Tennessee Volunteer Staff Assessment

[I Love HS Football]

I think Fulmer was lucky enough to get the job 15 years ago, and I think he made the best of his opportunities at that time. He turned the program in a new direction without a doubt. He was a great recruiter who could bring in the top blue chips and had a good staff that could coach them up. Even though he played everything a little too much close to the vest a lot, he won because he stressed other things so well such as discipline, as well as other areas. Times have changed. He has changed. I think he is on cruise control and it doesn't seem that he has that same desire to be the Tennessee football team that we seen in his first 10 years of coaching the Vols. The things he has done for the program are no doubt noted, but I think we have reached the point where it is that time. Time for us to get a Bruce Pearl for our football team. This is not coming to a head just because the Vols lost to a very good California team like most will think. It is a thought that I have been thinking about for the last couple of years in the very back of my mind.

 

I think Chavis has wore out his welcome as well. I remember the years when the Vols never give up a 100 yard rusher. Our defense was the heart and soul of our team, not anymore. No reason for a program like Tennessee to not know how to form tackle. Arm tackling seems to be more and more of a problem every year. Am I panicing a little about the defense, maybe, but Chavis is not the Chavis that we knew in the 90's. I think he falls in the same boat as Mickey Andrews. At any rate, him and Phil can stick together wherever that road takes them IMHO.

 

I think Cutcliffe will leave after this season. I think he realizes that this isn't the same staff that he left before. He is a winner, and he does stress discipline. Ainge looks good as well as the running game. I think Cut is a pretty good coach and will succeed wherever he decides to go.

 

So after this season, Cut will leave for a smaller school, Fulmer will of course be here til his contract is up (partly thanks to his big donation to the University), and Chavis will ride his coat tail for as long as he can. What does everyone else think?

[Sequatchie]

This is the first time I have been ready to say its time for a change. Coach Fulmer can still recruit as evidence by the perenial top 5-10 classes he brings in almost every year. However I think the coaching part has past him by its time for Tennessee and AD Mike Hamilton to look for some new and relatively young blood outside of the Tennessee family to do to football what he done to basketball when they hired Bruce Pearl.

 

I have read that some people think Tennessee can not get any big names if the job is available I don't buy that Tennessee is one of the top 10 if not top 5 programs in the country when it comes to facilities, money, and it is known to recruits. Plus its not a rebuilding effort like Pearl had to do in basketball they would be walking into a well stocked team with some bigtime players that just need to be coached.

 

Here are some names in random order I would like UT to look at if the job becomes available. I would have to check there ages but I think all of them are between 35-50 years old.

 

Jeff Tedford - Cal - HC

Steve Sarkisian - Southern Cal - OC/QB Coach

Greg Schiano - Rutgers - HC/DC

Chris Petersen - Boise State - HC

Jimbo Fisher - Florida State - OC/QB Coach (formerly LSU - OC/QB Coach)

Bobby Petrino - Atlanta Falcons - HC (formerly Louisville - HC)

Dan Mullen - Florida - OC/QB Coach

Jim Grobe - Wake Forest - HC

Andy Ludwig - Utah - OC/QB Coach

Gary Patterson - TCU - HC

Jim Leavitt - South Florida - HC

Mike Bellotti - Oregon - HC

Kevin Steele - Alabama - DC

Charlie Strong - Florida - Co-DC/Asst. HC/LB Coach

Rich Rodriguez - West Virginia - HC

[zonepirate]

Thanks for the compliment ie Coach Steele. He will be a head coach somewhere someday. I just hope he is at Bama for a few more years

 

I ran across a post from Foolmer's old buddy from Memphis TennStud. Sounds like Foolmer has more friends in Alabama than in TN /laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":lol:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />

 

--------------------------------------------------------

As I'm seated on the deck of the "Titanic" Tennessee

 

program, I'm questioning myself, my judgment, and my sanity. As a 50+ year avid and devoted follower of UT football, I'm much more upset at modern day instant communication of information-bad news. In my youth, one could hear the game on the radio, read about it in the next morning's newspaper, but one could only guess, speculate about the reasons why the team played the way it did. You just got beat and moved on to the anxiously awaited next game which you knew we could and would win. Now, you see the debacle with your own lying eyes.

