All of you goobs expecting a big-name, established coach are going to be sad. Fulmer is highly respected by his peers and there are not many established coaches who are going to want to take advantage of Fulmer’s situation. When you have been a national championship head coach for 15 years, your tentacles stretch throughout the coaching biz. Loyalty is huge to coaches and Fulmer is well liked.
Butch Davis? No way
Cutcliffe? Silly
Cowher, Gruden? Hahaha
At best Tennessee will go out and get a successful 1-AA coach if Fulmer is fired or forced out.
Possible candidates:
1. Ty Willingham
2. Dan Mullen
3. Ron Zook
Didn’t UT just get a successful 1-AA coach as O coordinator? That worked. Jim, you are correct, Ty Willingham would be an EXCELLENT choice.
Lloyd, you posted he is gone, so are you a goob?
What is this IF he is fired or forced out?
Look at it this way, Vol Fans, you always have Women’s Basketball Season.
croom – I am a goob but I want Fulmer to remain as head coach
Spurrier leaves USC and returns to his old stomping grounds. Older than UF for those with “what?” dancing in your heads.
@7 not as crazy as it seems….
how about will muschamp? he obviously has no loyalty to his alma mater…and he’s a young, successful defensive coordinator. he’s gone as far up (as a coordinator) as he can possibly go.
potentially, a ‘defensive richt’…that knows the SEC inside and out.
Nica,
I thought that I read that he old ball sack coach wanted to return to Jortsville, but Foley wanted him to interview all over again. OBS purportedly told Foley that his resume was the NC and SEC trophies in the halls.
I don’t know if that is true or not
Will Muschamp is a great colonel, but a general he ain’t. He is a slightly more functional version of The Orgeron, and just ask Ole Miss fans how that worked out. It would serve Tennessee fans right to land BOOM MOTHERF****R, though. Here is a fan base ready to shove an icon out the door, one year removed from an SEC title game appearance. Fulmer brought Tennessee a national title (something Tennessee had not seen since 1951, I’ll repeat that: not seen since 1951!), 2 SEC titles, and 5 SEC East titles. He landed a Top-5 recruiting class two years ago, and he will continue to recruit well. He has 150 wins at the school that he has given his life to since he was 18 years old, and he turned the tables on Alabama (if you think that’s easy, ask Johnny Majors). All Tennessee needs to do is overhaul the Offensive Coordinator and make a few other changes in the lower coaching ranks. Fulmer can right the ship in Knoxville, but Tennessee will suffer in the long run tremendously if he is fired.
Bobby? Golf clap. Spoiled rotten fanboys….that is Tennessee. I may change my fandomship
Bobby – Agree completely with you. Bravo!
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i agree with you too bobby. fulmer is a good coach IMO.
the problem, in my view, is that it was relatively easy for UT to stay in the top 2 of the east throughout the 90s while georgia bumbled thru the goff/donnan years. they recruited atlanta (see jamaal lewis at peachtree) well…beat georgia regularly, and when they beat my gates, they did bigger, and better things.
then, georgia solidified the program, bringing in richt, who (and i paraphrase) first sought to ‘close the border’ and secure the georgia talent (which, he, in large part, accomplished). meanwhile, down in gainesville, we were experimenting with the bumbling ‘we’re gettin’ better’ of ron zook. so….in short, tennessee was able to maintain a ‘top 2′ status in the east, sharing it with uga.
then…..meyer came to florida, and tennessee has stumbled a bit, perhaps suffering from a little ‘program stagnation’….not to say fulmer is a bad coach, he just needs to spice things up.
i’m not advocating the hiring of a tony franklin type guy, but tennessee needs to rile things up….compounding their increased competition (including ole ball coach and overall sec east parity), they’ve been snakebit by quarterback play and fumbling running backs. as a gator fan, i can count on a tennessee rb to fumble just about every 3rd week in september…..just like i expect georgia wrs to drop sure tds in jax.
in closing, i think fulmer is getting a bad rap, but i also understand why its happening. you just don’t lose to ucla, and play this ugly without making some changes. i agree with bobby and the original thread in the end….
phil fulmer is volunteer football…it’ll be a sad day if he is indeed gone.
nica gator,
You do make some very good points, but it is plausible to argue that Tennessee is still one of the top tier teams in the East (UT did go to the title game just LAST YEAR), and Fulmer is 3-2 against Richt and Georgia over the past five years. Also, Ray Goff, Jim Donnan, and Ron Zook never came close to winning a national title (or at least at an SEC school, winning a D1AA title at Marshall does not count in my book), and I don’t believe any one of them ever won an SEC title. Yes, Tennessee is not the dominant program it was in the late 90s, but even Bear Bryant went through some down years at Alabama. He had back-to-back 6-5 seasons in 1968 and ’69. If Bryant can have a few down years, then surely Tennessee should give Fulmer more time to right the ship, especially since the Vols made it to Atlanta last year.
bobby, i don’t disagree with anything you say there. the crux of what i’m saying is…..without the zooks and goffs to the south of knoxville, tennessee has a tougher time staying on top.
honestly, i don’t think the fan base accepts that…..and that’s unrealistic. as a gator fan, i realize that every year we have someone like tebow, i should cherish it, b/c we’ve been through the jesse palmer/noah brindise years too….
the only difference in jesse palmer and mtn. values is palmer had jabar gaffney and a slew of receivers to throw to…
in the end…tennessee is a 1st tier program in the SEC, period….
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Bobby peddles the old lame, worn out doo doo.
bearbryant,
Great argument. It obviously took a great deal of thought and effort. You make several sterling points, all of which were backed up with indisputable evidence. Have you ever considered law school? Or are you already an accomplished attorney? You have truly opened my eyes and swayed my opinion with your impassioned and brilliant argument. Well done!
Mike Shula?