Why all the Fulmer hate?

[MFL]

It’s just bitter Currie ball scrubbers

 

[SeniorDrill]

Because Fulmer totally botched this coaching hire. How about today our recruiting class is ranked #46 by 247 Sports? It has dropped from #33, one spot ahead of Vandy, since the hire.

 

[whobethis16]

The word on the street was he cut line one time and it spread from there.

He lost too many game in 2005 and 2008.

His record against Florida wasn't good.

And Majors had his butt whipped by Alabama.

 

[TN_Transplant]

Because Fulmer totally botched this coaching hire. How about today our recruiting class is ranked #46 by 247 Sports? It has dropped from #33, one spot ahead of Vandy, since the hire.

Wait a minute. Who botched the coach hire from the very beginning? Currie and Haslam.

Fulmer come in and tried to clean up what he could after the complete national circus that was Currie's coaching circus.

You can blame a lot of things on Fulmer, but that crapshow of a coaching search is not one of them.

That's on Currie.

 

[ProudVOLfan]

fulmer has sabotaged three straight. Coaching searches, contacting coaches, telling them why they should not take the job.

smh

 

[KBVol]

Ok, I have to ask. Where does all this deep seated actual hate and loathing of all things Phillip Fulmer come from?

Sincerely, I want to know, because I really don't get it. All he did was win for us. Sure he had 2 bad seasons out of 16. But even the 2005 season, we were competitive. While we should have done better (and did the next year) it's not the crap show that we saw this past season. The biggest affront I can find on this season is the loss to Vandy.

2005
Opponent Result
UAB W*17–10**
at*No. 6*Florida L*7–16**
at*No. 4*LSU W*30–27*OT*
Ole Miss W*27–10**
No. 5*Georgia L*14–27**
at*No. 5*Alabama L*3–6***
South Carolina L*15–16**
at*No. 8*Notre Dame L*21–41**
Memphis W*20–16**
Vanderbilt L*24–28**
at*Kentucky W*28–7**


2008 could arguably be compared more to this past season, but even then, we didn't lose to Vandy and Kentucky in the same year. And by all accounts, the Wyoming game was thrown in protest by the players.

2008
Opponent Result
at*UCLA L*24–27*OT*
UAB W*35–3**
No. 4*Florida L*6–30**
at*No. 15*Auburn L*12–14**
Northern Illinois W*13–9**
at*No. 10*Georgia L*14–26**
Mississippi State W*34–3**
No. 2*Alabama L*9–29**
at*South Carolina L*6–27**
Wyoming L*7–13**
at*Vanderbilt W*20–10**
Kentucky W*28–10**



So explain to me why a coach with these record and accomplishments is so reviled with such venom, please. I truly just don't get it.

Head coaching record
Overall 152–52
Bowls 8–7


Accomplishments and honors

Championships
1 National (1998)
2 SEC (1997, 1998)
SEC Eastern Division (1997, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007)

Awards
AFCA Coach of the Year (1998)
Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year (1998)
George Munger Award (1998)
Home Depot Coach of the Year Award (1998)
Sporting News College Football COY (1998)
SEC Coach of the Year (1998)

College Football Hall of Fame
Inducted in 2012

Great question to ask, I don’t get it either. I’ve seen a commonality between most of the Fulmer bashers though.....they pretty much all seem to be still pissed off at the Majors firing 25+ years ago and blame Fulmer for it. In other words, they look past all the accomplishments of Fulmer and discount how good he was for the program.....they were evidently more a fan of Johnny than they are a fan of the Vols, I don’t know how it can be seen any other way.

 

[SeniorDrill]

Wait a minute. Who botched the coach hire from the very beginning? Currie and Haslam.

Fulmer come in and tried to clean up what he could after the complete national circus that was Currie's coaching circus.

You can blame a lot of things on Fulmer, but that crapshow of a coaching search is not one of them.

That's on Currie.

Listen, if you think hiring a novice head coach with a pedigree designed to hope he can join the other 6 teams in the SEC ranked in the top 25 in scoring defense instead of one who could create excitement and an offensive juggernaut to play in Neyland Stadium, more power to you. Kiffin or Stoops would have filled that bill and three yards and a cloud of dust Fulmer didn't even consider them.

 

[AM64]

Seems like there are two factions that don't like Fulmer. The bunch that think he did Majors wrong; and the newer, spoiled contingent that came in at the good part, thought that's how it always worked, and didn't like the eventual ups and downs known as college football.

Majors was always a favorite son; just about everybody wanted Johnny to come marching home again - especially after Bill Battle flopped once the Dickey magic was gone. The Majors excitement wore off - a lot of people conveniently forget that - when the winning at UT didn't immediately pick up at UT. Today, Majors would have been fired just like Jones and Dooley for not getting it done quickly enough. When success did come it was still a bumpy road - not climbing to the top of the mountain and staying there.

