When Tony Barnhart types, I read
Mr. College Football, Tony Barnhart, said he thinks Fullmer is done at Tennessee.
It’s hard to see Fulmer returning as Tennessee’s coach: Phillip Fulmer is an old offensive lineman which means he will work and fight until the last game is over. But what I saw Saturday night in Knoxville was a sense of resignation that Fulmer will not be able to get the program at Tennessee turned around. In case you’re keeping score at home, Fulmer is now 3-5 against Mark Richt, 0-4 against Urban Meyer, and 1-4 against Nick Saban.
John Cooper wept.
Tennessee (3-5) has four games left (South Carolina, Wyoming, Vanderbilt, Kentucky). The Vols will be lucky to win two.
Now that is an SEC murder’s row…and he thinks they will be lucky to win two. Yikes. I am actively rooting for 4-0.
The good news is that Tennessee AD Mike Hamilton only wants to hire a guy with HC experience. Nice. Stop the Muschamp talk now.
Will they have to rename The Fulmer Cup?
Note: I am ignoring his Stafford as best QB in college football for now. I am afraid that my response will draw mdr out of hibernation.
October 27, 2008 at 6:41 pm
I assume that Tony’s geographic position leads to the Stafford comment as well, and consider him to be the best college football writer out there.
October 28, 2008 at 2:25 am
Funny thing about Tennessee- they rarely have hired coaches without some past connection to the program as player or coach. Fulmer, Majors, McDonald, Wyatt, Robinson, back to Neyland. They all played or were assistants for the Vols.
They will probably have to hire an outsider, because no obvious other candidate exists. This will be stressful for them, I suspect.
October 28, 2008 at 4:45 am
Even Jerrod Johnson is NCAA-ranked above Mr. Stafford this week. Just sayin’.
October 28, 2008 at 5:12 am
Well - the ugly rumor floating now is folks in K-town are willing to offer 5 mill to J. Gruden - due to ties to the school, i.e. his wife is a former cheerleader.
As to Hammbone’s comment about “experience” Fulmer didn’t have HCing experience when he took replaced Majors..
October 28, 2008 at 5:25 am
“When the LSU defensive coordinators tried to throw a wrinkle at him, Stafford checked off into the play to beat the defense.”
This is very faint praise. Junior high QBs call audibles.
“Stafford can throw the ball almost 40 yards in the air!”
October 28, 2008 at 6:16 am
Any chance they bring back David Cutcliffe?
October 28, 2008 at 9:00 am
While deep in the heart of SEC country over the weekend, while watching the Texas game at a hotel bar as SEC fans cheered for Okie State to take down Texas, I poised this thought:
If you put Colt McCoy (or Bradford) in that Georgia offense, could they be successful?
If you put Matt Stafford in that Texas offense (same personnel, system, etc) could he match Colt’s success?
I think yes to the first question, but nothing I’ve seen with Stafford makes me think yes to the second.
October 28, 2008 at 9:01 am
“proposed”, not “poised”
October 28, 2008 at 9:09 am
Maybe he meant posed and it was a typo.
October 28, 2008 at 9:12 am
I can’t see Stafford completing 80% of his passes in our offense.
October 28, 2008 at 9:13 am
“posed” not “proposed”
October 28, 2008 at 10:13 am
my parents once proposed in a bar in the heart of SEC Country
October 28, 2008 at 10:20 am
So a bear and a possum walk into a bar…
October 28, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Muschamp–I agree probably not to Tennessee but with Tennessee, Washington, Clemson, Syracuse, Auburn(?), K-State(?) and one or two other good or better jobs out there isn’t it almost inevitable that you are going to lose him?
This is it for Paterno. I’m stuck in Big 10 country Mondays-Thursdays and the word up here is that he is not well and this is the end of the road. Did you notice in Saturday night’s (bag of shit) game vs. Ohio State that it appeared he didn’t even leave the pressbox at halftime? Still in all, they don’t belong anywhere near the national championship game.
October 28, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Good jobs coming open, as mentioned above- Tennessee, Washington, Auburn, Syracuse. These have all made major bowls or won MNCs in the last 20 years, and have decent recruiting bases. These are all better jobs than Arkansas or Mississippi, for instance. PSU may be open and it is a huge job (I know that they have a designated guy on staff, and Schiano is also available).
Coaches doing well at hapless programs that should be eligible for a move up- Tim Brewster, Mike Gundy, Bobby Johnson. Has Dan hawkins screwed it up for Chris Peterson? The Tulsa coach, Todd Graham, is building a nice resume- he took Rice to a bowl (Applewhite was his OC), and has an overall 24 - 10 record as a head coach in his third year. He is intriguing because he is a defense guy who always has innovative offenses. This will be interesting to follow.
October 28, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Taylor…
PSU will be an inside job, Ganter or Bradley will replace JoePa, a la Guthridge replacing Dean Smith for three years.
Coaches doing well thread is good.
Brewster–too new (second year) and opening an on campus stadium in the fall. Wrong time to leave.
Gundy–”He’s a man…” Ok, that’s over, but he is the fair haired alum at Okie Lite. It’s a job with a history of job hoppers sitting in Stillwater for a few years to get a bigger job. I believe the reason they’ve hung with Gundy through several mediocre seasons is that they believe he’ll stay when it “hits.”
Johnson–Vandy hasn’t made that bowl eligibility yet….
Very good point on Hawkins, re: Peterson, but I think with possible two BCS appearances and a Statue of Liberty that makes the French envy, he overcomes. He’s a Western guy, though, which is why I think he gets the U-Dub job. (Pinkel won’t leave the opportunity to dominate the B12 North to go back to Seattle). That isn’t to say The People’s Republic of Boulder doesn’t somehow dump Hawk if the Buffs fall off the map in the next four weeks.
Graham–right on. Big job. Soon.
Maybe the wildcard in this whole thing is Auburn. Firing Tuberville after this modest year, but after possibly the longest sustained period of War Eagle relevance, may be a longshot, but everyone seems to have a quick trigger these days. That is an A-minus job. Hard to believe Will M. could resist that one, and it knocks all other name contenders down one slot.
One G-D thing for sure, I’m stuck with Venables indefinitely and Davis will outlast McCoy.
October 28, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Sooner Tim,
Don’t forget that Brewster is a lights out recruiter; the best of the MB era. His success this season might lead to a big job.
October 29, 2008 at 2:21 am
Texas has done very well with coaches who have had decent (not necessarily great) success at small programs (or at least programs with limited recruiting bases) in tough conferences. Such coaches have to be sound organizationally, and know how to wring every drop out of their recruiting/evaluation abilities. When they come to Austin, their recruiting gets turbo-charged.
Tim Brewster fits that description. He bears watching.