Back in the miserable times in TSWDNSO, there was a website firefulmer.com that had an online petition to fire Fulmer. Despite cries every year from some fans to “Fire Fulmer!” the noise had quieted a bit after that season. The website died a quick death, and Vols fans were relatively complacent with the situation.
Fast-forward to post-Florida, and at this moment, 442 Volunteer fans have signed the Fire Phillip Fulmer Now petition. More are signing by the minute. I have not signed, and I will not sign … at least not yet. I have never made any secret of the fact that I am no Fulmer fan, but just as I am not ready to put Crompton on the bench, I am not quite ready to put Fulmer out to pasture. This may change quickly, depending on how the rest of this season begins to unfold.
Anyway, there it is, and I just wanted you to be aware that some Vols fans are mad enough about what is going on that a petition to fire Fulmer exists again.
UPDATE: Signature #446 is hilarious -
446. Johnny Majors – Back-stabbin’ son of a b*tch got me fired…two can play at this game
All I can say to Tennessee fans is be careful for what you wish for. Most people think that a new coach is going to immediately inject new life into the program and return UT back to the top. Maybe a new coach will, but a majority of the time it just does not work this way. Bruce Pearl, Nick Saban, and Urban Meyer are rare exceptions. Fulmer is a good coach and a great recruiter. He took Tennessee to the top. Before he got there Tennessee was not a top program. Sorry Patrick but being ranked 6 out of 16 years does not exactly make you a national powerhouse. The typical rule in college football is that a new coach takes 4-5 years to build a program. Nick Saban and others are the exception. What a coach like Jim Grobe means to Tennessee is 4-5 years of fans deciding between Shreveport and Nashville for pre New Year’s plans.
I cant take credit for this but I truly believe it. Someone posted on a board that probably 95 percent of the people who boo have never stapped on the pads. Or strapped on the pads for a week one August and hung it up. I couldnt agree more.
Mike Hamilton will have no choice this year. Last year had Fulmer lost to UGA, he would have been fired. Fulmer is gone. That is not a question. TN will lose to Auburn and UGA and Fulmer will be fired.
Who should replace him? People who talk about Saban being an exception are idiots. If we waited until the cupboard was bare and we were run into the ground, we would take a long time to return to prominence. We recruit very well nationally and would continue to do so.
If we brought in Skip Holtz and he had a large budget to get top assistants, UT football would be much better next year in terms of penalties and turnovers inside the red zone and kick coverage. We would also have excitement back in the program. When Neyland announces 85k and it is more like 50k people actually there for the Norther Illinois game, and scalpers are using their tickets to keep warm, Hamilton will fire Fulmer.
Larry Coker, Frank Solich, Bill Callahan, Ron Zook, Jim Donnan, Ray Goff, Ty Willingham, Bob Davies, Dennis Francionne, Steve Kragthorpe, Greg Robinson. Yeah, big time coaches who turn around programs grow on trees and Nick Saban is not an exception. What was I thinking?
Fire Fulmer and you lose 50 percent of this recruiting class. Tennessee does not recruit nationally, the coaches on the Hill recruit nationally. You think that quarterback from Newman High School would have come to play for Johnny Majors? Archie would have been way too smart for that.
@ Judge: I have neither booed our coaches or players, nor have I called for Fulmer’s head. I did in 2005, but I haven’t yet. I haven’t really made a decision either way.
If something is done, then we have to bring in a known quantity and someone that can do it successfully from the beginning. In this day and age, we have a multitude of information, and we can bring in someone to get us quick results. With Tennessee, the new coach doesn’t have to build a program because it’s already here. We have top-notch talent, even better than Saban started with. We would also have to pick someone that we won’t lose recruits with: someone who is also attractive to these kids.