When Fulmer filled in as HC with Johnny Major's team, the improvement was quick, but it looked back to mundane when Majors returned. The anti Fulmer faction can say all they want that Fulmer stabbed Majors in the back, but he simply filled a void and did it better. Fulmer got more from the team than Majors had been doing. That's a measure of success as a coach; if it makes someone else look poorer for it, sorry, that's how it goes.

The other faction are the people who joined UT football when things were good. They weren't around with us in 1964 when Doug Dickey came in to rebuild a Dooleyesque type mess, and they weren't around when Battle broke the success story. They probably weren't even around for the early Major's years, but they were the new and growing "what have you done for me lately" generation. They are worst of the fair weather crowd with no historical perspective regarding sustained success and and the forces of change that disrupt the good times in college football. They plug their ears and have temper tantrums when coaching and roster changes don't mesh immediately and things go wrong or that "on any given Saturday" thing happens, and that blame goes to the HC.

 

[hexnut]

Kiffin screwed us once and Stoops is NOT available. Get real.

 

[TN_Transplant]

Listen, if you think hiring a novice head coach with a pedigree designed to hope he can join the other 6 teams in the SEC ranked in the top 25 in scoring defense instead of one who could create excitement and an offensive juggernaut to play in Neyland Stadium, more power to you. Kiffin or Stoops would have filled that bill and three yards and a cloud of dust Fulmer didn't even consider them.

And who says they would have taken it? Who says he it was his determination that he could consider Kiffin?

My point is, you are making a lot of assumptions that have no basis in fact or even rumor.

Why didn't Currie hire Kiffin or Stoops first? Why didn't we hire Leach? Did maybe someone other than Fulmer make that decision, since that was shot in the head before he was tasked with hiring someone?

Fulmer came into the crap storm, he didn't cause it.

 

[Alto1]

Fulmer was. victim of his own success.

 

[Snapper58]

Seems like there are two factions that don't like Fulmer. The bunch that think he did Majors wrong; and the newer, spoiled contingent that came in at the good part, thought that's how it always worked, and didn't like the eventual ups and downs known as college football.

Majors was always a favorite son; just about everybody wanted Johnny to come marching home again - especially after Bill Battle flopped once the Dickey magic was gone. The Majors excitement wore off - a lot of people conveniently forget that - when the winning at UT didn't immediately pick up at UT. Today, Majors would have been fired just like Jones and Dooley for not getting it done quickly enough. When success did come it was still a bumpy road - not climbing to the top of the mountain and staying there.

When Fulmer filled in as HC with Johnny Major's team, the improvement was quick, but it looked back to mundane when Majors returned. The anti Fulmer faction can say all they want that Fulmer stabbed Majors in the back, but he simply filled a void and did it better. Fulmer got more from the team than Majors had been doing. That's a measure of success as a coach; if it makes someone else look poorer for it, sorry, that's how it goes.

The other faction are the people who joined UT football when things were good. They weren't around with us in 1964 when Doug Dickey came in to rebuild a Dooleyesque type mess, and they weren't around when Battle broke the success story. They probably weren't even around for the early Major's years, but they were the new and growing "what have you done for me lately" generation. They are worst of the fair weather crowd with no historical perspective regarding sustained success and and the forces of change that disrupt the good times in college football. They plug their ears and have temper tantrums when coaching and roster changes don't mesh immediately and things go wrong or that "on any given Saturday" thing happens, and that blame goes to the HC.

Very nicely done! There were a few other things that Coach Majors did to hurt his relationships with the boosters, but that is very much the pulse of the last 50 years of football at Tennessee.:good!:

 

[AM64]

Listen, if you think hiring a novice head coach with a pedigree designed to hope he can join the other 6 teams in the SEC ranked in the top 25 in scoring defense instead of one who could create excitement and an offensive juggernaut to play in Neyland Stadium, more power to you. Kiffin or Stoops would have filled that bill and three yards and a cloud of dust Fulmer didn't even consider them.

If you think a high scoring game won by the team that has the ball last is great football, go back to your video games.

If you don't like winning because your team prevents the other guys from putting up the greater number of points on the board, find another team and enjoy the "spectacle" - win or lose.

If you think defense has no point in disrupting offensive play, then try golf or curling - bob sledding if you want something a bit faster.

 

[Volinfla13]

I think Fulmer did a fantastic as HC. I also think he's done a great job as AD. Given the number of no's Currie supposedly got I think Fulmer made the best hire available. I also believe he is a natural leader and a class act. Just my personal opinion.

 

[Snapper58]

I think Fulmer did a fantastic as HC. I also think he's done a great job as AD. Given the number of no's Currie supposedly got I think Fulmer made the best hire available. I also believe he is a natural leader and a class act. Just my personal opinion.

The only real thing you could possibly get on to CFP from his coaching days was that he may have been too loyal to his assistant coaches. Is that such a bad thing? I think that shows character that many college coaches don't have.

