Top 5 All Time Vol Coaches

[dduncan4163]

The Bear had back to back losing records in the SEC in '69 and '70 (Fulmer had only two losing records in the SEC). Bama fans were screaming for him to be fired. Cooler heads prevailed and he turned it around, with 10+ wins in 9 of the next 10 years and 3 more nat'l championships. Bobby Bowden had a bad stretch fin the mid-80's but turned it around. Joe Pa, even with a powder puff schedule, had some bad stretches in his career but turned it around. Fulmer was not given the opportunity to turn it around. Hamilton over-reacted and that's why we had 15 years in purgatory. There is no way the Volunteer program would not have been on better footing had we stuck with Fulmer for at least 2 more years to see if he could turn it around. I think Clausen would have had the offense humming the next year had we stuck with Fulmer.

It was more than a couple bad seasons. He let recruiting slip bad. He stood by Sanders too long. He was forced to let him go and he got lucky when Cut came back. When Cut left the second time all it took was another bad OC hire. I'm still embarrsed about that 2008 UCLA loss.There was a reason Power 5 schools wasn't knocking his door down once he was let go. Go bac

 

[ThreatLevelOrange]

I'd put Fulmer 3rd, which is fantastic for a program like Tennessee. I'm not saying he didn't do anything. I'm saying why Majors' performance was more impressive. Everything doesn't have to be in the extremes.

Let's put it this way:

1) Imagine a 42 year-old Majors (the age he was in 1977) takes over a Tennessee program that was in the shape it was in in 1993. No having to build from the bottom, no awful facilities, no dearth of talent. He takes over a program with a Heisman contender at QB, loads of future NFL talent, and coming off of 4 straight NY's Day bowls and 2 SEC championships in the last 4 years. How well do you think Majors performs? How much better is his record? How many SEC titles does he win? What are the odds he wins a National Title? More than one?

2) Now imagine a 42 year-old Fulmer (the age he was in 1993) takes over a Tennessee program that was in the shape it was in in 1977. Bottom level facilities, a dearth of talent, etc. What are the odds Fulmer takes THAT program and builds it to a top 10 caliber program, much less wins SEC and National Titles?

I think the odds of Majors taking an elite program and doing as well or better than Fulmer did with it is much greater than Fulmer taking a downtrodden program and building it as well as Majors did. I think Fulmer would've failed at that endeavor and Majors would have succeeded. That's why I put Majors ahead of him. Not because I think what Fulmer did was nothing...it most certainly wasn't.

It took Majors - without signing restrictions - til his 5th year to get us to a consistent winning program. But he was driven to make it work. But at the end he was unable to win the big game. Losing to S Car and Arkansas in close games, was too much.

Fulmer was hungry and recruited his tail off for 5-6 years, then he quit holding his coaches and players accountable. And it caught up with him. He made one high profile hire that was outside his general coaching tree. And it cost him. Majors pushed his coaches that they turned over as fast as Sabans.

Two opposite approaches. Both successful in their own way. Both the right coaches at the right time.

 

[VOL89grad]

I really don’t like these threads right now, there’s so much goodness right here and now with our team. I am a Johnny Majors fan (he was head coach when I attended)… without him leaving the national championship team he built at Pitt to come back to his roots on Rocky Top, it’s very unclear if we’d have been in position to be Sugar Vols in 85 or beat the heck out of Arky in the 90 Cotton Bowl…. or a championship in 98. Facts are facts… let’s all celebrate our proud history.

Please just stop these nonsense threads!

Go VOLS!

 

[#1fulmerite]

I do too. But that wasn’t my point.

Fulmer doesn’t win a NC in 1998 without the ground work Majors did. There’s zero evidence to suggest he was capable of building a program from the ground up. He couldn’t even maintain the elite one he had handed to him. What Majors did was more impressive.

I see a valid point in your statement. I must throw in a (but) in that if it had not been for Fulmer doing what he did as an assistant and as AHC, Majors would not have had as good of teams.

Look at Fulmer’s record in ‘92 with Majors’ team and then look at Majors record with same team.