The Bucks Stops Elsewhere. Phil Fulmer rolls some heads.

[KnoxVegas]

Tennessee head football coach Phil Fulmer apologizes to fans after going 5-6 including a loss to Vanderbilt for the first time in 22 years and USC in 13 years. Losing to Vandy is like... well losing to Vandy. There is Duke and then Vandy. You can only go up from there in D I-A football.

Tennessee was ranked #3 in the preseason. Nebraska's AD fired their head coach a few year ago after going 8-3, calling such a record "unacceptable." Fulmer calls this season "unacceptable" yet he still has a job. I guess he is disappointed for not getting yet another contract extension for the first time in 10 years (he got them after bowl loses to such power houses as Clemson and Maryland).

Philip, if you want to get to the bottom of the problem, resign. People wonder why I call my alma mater "America's Team." Read no further than this article to find a man so out of touch, he is in a world of his own.

http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/9068479

For those of you going bowling this year, enjoy it. Tennessee will be missing bowl season for the first time since 1988. At least we beat LSU. After that game, in front of stadium of hurricane survives, Fulmer proclaimed for TV that the greatest story in the stadium was his QB, Rick Claussen (Claussen had trasnfered to UT from LSU and led the Vols to that evenings victory). I guess the other 83,000 people some without homes or personal belongs going on with their lives paled in comparison.

I have vented. Go Vols! Beat Cal! See you in K-Town on 2 September, 2006!

[DanGenck]

So we fire coaches for one bad season now? I believe that type of thinking belongs in the NBA and not in amateur athletics...

Sorry to sound so sassy. I'm actually a big Tennessee fan, and I question Phil's ability to coach a team, but as a football coach I have to question firing a coach after one bad season.

[Danny Hogan]

bad would have been 7-4. With the talent they have, 5-6 with a loss to vandy is pathetic.


I should know my squad narrowly avoided pathetic this year.

[KnoxVegas]

...I question Phil's ability to coach a team, but as a football coach I have to question firing a coach after one bad season.

As a Tennessee fan, you would know the the problems have extended way beyond this year. There is a multitude of off the field incidents that involved football players. UT might not be Miami but even Miami had to start somewhere. Since the the 1999 Fiesta Bowlm which gave UT its first national Championship since 1953, here is Tennessee's bowl record:

2000 Fiesta Bowl Lose 21-31 to Nebraska
2001 Cotton Bowl Lose 21-35 to Kansas St.
2002 Citrus Bowl Win 45-17 Michigan
2002 Peach Bowl Lose 3-30 Maryland
2004 Peach Bowl Lose 14-27 Clemson
2005 Cotton Bowl Win 38-7 Texas A&M

That is 2-4 in bowl games since 1999.

It is the body of work, not just this season.

[DanGenck]

Again, I agree completely that Phil has not delivered. Personally, I thought that he should have been reprimanded last year for the player discipline issues...

I was only sounding off because I do not want the reasoning to be "5-6 season, okay, let him go" but rather all of the information that you reminded me of in the previous post.

Here's the real question- Can Cutcliffe right the ship, and if he does, do you let Fulmer go and keep Cutcliffe as head coach and offensive coordinator?

[Pinball]

Sorry to sound so sassy. I'm actually a big Tennessee fan, and I question Phil's ability to coach a team, but as a football coach I have to question firing a coach after one bad season.

Not only are you a fan you are an alumni (1 semester i think!!)

[DanGenck]

I am sure that someday when everyone in the world knows my name, it will be in all of the Tennessee admissions material. Until then, I don't think Knoxville knows I'm gone...

[dubbs11]

I don't think St. John's knows you're gone either. Love you Gencky-poo

[DanGenck]

Awww, you guys always know just what to say...