 

[Volinfla13]

I would agree that he may have been a little too loyal to them. It cost him his job

 

[AM64]

The only real thing you could possibly get on to CFP from his coaching days was that he may have been too loyal to his assistant coaches. Is that such a bad thing? I think that shows character that many college coaches don't have.

Absolutely agree; we all want people loyal to us ourselves, but sometimes we fail to appreciate that same character in other circumstances. I could never appreciate Randy Sanders as OC, but he did well other places, so I guess we still have to consider that Fulmer saw something the rest of us didn't.

 

[sanefan]

The only real thing you could possibly get on to CFP from his coaching days was that he may have been too loyal to his assistant coaches. Is that such a bad thing? I think that shows character that many college coaches don't have.

Fulmer was a really good coach, but if loyalty to his assistants is the reason he went 29-21 with two losing seasons in his last 4 years then yes, that is such a bad thing. Character is doing what is right. Keeping someone that is not doing the job is not loyal to his employer or the fanbase that hinges on everything the football program does.

We just got rid of a coach that went 29-20. I'm not comparing the two career wise, but we deserved better now and we deserved better then.

Again, my only question with Fulmer is just exactly where his loyalties lie. If he can serve well both himself and the university at the same time, then I really don't care.

 

[billwilson]

Great recruiter, ok coach.

 

[Smallvol#1]

It’s just a few haters that feel the need to voice it multiple times in every thread the man’s name is mentioned.

Fulmer has a high approval rating overall. You can’t please everyone.

Maybe because he always stayed positively involved in UT, never bad mouthed the university, never sniped at it , helped whenever asked, on and on and on. That sort of response to being fired shows a lot of class and love of the University most don’t have. It’s easy, and for some automatic, to hate that which makes one look/feel lesser. Sort of like all the Peyton hate out there; some people just can’t stand a successful, class act individual. Jmo.

 

[KBVol]

Fulmer has sabotaged three straight. coaching searches, contacting coaches, telling them why they should not take the job.

That is some serious beyond stupid bullish right there.

 

[dlravol2]

Unfortunately I see a lot of similarities to our situation & Ole Miss situation of longing for the past. For 30 years after Ole Miss successful past in football which was before integration of black athletes in the South their Fans longed for Johnny Vaught & kept turning to the past instead of adapting & going forward. Now we long for Fulmer & the rekindling the past formula which unfortunately quit working which is why Fulmer has been Unemployed for the past 10 Years. Going Back to Fulmer will end like bringing back Johnny Vaught did for Ole Miss. Tennessee should be on the cutting Edge of the future not digging up Dinosaurs of the past. I like Fulmer & I like my Grandpa but neither one are qualified or have the skills to Administer the Tennessee Athletic Department.

We have been in a downward spiral since 2005 and Fulmer was at the helm when that started. He has hung around long enough to get back in the drivers seat at UT. We now find ourselves at a crossroad,one leads to winning championships,the other to football pergatory. Either of which will be under the direction of AD Fulmer or as Coach Majors affectionately called him "Judas Brutas".

 

[Wishbone]

IMO Fulmer weaseled his way into Majors job. Most folks don't bite the hand that feeds them, not so with Phil. He took advantage of Majors health issues, kinda like kicking a dog when he is down. Also without Cut he was nothing, take away Manning and he doesn't win near as much. I also don't like the underhanded way he handled the Bama NCAA deal, very sneaky and child like. I don't care about Bama, I just think if you have something to say or add be a man and be upfront with it. Don't hide behind the NCAA and tattletale in secret. And now he conveniently ends up AD and hires a DC when he could have hired a proven HC.

 

[hexnut]

Opinions vary...

 

[hexnut]

IMO Fulmer weaseled his way into Majors job. Most folks don't bite the hand that feeds them, not so with Phil. He took advantage of Majors health issues, kinda like kicking a dog when he is down. Also without Cut he was nothing, take away Manning and he doesn't win near as much. I also don't like the underhanded way he handled the Bama NCAA deal, very sneaky and child like. I don't care about Bama, I just think if you have something to say or add be a man and be upfront with it. Don't hide behind the NCAA and tattletale in secret. And now he conveniently ends up AD and hires a DC when he could have hired a proven HC.

See this post bud..

"1). Johnny Majors had heart problems and had to have surgery. Fuller was promoted to ACTING head coach. When Majors returned he went in to see AD Dickie and told him that he was ready to return, but wanted a raise. Dickie told him that The UTAD was under a salary freeze and he could not offer him a raise at that time. Majors cussed Dickey out and told him that if he wasn't getting a raise he was going to quit. Dickie said, "I accept your resignation." That was the end of Coach Johnny Majors career at the University of Tennessee, and ACTING Head Coach Phillip Fulmer had the "Acting" taken off the title and was promoted to Head Coach. Everyone knows that Majors had other personal issues that were probably involved in Dickie's decision to accept Major's oral "resignation" as he did, but that is water under the bridge and there is no need to bring that up again"