This season of UT football started out looking up for Philip Fulmer, instead he's in the line of fire about his coaching job.
This season started out with promise, with new receivers being thrown to by All-SEC quarterback Erik Ainge. An improved offensive line and steady running attack was also expected. But with a couple of key losses this season to your biggest opponents, it has stirred up talk about the performance, not of the players, but of head coach Philip Fulmer. You look at the career statistics of Fulmer and say to yourself, "How can people even think about wanting to let him go?" That is a valid point with a 125-45 record overall at Tennessee, that's a winning percentage of 73.5.
My opinion is a fair opinion. I'm not going to get on this soapbox and hurl fat jokes at Philip Fulmer. Honestly, fat joke are really insensitive and immature. This is just an honest opinion on the job he has done in two different time spans.
From 1993-1999 could be consider the "Golden Age" for UT football. Fulmer's record was 75-15, with a 48-10 record in the Southeastern Conference (better known as the SEC). That record also includes a 2-1 record he had in 1992 when he filled in for, then head coach, Johnny Majors. During that span, he brought a National Title and two SEC titles to "Rocky Top". His teams were also good in big games, with a 21-10 record against teams ranked in the Top 25 poll and a 4-3 record in bowl games. They had limited success against Florida (1-6 to be exact). But, with Steve Spurrier at the helm, the Gators ruled over the SEC in the Mid-late 90s. They made up for it with a 6-1 record against arch-rivals Alabama.
Switch from then to 2000-Arkansas of 2007. The Vols are 50-30 in this time span and 42-20 in the SEC. They have found success against the Gators, having 3 wins to their credit, and victories against Alabama have come fairly easily with a 6-2 record against the Tide. But where it really falls off, is the big games. Tennessee is only 16-21 against Top 25 teams, and a 2-3 record in bowl games, with not even making it to a bowl game in their 5-6 season of 2005.
What does all this mean? Well, if the Vols continue on this track, they'll fall into mediocrity. The fact is, Tennessee hasn't made it to the SEC title game since 2001, and hasn't even won it since 1998. They also haven't made it into a BCS bowl since 1999. But the thing that sticks out to the "Vol Nation" is the lack of success in bowl games. During that 2-3 stretch in bowl games since 2000, big victories have come against Michigan in 2001 and Texas A&M in 2004. But the losses came to the hand of Kansas State in 2000, a 31-3 beat down by Maryland in 2002 and Clemson in 2003.
People in support of Fulmer look at his overall record and say why fire him? Here's why. It's true, from 1993-1999 he did amazing coaching jobs. But look at it a little closer. In that time span, he had dynamic quarterbacks. Heath Schular, Peyton Manning, and Tee Martin led the way for the Vols. But what he also had, was the offensive mind of David Cutcliffe. Cutcliffe left the Vols to take the head coaching job at Mississippi before the 1998 national title game. Randy Sanders did take over for that game, but took full control in 1999 when the Vols with 9-3. Sanders coached from 2000-2005 and had nowhere near the success with quarterbacks Casey Clausen, Rick Clausen, Brent Schaeffer, and Erik Ainge as Cutcliffe did with the "Three-Headed Monster" he had in the 90s. Cutcliffe returned to the Vols in 2006, and the Vols looked to be as good as there were.
But this season has shown, with teams like Oregon, Florida, California, and even Appalachian State (when they won at Michigan) running a spread/sometimes option offense, the game has passed up Fulmer. Sure, thanks to a crazy season in college football, the Vols are in control of where they go for the postseason. Win these next two versus Vanderbilt and Kentucky, and you go to the SEC Title Game. Win that, probably against number one LSU, and go to the Sugar Bowl. But this season has been a wake up call to me, and should be to everyone else that a change has to be made in the offense scheme of things. Don't look at it game by game or you'll become fair weathered about this. Look at everything as a whole and how its done. They have the plays and the players to run it, but Fulmer is too stubborn headed to run them. The old days of running the ball up the middle and using your defense is all over. "Bear" Bryant's style of offense has been replaces by Urban Meyer's vision of a flashy, trick play game plan.
I'm not fair weathered on this. I absolutely am behind the Vols 110 percent. There just needs to come a time, hopefully soon, when someone pulls the trigger and says enough to the boring, predictable offense that the Vols are running. But I urge Vol fans to refrain from the fat jokes about Fulmer. I was guilty as anyone and one time. But those jokes just make you look stupid and your opinions invalid.
*A lot has happened in the last year and a half since this blog was done. While I agree with the firing of Phil Fulmer and I am very excited at the upcoming season with Lane Kiffin, I want to give Fulmer his proper due. He gave a lot to the University of Tennessee and left it all out on the field as a player and a coach. The legend of Fulmer will be forever remembered and I want to thank him.*
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