First and 10: Since Fulmer, Tennessee has lost a ton of games. Its lunatic fan base has lost its mind
1. I don’t want to get on a soapbox, but …
It was nearly a decade ago when the grand implosion started the big bang that led to mistake after mistake after mistake in the Tennessee football program.
And now there’s nothing left but a gaping black hole of hurt, embarrassment and shame. Sort of like that day in November 2008, when Vols legend Phillip Fulmer was forced out as coach.
Fulmer sat at the dais that day, choked up and fighting back tears from the end of a 32-year love affair with a program and its university. Those words at that emotional press conference still ring true today.
“Our Tennessee family is united in its goals, but divided in the right path to get there,” Fulmer said that day. “I love Tennessee too much to let her stay divided.”
So he walked away before being publicly fired, and over the next nine seasons, Tennessee devolved into this:
— A coach (Lane Kiffin) who rang up NCAA secondary violations in the 14 months he stayed in Knoxville before bolting for another job.
— A coach (Derek Dooley) who, after his second season of nothingness, had seven of his nine assistants leave for other jobs – and once compared his team to the German Forces in World War II.
— A coach (Butch Jones) who called a former player a “traitor” after he tried to help a woman who accused two Tennessee football players of sexual assault, a case that was part of Title IX lawsuit for “hostile sexual environment” that the university eventually settled for $2.5 million.
Meanwhile, on the field, Tennessee’s fall from the SEC elite has been staggering. The Vols are 57-56 (23-49 in SEC games) since Fulmer’s forced resignation, and just finished the first winless SEC season in school history.
And now the program is more divided than ever.
Credit: Calvin Mattheis/Knoxville News Sentinel via USA TODAY NETWORK
It doesn’t take Vols athletic director John Currie kowtowing to the lunatic fringe to figure that out. Currie had his man to replace the fired Jones, the latest failure in a long and bitter lost decade of football on Rocky Top.
He zeroed in on Greg Schiano, and once word leaked, the scariest reality for anyone in management at any job in any line of work revealed its dark and dangerous power (more on that later). It’s almost fitting, really, that an internet coup d’état that would’ve made Napoleon blush wrecked any hope of Currie getting his man.
These are the same Tennessee fans who insist there’s a chance Jon Gruden – no one loves hearing Jon Gruden will coach again more than Jon Gruden, people – will ride into Knoxville on his magic telestrator to save the day. Or that Chris Petersen will leave Washington for all things Big Orange.
These delusional dreamers in Knoxville had a coach that built Rutgers from a joke of a program in 2001, all the way to the top 10 in 2006 — and ran him off before the ink dried on the memorandum of understanding.
Now former Vols national championship quarterback Tee Martin is reportedly in the running for the job, and CBSSports.com reported that Tennessee offered Gruden $10 million a year.
What coach in his right mind (other than Martin) will take the Tennessee job now, knowing full well that the university bends at the fanatical and fevered whims of grown men and women with Twitter weapons, and young adults at an institution of higher learning who don’t understand fifth grade grammar, but know enough to know who they want running the show in Knoxville.
Fulmer wasn’t just crying a decade ago because of the end of a love affair. To be fair, it was unraveling under him, too. The Vols’ last relevant season was 2001, and over the next seven years, Tennessee lost 31 games – 19 by double digits – before Fulmer was forced out.
Understand this: 16 years of irrelevancy is like three forevers in college football. But it might take another 16 to get this program from underneath this self-inflicted mess.
2. The power of lunacy
So Tennessee fans decided they’d seen enough of the bad hires, and would take the coaching search into their own hands. With social media.
This should be the grand awakening of every manager at any job anywhere in the world: ignore social media and die by 10,000 retweet paper cuts.
That is, if the social media mob disagrees with you.
Because the same Tennessee fans using Schiano’s alleged knowledge of the Sandusky crimes at Penn State (a third-party allegation, denied by both originating parties and never proven in court), are the same fans who in 2014 turned a blind eye when Jones called a former player a “traitor” for defending a woman who accused two Vols players of sexual assault.
In fact, three weeks after the woman went public with her accusation, the Tennessee administration extended Jones’ contract to 2020.
So please, #VolsTwitter, spare me your righteous indignation about any alleged Schiano/Sandusky connection. You didn’t want Schiano because you didn’t think he could win in the meat grinder that is the SEC.
We’d all feel a lot better about your lunacy if you simply admitted it.
3. The Power of lunacy, The Epilogue
Here’s the problem with the past three hires at Tennessee: There was no core ideal, no foundation of who and what they are, to carry a program through rough times.
Kiffin never met bad publicity he didn’t like (and still doesn’t); Dooley was the smartest guy in the room and let you know every chance he could, and Jones threw around corny and contrived ideals that were more embarrassing (turnover trash can) than inspiring.
It’s time to move along this decade of destruction and simply find a coach and recruiter who, when interviewed, has a plan and has the charisma to pull it off. My suggestion: Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott.
When I asked Clemson coach Dabo Swinney last year about Elliott’s future as a head coach, he quickly shot back with, “If you interview Tony Elliott, you’re going to hire him.”