I'm basically a most conservative individual but when the 9/11 year early game against Florida was delayed until the end of the season and we beat them in Gainesville, I made nonrefundable air, hotel, and travel arrangements for us to play in LA for the National Championship game, KNOWING we would will our way there by beating LSU in Atlanta. That defeat by LSU was the beginning of the end as far as UT being an elite football program but I refused to face facts, reality. One dismal bowl defeat after another, being 5th in wins and losses in the SEC for the past 5 years, not seeing as many great athletes on the UT field as in years past, have all contributed to my realization that UT football, presently and most likely in the foreseeable future-because of the lack of numerous great African-American high school football prospects in our recruiting area- will most likely, for most years, be stuck behind UF, UGA, LSU, Alabama and Auburn, fighting to stay ahead of South Carolina, Arkansas, and Kentucky. Just the facts.

A GREAT innovative coach, a la Urban Meyer("his tricky offense will never work in the SEC"), a demanding dictator like Nick Saban, can do it. But, they're not coming. Most of the others, including Rich Rodriguez, Rutger's Schiano, etc know of UT's tradition, the unique Rocky Top, the 106,000 stadium, the passion and loyalty of UT's fan base, the 6th largest athletic budget, etc. BUT they know you win with football players. Yes, a young Phil Fulmer with energy, demanding from him staff, working year round on recruiiting can do it. BUT, a coach who works year round on recruiting is much more difficult to hire than many of us are willing to admit. Yes, some will talk the talk and say they'll work year round-for the multi million dollar pay check, but will they do it? Only time will tell. It's a roll of the dice but most UT fans do now desire a change in the direction of the program regardless of the risk.

When the head coach goes to defensive meetings and sleeps, when players refer to him as "Fat Phil" jokingly behind his back, when there's open hostility, jealously, of certain members of the staff toward another, when players know of one coach on the staff ruining a man's relationship with his wife, when one coordinator orders the head coach off his side of the field, when a coordinator determines who is employed or stays on the staff, when one top football associate is known to have steered certain prospects away from UT but there's legal problems preventing discipline, punishment or dismissal, when there's only 2 African-American coaches on the field despite the team being 90 percent African-American, when assistant coaches laugh at the head coaches hard work on recruiting, when the head guy works longer and harder than his assistants, when there's little or no fear of being replaced as an assistant on Fulmer's staff unless you commit a crime, then maybe one of the above is NOT responsible for UT's football demise, BUT, collectively, these are not positive factors in UT's football success. Again, these are just personal opinions; I don't have the answer to UT's problem and can certainly understand and appreciate other folks opinion.

An interesting off shoot of UT's problems has been the rise and continuing success of the OuterBoard, a board started by folks like AtlantaVol who, despite his harsh and negative rhetoric, early on saw the decline of UT's football program. I readily admit I didn't see it and didn't believe the facts he and others were posting. Now that board has nearly 500 registered members, and I assume their membership will rise even more.

[Sequatchie]

I read Tennstud's posts on Volchat a lot!

[Solomon]

Personally, if it does happen, Schiano would be my first choice. The guy can recruit nationally and has great ties into some of the Florida powerhouses. If he can win at Rutgers, he can win anywhere.

 

Someone at Tennessee has to be a great recruiter. I am leary of any of the smaller Florida school coaches because recruiting there is so easy.

 

I want no part of Rich Rodriguez. Good grief, people think we have trouble makers now........

[zonepirate]

I read Tennstud's posts on Volchat a lot!

 

 

You're not one of his hot tub buddies are you? /dry.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=" /laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":lol:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />

[zonepirate]

I want no part of Rich Rodriguez. Good grief, people think we have trouble makers now........

 

 

I am eternally greatful to Rich for turning us down

[Solomon]

Here's something I have noticed this year -

 

UT has a very old coaching staff all things considered. I believe there are only 3 assistants under age 50.

