I posted mho in another thread. I am reposting here.
Nobody wants to go back just a bit further than 15 years, but eff it. I will do it. And there are many good people who just are not able to lead, so this is not about personal vendettas...from me, anyway.
This game was lost 25 years ago. How was it that Fulmer ever got a HC job at UT? Oh yeah, he was a stand in for Johnny Majors for a few games while HC Johnny Majors was in the hospital at that time. A few back slappings, (or stabbings for some - none fatal) & handshakes later, a very short-term memory fan base soon embraced an OL from some forgettable town in TN as HC. He had David Cutcliffe as OC...and that OC tutored one Peyton Manning back in the 90's. Best player to play at UT with best OC to ever coach at UT.
Even with CUT and Manning, Phil spent his time as HC playing not to lose. His assistants WERE the coaches when we had good QB play (CUT) & good enough defenses (CHAVIS). Year after year we were the butt of every Spurrier joke, and you couldn't spell Citrus Bowl w/o UT. Now the Manning effect attracted talent, and recruiting came too easy for a while. We had all the fortune and luck imaginable and won a natty against a FSU team w/o a QB. No matter that we should have lost to Arky and even UF/SYR that year. Thank you Al Wilson and Deon Grant and Clint Stoerner?sp?!
Obviously, the rest is history. How can every 45+ year old fan forget that 3-8 low point vrs Wyoming? Or that embarrassing 2005 campaign? Or all the Citrus Bowls in the 90's? Fulmer got rich and lazy, and UT just kept rewarding him. When he was finally exposed with Cut leaving for OM, he got him to come back as OC here for one year,...was that when people had finally had enough? It was enough for me, but the real damage was still ahead. No recruits, no adjustments to the SEC racing to the top...and UT was the butt of many jokes back then, but we forget...and Cut moved on after one season. That was the last year UT was even competitive.
$24M paid out from 2009 until 2015. $4M/year buyout to the man was death of UT Football. People forget that NOBODY, NOT ONE SCHOOL took a swing at hiring Phil Fulmer. He may be a TN guy, and even a good ole guy, but he IS NOT A LEADER. How quickly everyone seems to forget. And now this man is the AD and we see posts like "Fulmer has to step in"...lol...how quickly we forget the constant CLAPPING by Fulmer on the sideline after every turnover, penalty, or score against UT.
Players take on the personality of their leaders. There are plenty of similarities between our current coaches approach to coaching, general appearance and demeanor and our current AD. He is the one who has built this current, overpaid staff, including 2 QBs from that 1998 one shot of glory..
The 2019 opener felt like 2008 vrs Wyoming...and 1997? against Memphis....and many other games in between against UF. For a time, we benefited from teams so full of talent that THEY COULDN'T lose to teams as bad as GSU. But the Manning/Al Wilson effect died a long time ago. They are distant memories. But other reminders from that ERA are running the show...it really is like a bad dream.
And a shout out to the much maligned VFF (in the old days, anyway). Spot on when saying yesterday's effort was the same thing we saw in our last game against Vandy. SMH...
We should have hired CUT as head coach after the 2005 debacle. In 2008, it was a no brainer. Fast forward 15 years, and UT fans are looking to Fulmer to shake things up. It's like one never-ending nightmare where one is tortured slowly with 1000 needles over a quarter century.
Nobody wants to go back just a bit further than 15 years, but eff it. I will do it. And there are many good people who just are not able to lead, so this is not about personal vendettas...from me, anyway.
This game was lost 25 years ago. How was it that Fulmer ever got a HC job at UT? Oh yeah, he was a stand in for Johnny Majors for a few games while HC Johnny Majors was in the hospital at that time. A few back slappings, (or stabbings for some - none fatal) & handshakes later, a very short-term memory fan base soon embraced an OL from some forgettable town in TN as HC. He had David Cutcliffe as OC...and that OC tutored one Peyton Manning back in the 90's. Best player to play at UT with best OC to ever coach at UT.
Even with CUT and Manning, Phil spent his time as HC playing not to lose. His assistants WERE the coaches when we had good QB play (CUT) & good enough defenses (CHAVIS). Year after year we were the butt of every Spurrier joke, and you couldn't spell Citrus Bowl w/o UT. Now the Manning effect attracted talent, and recruiting came too easy for a while. We had all the fortune and luck imaginable and won a natty against a FSU team w/o a QB. No matter that we should have lost to Arky and even UF/SYR that year. Thank you Al Wilson and Deon Grant and Clint Stoerner?sp?!
Obviously, the rest is history. How can every 45+ year old fan forget that 3-8 low point vrs Wyoming? Or that embarrassing 2005 campaign? Or all the Citrus Bowls in the 90's? Fulmer got rich and lazy, and UT just kept rewarding him. When he was finally exposed with Cut leaving for OM, he got him to come back as OC here for one year,...was that when people had finally had enough? It was enough for me, but the real damage was still ahead. No recruits, no adjustments to the SEC racing to the top...and UT was the butt of many jokes back then, but we forget...and Cut moved on after one season. That was the last year UT was even competitive.
$24M paid out from 2009 until 2015. $4M/year buyout to the man was death of UT Football. People forget that NOBODY, NOT ONE SCHOOL took a swing at hiring Phil Fulmer. He may be a TN guy, and even a good ole guy, but he IS NOT A LEADER. How quickly everyone seems to forget. And now this man is the AD and we see posts like "Fulmer has to step in"...lol...how quickly we forget the constant CLAPPING by Fulmer on the sideline after every turnover, penalty, or score against UT.
Players take on the personality of their leaders. There are plenty of similarities between our current coaches approach to coaching, general appearance and demeanor and our current AD. He is the one who has built this current, overpaid staff, including 2 QBs from that 1998 one shot of glory..
The 2019 opener felt like 2008 vrs Wyoming...and 1997? against Memphis....and many other games in between against UF. For a time, we benefited from teams so full of talent that THEY COULDN'T lose to teams as bad as GSU. But the Manning/Al Wilson effect died a long time ago. They are distant memories. But other reminders from that ERA are running the show...it really is like a bad dream.
And a shout out to the much maligned VFF (in the old days, anyway). Spot on when saying yesterday's effort was the same thing we saw in our last game against Vandy. SMH...
We should have hired CUT as head coach after the 2005 debacle. In 2008, it was a no brainer. Fast forward 15 years, and UT fans are looking to Fulmer to shake things up. It's like one never-ending nightmare where one is tortured slowly with 1000 needles over a quarter century.