Few assistant coaches in the game are more ready to build their own program like Elliott, the measured, meticulous and charismatic architect of the Clemson offense. He saw last year that Alabama’s defensive backs hadn’t been challenged all season, and that the Tide had little depth in the secondary.
The idea in last year’s national championship game was to run as many plays as possible – running as many deep decoy routes as possible using Clemson’s depth at wide receiver – to simply wear down the Tide secondary. By the last two drives of the game, the Alabama secondary had tired legs, and Deshaun Watson picked them apart in two critical touchdown drives.
That’s coaching, and that’s game-planning – and that’s why Elliott should be high on Currie’s list.
4. The rematch
Here’s the problem for Georgia in its rematch with Auburn in this week’s SEC Championship Game: Jake Fromm is the same guy two weeks after the first loss to Auburn.
Which is to say, he’s a freshman who still is learning and adjusting to how elite defenses adjust to him. He was lost two weeks ago against Auburn, and it didn’t help that a Georgia offensive line that had dominated opponents all season was whipped at the point of attack. It also didn’t help that Georgia’s wideouts couldn’t separate in man coverage.
All of that added up to Fromm struggling in the critical 3rd-and-7-plus scenario. In 10 of those situations in the blowout loss to Auburn, Fromm completed two passes, threw six incompletions and was sacked twice.
He hasn’t suddenly changed in wins against overmatched Kentucky and Georgia Tech.
He better hope his offensive line has, or at least gets more of a push in the run game to keep Fromm from having to make double-digit third and 7-plus throws.
5. The Weekly Five (plus 4)
It’s championship week, and that means another bonus week of Five picks against the spread. This time, nine picks – one for each of the FBS conference championship games.
- Stanford (+2.5) vs. USC
- Oklahoma (-5.5) vs. TCU
- Wisconsin (+6) vs. Ohio State
- Miami vs. Clemson (-7.5)
- Georgia vs. Auburn (-2.5)
- Akron (+17.5) vs. Toledo
- Memphis (+7.5) at UCF
- North Texas at FAU (-9.5)
- Fresno State (+10) at Boise State
Last week: (6-3)
Season: 43-26 (.623)
6. Behind the maroon mask
Forget that Dan Mullen was Florida’s fourth choice behind Chip Kelly, Scott Frost and Mike Gundy. Pete Carroll was USC’s fourth or fifth choice, too.
While we highlight the idea of Mullen as the quarterback whisperer, it might be more prudent to look where it matters most: wins and losses.
Developing Josh Harris (Bowling Green), Alex Smith (Utah), Chris Leak and Tim Tebow (Florida) and Dak Prescott and Nick Fitzgerald (Mississippi State) is impressive.
Wins and losses vs. Power 5 schools is another thing.
Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Mullen was 69-46 at MSU, but if you take away wins and losses against Group of 5 FBS teams (BYU included) and FCS teams, that number shrinks to 38-44. That’s right, Mullen’s teams at Mississippi State feasted on the overmatched, going 31-2 vs. Group of 5 teams and FCS teams.
Mullen was 30-34 vs. SEC, and 8-10 vs. non-conference Power 5 opponents. Those are undeniable facts.
But there’s always some gray in between. The biggest question: What will Mullen do when he can recruit from the most talent-rich state for skills players? Does he have the charisma to beat Mark Richt and Jimbo Fisher (for now) – two of the best recruiters in the game – for elite recruits?
Because more than anything, that’s what the Florida job comes down to: Can you win in February (and December, now) — against not only the SEC, but two powerhouse programs in your own state — can you develop players and can you win games that matter?
Jim McElwain whiffed on all three. Will Muschamp recruited at an elite level and developed NFL players on defense, but couldn’t win big games.
Mullen’s 38-44 record against Power 5 teams is at the very least cause for pause until he proves he can win on Signing Days.
7. Closing in
Criticized for paying $10 million in walk away money to Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M is on the verge of landing the best coaching hire in college football since Ohio State plucked Urban Meyer from retirement.
If the Aggies can poach Jimbo Fisher from Florida State – there are signs that are beginning to point to more than just conjecture – the program that has stood in the shadows of the SEC elite suddenly becomes a dangerous force.
Texas A&M regents have announced a meeting for Thursday the discussion of “ legal and personnel issues relating to the football program, including issues relating to appointment of new head coach.”
On Monday, Fisher again reiterated that he doesn’t talk about coaching searches, when asked about the Texas A&M job. When pressed about what he tells his team when the rumor mill runs rampant, Fisher said, “I’m here coaching you right now.”
Fisher is one of the games best recruiters, and an elite developer of quarterbacks, including first round picks Christian Ponder, E.J. Manuel and Jameis Winston at FSU.
Over and over again we’ve seen teams that beat SEC king Alabama are teams that have elite quarterback play.
Fisher will bring that advantage to Texas A&M, and will change the dynamic in the ultra-competitive SEC West.
8. Ask and you shall receive
Hey Matt: What happened last weekend against Clemson was embarrassing. I’m starting to think (Will) Muschamp may not be the right man for the job at South Carolina. Talk me off the ledge.
Caroline Stephens, Greenville, S.C.