And say what you will about Majors, our program then was at least as good as it has been since 2000, and that wasn’t satisfactory. A kid named Heath Shuler came to play for Majors, so what’s your point? Peyton Manning came to be coached by David Cutcliffe in part BECAUSE of the success of Shuler, and he was recruited by Majors. Cutcliffe was hired to coach QBs by Majors. HELL, Fulmer was hired by Majors. You want me to mount a defense of Majors, and I will do it for you, but it’s not the point. We had comparable records, comparable crap seasons, but we also won most all of our bowl games back then. This team is not so different. The difference in Majors and Fulmer? Fulmer knows how to politic, and Majors dug his own grave with his mouth and his actions.
Again, I am not calling for Fulmer’s head, I am trying to maintain a cool head about the situation. I want to evaluate all of our options. I know you are as sick of losing to Florida as I am.
Also, for the record, Johnny’s six national rankings came in his last eight years.
Judge did you defend Buzz Peterson? Supposedly we were going to lose all those recruits and ruin our program….TN has lots of players in the NFL. We get exposure. We have miss Jackson making sure players have academic assistance. We have wonderful facilities. We will still be able to recruit.
Larry Coker, Frank Solich, Bill Callahan, Ron Zook, Jim Donnan, Ray Goff, Ty Willingham, Bob Davies, Dennis Francionne, Steve Kragthorpe, Greg Robinson. Yeah, big time coaches who turn around programs grow on trees and Nick Saban is not an exception. What was I thinking?
Ron Zook is not a big time coach. He never has been. He is a great recruiter. He is still a great recruiter. He is losing at illinois with much better athletes than his predecessors lost with at Illinois.
Ty W was a splashy hire that did not fit at all. He is not a great coach.
Jim Donnan? Hired to turn around what? Donnan was FORCED by the trustees after Jamal Lewis from Atlanta GA tore them a new hole as a freshman to hire coach Garner away from us so that Cosey Colemans etc from GA would not head up the road to Knoxville. A replacement for Fulmer is MUCH more analogous to Mark Richt replacing Donnan than it is to Donnan replacing Goff.
Great programs that wait too long to make a move, force out a legacy type coach only when they are circling the toilet. That was the case at ND, it was the case at Michigan it was the case at Alabama. Not too many great programs exist. When great programs who can get great talent, replace a mediocre head coach with a brilliant one, they are at the elite level. This is not about one man, this is about a whole staff. Coach Bowden at FSU looked lots better when Richt was offensive coordinator. If we did not have Larry Slade coaching the most athletically gifted secondary in the country with 3 future NFL players minimum in the group, we could actually use the same press coverage UF stymied us with and we would be 2-1 and not 1-2.
If Fulmer is replaced by an aging alcoholic loudmouth we will not do better. George O’Leary is succeeding at USF but I could recruit a strong class to USF and I am not worthy to heft the jockstrap of Trooper Taylor.
We need to find someone who is hungry and passionate and who demonstrates that he demands and receives respect and discipline from his players. Someone who would never have let Arian Foster play after he cost us 5 games by himself by carrying the ball like a loaf of bread. Someone who would have instead of glumly clapping, smacked him around like Bobby Knight on a chair after he took 3rd and 1 and turned it 15 yards the other way.
If we find this coach, he will bring TN back to where it belongs, in contention every 5 years for a NC and in contention every year for the SEC East and every 3 for the SEC.
Coach Fulmer is not a BAD coach. Let no one mistake that. He is a mediocre coach, a great recruiter, and a pretty good manager of staff. We can do better, and we will.
Look at the schools that scored more on UAB than we did…
Look at how AWFUL UCLA is….
Look at our penalties….
Look at our kicking game….
Look at our fumbles….
Look at players regressing from where they were with high school coaching and God given instincts and abilities….
TIME FOR A CHANGE.
I got a little carried away with the Johnny Majors comment. For the record, I do love that guy, and the 85 team probably has to be one of the all time greats at Tennessee. Not because they were of the best but because they played hard and beat the you know what out of a superiorly talented Miami team.