[zonepirate]

Have ya'll seen this one... /laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":lol:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />

[THE SQUAD]

Thanks for the compliment ie Coach Steele. He will be a head coach somewhere someday. I just hope he is at Bama for a few more years

 

I ran across a post from Foolmer's old buddy from Memphis TennStud. Sounds like Foolmer has more friends in Alabama than in TN /laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":lol:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />

 

--------------------------------------------------------

As I'm seated on the deck of the "Titanic" Tennessee

 

program, I'm questioning myself, my judgment, and my sanity. As a 50+ year avid and devoted follower of UT football, I'm much more upset at modern day instant communication of information-bad news. In my youth, one could hear the game on the radio, read about it in the next morning's newspaper, but one could only guess, speculate about the reasons why the team played the way it did. You just got beat and moved on to the anxiously awaited next game which you knew we could and would win. Now, you see the debacle with your own lying eyes.

I'm basically a most conservative individual but when the 9/11 year early game against Florida was delayed until the end of the season and we beat them in Gainesville, I made nonrefundable air, hotel, and travel arrangements for us to play in LA for the National Championship game, KNOWING we would will our way there by beating LSU in Atlanta. That defeat by LSU was the beginning of the end as far as UT being an elite football program but I refused to face facts, reality. One dismal bowl defeat after another, being 5th in wins and losses in the SEC for the past 5 years, not seeing as many great athletes on the UT field as in years past, have all contributed to my realization that UT football, presently and most likely in the foreseeable future-because of the lack of numerous great African-American high school football prospects in our recruiting area- will most likely, for most years, be stuck behind UF, UGA, LSU, Alabama and Auburn, fighting to stay ahead of South Carolina, Arkansas, and Kentucky. Just the facts.

A GREAT innovative coach, a la Urban Meyer("his tricky offense will never work in the SEC"), a demanding dictator like Nick Saban, can do it. But, they're not coming. Most of the others, including Rich Rodriguez, Rutger's Schiano, etc know of UT's tradition, the unique Rocky Top, the 106,000 stadium, the passion and loyalty of UT's fan base, the 6th largest athletic budget, etc. BUT they know you win with football players. Yes, a young Phil Fulmer with energy, demanding from him staff, working year round on recruiiting can do it. BUT, a coach who works year round on recruiting is much more difficult to hire than many of us are willing to admit. Yes, some will talk the talk and say they'll work year round-for the multi million dollar pay check, but will they do it? Only time will tell. It's a roll of the dice but most UT fans do now desire a change in the direction of the program regardless of the risk.

When the head coach goes to defensive meetings and sleeps, when players refer to him as "Fat Phil" jokingly behind his back, when there's open hostility, jealously, of certain members of the staff toward another, when players know of one coach on the staff ruining a man's relationship with his wife, when one coordinator orders the head coach off his side of the field, when a coordinator determines who is employed or stays on the staff, when one top football associate is known to have steered certain prospects away from UT but there's legal problems preventing discipline, punishment or dismissal, when there's only 2 African-American coaches on the field despite the team being 90 percent African-American, when assistant coaches laugh at the head coaches hard work on recruiting, when the head guy works longer and harder than his assistants, when there's little or no fear of being replaced as an assistant on Fulmer's staff unless you commit a crime, then maybe one of the above is NOT responsible for UT's football demise, BUT, collectively, these are not positive factors in UT's football success. Again, these are just personal opinions; I don't have the answer to UT's problem and can certainly understand and appreciate other folks opinion.

An interesting off shoot of UT's problems has been the rise and continuing success of the OuterBoard, a board started by folks like AtlantaVol who, despite his harsh and negative rhetoric, early on saw the decline of UT's football program. I readily admit I didn't see it and didn't believe the facts he and others were posting. Now that board has nearly 500 registered members, and I assume their membership will rise even more.

 

 

Wow,zonepirate.

 

Don't know what to say... /sad.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad.gif" />

 

 

 

THE SQUAD /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />