. at this point, as "in the middle" as i have been about CPF, i have to admit, i am now convinced that CPf has outlasted his benefit to this football program.

Let me be the first to thank CPF for his efforts and many succeesses. i would gladly shake his hand and say "thank you" and mean it. I would also point to him, that we have already named a street after you.

point being....it's over. i'm officially on the "time for change" bandwaggon. and i wasn't convinced by anyone on this board. i was pushed in to this by what i have seen on the feild for the past 3 weeks.

anyway....59-20. embarrassing.

so much for all of you that thought any of us with dobut were crazy huh?

pathetic performance on all accounts tonight.
 
#23
#23
VOLnFLORIDA said:
mhamilton@tennessee.edu <mhamilton@tennessee.edu>
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Thanks for the info. The problem is that a lucid, well-reasoned e-mail is going to be mixed in with thousands of missives from rednecks and will largely be ignored.

Instead, I have decided to withdraw all of my financial support for the football program until we move forward in a new direction. No more tickets, no more buying pay-per-views, no more annual contributions. It's time for tough love, and I feel that continuing to support the program financially would be the equivalent of enabling a junkie to continue getting his fix.
 
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