My point is this:
When you look at firing a coach you have to look at who will replace them. Will things be better? You have to look at Alabama. Forced out Gene Stallings. (Yes it did happen.) Four coaches in 12 years and too many scandals to count. There are four guys who have shown that they can turn around a program at a BIG TIME level. Butch Davis, Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, and Pete Carroll. Yes others have done it on small levels, but I dont count what you did in Conference USA. Those four guys have taken programs in trouble to the top. I just dont thing there is anyone out there who can turn around a program at this level. I agree, a new coach may be able to turn things around. But it will take growing pains. It will take a few years. And if you dont get Jim Leavitt, Chris Peterson, Greg Schiano or possibly Skip Holtz, could take 2 or 3 coaches.
By the way George O’Leary is coach at UCF, not USF. USF is pretty damn good and has a pretty good aforementioned coach. UCF is mediocre at best.
I gotta go to court.
The Judge was gracious about my mistake, and I was less than gracious in my original posts so I apologize.
The truth is I think I agree with the Judge on most of his points. Mike Hamilton will be lauded as a genius if before making the Fulmer decision he has decided on a short list and is able to cast the net wide and bring in someone QUALIFIED by much more than being an alum.
I like the list of possibilities the Judge came up with and I would say that TN is 1. Not being left in terrible shape by Fulmer if he goes this year and 2. Has the funds and the facilities to attract one of those short list coaches.
Do you agree Judge that if we are forced to look, TN has advantages over all but 8-9 schools in the country? Alabama I think had trouble because the alums were divided somewhat over Stallings, and then they jumped around way too much.
TN can do lots of things but what I dream of is that they fire Fulmer after we lose to Auburn and UGA, and start immediately doing all of the following:
Mike Hamilton explains expectations. You do not have to win more than one National Championship every 10 years. Fulmer is not being fired because of that, just as Jerry Green was not fired for lack of wins. You have to control off the field incidents better than we have for the last 5 years, you have to coach with discipline and have players that respect you (not 100 yards of penalties in our biggest game of the year). You have to compete in the SEC championship every 3 years or so and you should compete once a decade for a national championship.
What Fulmer did in the 90s is exactly what we expect! We just do not anticipate that he will be able to continue to do that or return to that level.
Our alums get some juice behind the hiring. We do not have a T Boone, but Haslam if he wants the program to ascend could say that we are getting the funds together to make sure that money is not the issue for our next hire. We can then make sure that we do not get a stepping stone guy.
Our alums give some juice to the assistants! I do not mind stepping stones for guys like Trooper, if every 3 years when we have to replace a position coach who was a top 25 recruiter, we can pay them enough to find another. I also think it will matter a great deal if we have a good O coordinator or D coordinator or if the guy is like Fulmer, both.
We get on top of the national story and present the fire and hire as an opportunity. We talk about what has been lost but also how close we are to the return. That kind of hire could bring in MORE recruits. They know we have the facilities and the notoriety to get them paid on Sunday, they need to know we can develop them into winners while they are at our University. We have not looked like winners at all this year. We have looked frankly pathetic.
If Hamilton handles it that way, he should be given a raise and a contract extension.
Fulmer brought in SOOO much talent. TN has been top 10 nationally in talent almost every year under his tenure. That is borne out if you look into the NFL players. The problem we have had is that our NFL level talent has been getting beaten in college too often. If I had John Henderson I could win a lot of games as a D coordinator. If you look at HOW TALENTED Vinson, Morley and Berry are and you realize that our secondary got punked this year and last compared to Florida’s and also even compared to a school like the Gamecocks, it makes you want to vomit.
@7 Judge:
I don’t think a comparison between the Gene Stallings situation and Fulmer’s current situation is helpful. While there was definitely some butting of heads between Stallings and the administration (over several things, including control, probation issues, etc.), there were other factors surrounding his being “forced out.” Stallings was much more successful on the field in his final years at Alabama than Fulmer has been recently. His last year, he was 10-3, appeared in the SEC Championship game, and defeated Michigan in the Outback Bowl. The previous five years (which rounds out ALL of his years at UA – he was only head coach for six years), he was 60-13-1 (8-3, 12-1, 9-3-1*, 13-0, 11-1, 7-5, respectively) with three SEC Championship game appearances, an SEC Championship, and a national championship.
