Trades You Would Do Over: Fulmer for Kiffin, Dooley, and Jones

[UT Hill Man]

We traded Fulmer, and his record the 9 previous years of 76 wins against 38 losses, for Kiffin, Dooley, and Jones and their combined record of 57 wins against 56 losses.

And we threw in up to 33 million in buyout money collectively. Throwing good money after bad.

That my friends is right up there with the worst trades in sports history. We got rid of a coach who was good for three that aren't any good.

I never knew mediocrity could be so expensive.

 

[mommasvol]

yep

 

[BigOrangeMojo]

We traded Fulmer, and his record the 9 previous years of 76 wins against 38 losses, for Kiffin, Dooley, and Jones and their combined record of 57 wins against 56 losses.

And we threw in up to 33 million in buyout money collectively. Throwing good money after bad.

That my friends is right up there with the worst trades in sports history. We got rid of a coach who was good for three that aren't any good.

I never knew mediocrity could be so expensive.

The biggest issue wasn't firing Fulmer...it was going cheap with the next 3 head coach hires. If we ponied up the money to Patterson in 2008, we arent having this discussion today.

 

[NATHAN05]

Cubs had the curse of the goat....and we have the curse of firing fulmer.....so I guess we have 61 years left until,our next NC?

 

[Iam4utalways]

If hindsight isn't 20/20, you're stupid. If we can strike it rich with the next HC, it might be worth it.

We need a Summitt Type run.

 

[Rasputin_Vol]

We traded Fulmer, and his record the 9 previous years of 76 wins against 38 losses, for Kiffin, Dooley, and Jones and their combined record of 57 wins against 56 losses.

And we threw in up to 33 million in buyout money collectively. Throwing good money after bad.

That my friends is right up there with the worst trades in sports history. We got rid of a coach who was good for three that aren't any good.

I never knew mediocrity could be so expensive.

Fulmer needed fired. Get over it.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

Sure, but Fulmer would have been pushed out with a few years anyway. He wasn't going to get us back to championship levels and that was the frustration.

So yes, it's easy to NOW look back and say "Damn I would kill for constant 8-4/9-3 seasons", but at that time, that wasn't good enough and it wasn't getting any better. This fantasy thinking that had just kept Fulmer and we'd be right back to National Championship levels is just silly.

 

[bigorangedude]

Amen brother... Over a 10-year period, Tennessee ranks a lowly #12 out of 14 SEC schools in Conference and Overall Winning Percentage.* Only KY and Vandy are worse.* As Donald Trump would say, "Sad!"*

Fulmer's dismal 5-7 season in 2008 was Year 1 of the 10-year funk we've been in, but that season really only had two "bad" losses (South Carolina, Wyoming). Nowadays, we're riddled with multiple embarrassing losses each season.

I haven’t seen a compilation of won-loss records by team in a format that paints the picture across all 14 SEC programs, so I compiled one myself in a spreadsheet using year-by-year results by team.* Attached is the summary page (pdf file),* which is current through last night's games.

I anticipated the #’s would be ugly for UT, but in comparison to “average” or “below average” schools like SC, MSU, Ole Miss and/or Ark., it’s even worse than you might think.
*
We’ve won just 26 conference games over the last 10 years!* That's less than half of GA and LSU for example over the same period.* Texas A&M and Missouri have nearly as many wins as UT in just 6 seasons.

 

[MurphyVol]

I still think PF was handcuffed on assistant salaries. I want to say at one point we were paying Sanders 175k while other programs we're pushing 7 figures for assistants.

I think a strong AD could have opened the check book for Phil to get better people. If he refused to make changes after that, then you could understand letting him go.

I always thought it was a bit of a slap in the face to fire Chief and then pay Monte 3 times the salary

 

[casetopia]

Fulmer lost to Wyoming

 

[n_huffhines]

Why are people so convinced Fulmer wasn't capable anymore? We were within a TD of an SEC title his 2nd to last year. Nobody knows if we could have bounced back in a couple of years. All we know is that we haven't in 9 years.

 

[Burhead]

Fulmer's time was up, we just made horrible decisions at every step. If I could redo it I would probably have hired Cut after Fulmer, again after Kiffin left, and maybe even again after Dooley. Now, though, he is too old and probably content to retire at Duke.

 

[smokey90]

Why are people so convinced Fulmer wasn't capable anymore? We were within a TD of an SEC title his 2nd to last year. Nobody knows if we could have bounced back in a couple of years. All we know is that we haven't in 9 years.

They don't don't want admit they were wrong

 

[n_huffhines]

Fulmer's time was up, we just made horrible decisions at every step. If I could redo it I would probably have hired Cut after Fulmer, again after Kiffin left, and maybe even again after Dooley. Now, though, he is too old and probably content to retire at Duke.

"Horrible decisions at every step"

What does that even mean? In his last season? We were 10-4 his second to last season and won a tough division. We played the natty champs better than tOSU did.

These arguments against Phil are oversimplified and way too absolute. They make no sense.

 

[ric1958]

Fulmer lost to Wyoming

And in 1996 he lost to a eventual 4-7 Memphis football team but won a National Championship in 1998.

So what is your point?