That’s a 70-16-1 record in six years with four SEC Championship game appearances, one SEC Championship, a national championship, and another season (1994) in which UA was a single point away from another national championship (or at least a shot to play for one).
Fulmer’s record so far this year is 1-2, with embarrassing losses to UCLA and Florida and a lackluster performance against UAB, and in the previous six years is 52-25, including a no-bowl 5-6 season in 2005. Sure, he’s got one SECC and a couple SECC game appearances too. I’m not saying that’s grounds for dismissal, but to compare that to Stallings’s six years is off base.
Also, there was the critical issue of Stallings’s desire to devote himself to his son.
I think the main difference between the two is that with Stallings, there wasn’t an Alabama football fan who called for his head…whereas with Fulmer, well, we all know how that’s going.
*The official record for UA in 1993 is 1-12, having had to “forfeit” the tie and all but one win due to NCAA infractions – but for the purposes of this argument, I’m discussing on-the-field success.
Because I was trying not to state feelings one or the other on whether he should be fired on not in the above post, I left this part out of it: I think Tennessee fans are tired of being on this plateau on which Fulmer seems to be. Nine or Ten wins a season is great, but when you get embarrassed on national television two years in a row on opening weekend against PAC-10 teams (For Christ’s sake) and the peak seems to have been reached, the fans deserve to be mad (See Auburn, a comparable coach-fan hatred situation…nine or ten wins every year but one or two terrible losses).
Oh yeah, thinking about Gene Stallings makes me have to scream:
“DON’T BLOW THIS FOR US GENE!!!!!”
http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/70570
Here is an somewhat interesting look on what the rest of the country thinks. Take it for what it is worth.
Coach Meyer and Saban are exceptions to the rule. People who know football are not idiots only the ones who name call and are embarrassed about being a UT Fan. Much like:
“”Stuart Ranald
Mike Hamilton will have no choice this year. Last year had Fulmer lost to UGA, he would have been fired. Fulmer is gone. That is not a question. TN will lose to Auburn and UGA and Fulmer will be fired.
Who should replace him? People who talk about Saban being an exception are idiots. If we waited until the cupboard was bare and we were run into the ground, we would take a long time to return to prominence. We recruit very well nationally and would continue to do so.”"
Son you are the most clueless individual when it comes to understanding. It obvious you are the IDIOT. You can kiss Fulmer’s butt but we are not. Take your shots because you lot like an ass doing it.
Hey Scott,
Are you serious? Do you know anything about football? Why do we always give up 3rd and long? Why ON HIS COACHING SHOW does Fulmer say “I dont know why our DBs are playing that far off” FULMER ALREADY LOST 1 game with that crap this year to a HORRIBLE UCLA team. Now he doesnt know why it is happening? I do…Larry Slade. He is a joke. Verron Haynes ran the same play 3 times in a row to beat TN and Slade made NO adjustments. Our DBs are athletically second to none, and they are OUT OF POSITION again and again.
I could take a Walmart greeter and make them secondary coach and Eric Berry would have interceptions next year. Slade has to go, but couple that with Fulmer hiring a new OC the players do not respect and it all totals to Fulmer getting fired. I like what Hamilton did with Pearl, and I expect a stud for TN.
The one rumor around campus with the Gene Stallings situation was more his problems with then athletic director Bob Bockrath.I don’t necessarily think it had a lot to do with anything else than a personal situation.
However, had Stallings decided to stay (which I think he would have been allowed to), things would have gotten better quickly. Bockrath was a very corrupt individual, which is probably why he’s working at Yavapai College now and Stallings still does U of A Commericals.