Caroline, I’m looking at this rebuild at South Carolina 180 degrees differently than you. The Clemson loss was horrible, and showed the clear gap between one of the top three teams in the nation and a team searching for answers on both sides of the ball.
Frankly, I’m shocked Muschamp got eight wins from this team. It’s not like the Gamecocks are loaded with talent. The offense is limited because of injuries to critical skill players, leaving QB Jake Bentley throwing to receivers who run the wrong route – and a pick six soon follows.
Muschamp has been a proven recruiter everywhere he has coached. Give him time, and he will get elite players to South Carolina. Considering the level of talent on the roster when he arrived last year, winning a bowl game and getting to nine wins might be as impressive as Steve Spurrier winning 11 games.
9. Numbers game
15. Ole Miss decided that Matt Luke, who somehow held it all together in Oxford this fall despite a looming NCAA hammer and a season-ending injury to its best player, deserved a shot at the permanent gig.
While this is a heartwarming story of a former Ole Miss player realizing his coaching dream, let’s be realistic. It’s only getting worse at Ole Miss over the next few years.
Why, you ask? Look no further than the 15 Level 1 allegations (worst in the NCAA playbook) Ole Miss is facing when its NCAA fate is soon released.
Don’t be shocked if the NCAA adds another year of a bowl ban, and eliminates more scholarships as part of its response the 15 Level 1 allegations. The biggies – lack of institutional control, failure to monitor for former coach Hugh Freeze, a $13-15,000 payment to then-recruit Leo Lewis – highlight a deep and disturbing set of issues.
10. Quote to note
Florida coach Dan Mullen on his first day on the job: “I got to go up in (Steve Spurrier’s) office today, and he’s got the computer open and he’s got game film up. I love ball and he loves ball. So I’m sure we’ll have some really interesting ball decisions in there talking football.”
You’re right Matt. How dare UT fans not want a guy who at the VERY BEST didn’t know that his boss was raping young boys in the coaches locker room, even though people throughout the organization (players included) used the phrase “getting Sanduskied” and at the worst (and most likely the case) he turned a blind eye to little boys being raped by HIS DIRECT BOSS.
It’s odd how even the players knew about Sandusky but the coaches didn’t? And if Schiano is soooo clean and a great coach why didn’t PSU hire him instead of O’Brian or Franklin?
Matt your and the rest of your elitist friends in the media are looking like damned fools. Matt I’m enjoying watching you and your ilk fall from your ivory towers of snobbish, elitist world. Hey, maybe you can join some NFL player’s and take a knee in your absurd protest of Tennessee.
Right……Former FBI Director investigation turns up nothing on Schiano BUT Tennessee Lunatic Fringe does its own investigation and finds conclusive evidence. Additional investigation also shows that Fulmer was “Sanduskied” by Tennessee Lunatic Fringe a decade ago.
I’m sure you’re right Tigger boy. I’m sure all the players and others around the program using the phrase “Sanduskied” just made it up…
The only thing I can think of that explains this is that Putin hates Schiano. I mean this Twitter mob had to have been a bunch of Russian bots, because no one with a brain would take Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s advice over Bill Belichek’s when hiring a football coach. Then again, looking in the stands at the Bubbas and Mary Lou’s in Neyland…an abundance of brain power there isn’t.
Schiano may not have been the right pick but now the fans and media have destroyed him personally and professionally just to keep him out of Knoxville. How destructive and trashy can your fans be? Stunning.
He shouldn’t have turned his back on children being raped. And Penn State paid for that investigation… He Louie boy had already retired and has a private firm… very simple PR move for simple minded people like you Mr 11 Bravo
I’m not 11B (Infantry) but Infantry has saved this country many times. Your disrespect to our soldiers is showing through brightly but should be expected from a fan that would go along with destroying a man personally and professionally to keep him out of your coaching job. BTW, you don’t have the gonads to be either 11B or in the military so your disrespect comes from a position of extreme weakness. Or maybe stolen valor.
You will get no sympathy for your position here. Internet rumors and hear-say do not trump FBI investigations. And the Schiano affair is just one small flickering flame in the hot mess that Tennessee football has become, thanks to numerous gaffs from the AD to the Chancellor’s office.
We don’t want any sympathy from Mississippi. You back assed into Mullen and he bolted soon as he got a chance. How does it feel to have the best coach in school history decide to go back to a place his WIFE hated?
To quote 49 states “thank God for Mississippi”.
To quote the SEC, Thank God for Tennessee.
SEC assistant coach to head coach: “I hate to break it to boss, but our quarterback can’t throw worth a darn.” Head coach to assistant: “OK, fine. Buy him some track shoes, we’ll call him a ‘dual-threat’ genius.”
reminds me of that line from Any Given Sunday… “look at him go!” “he’s got GENIUS ankles!”
That’s so true. I can’t stand the dual-threat movement in the college QB world. 70% of them can’t even throw a 10 yard pass accurately, and about 90% of them will never develop into a Cam Newton or Deshaun Watson.
Pocket-passing QBs are still the way to go. That’s not to say that a person wants a rock throwing the football in the pocket, but you don’t want a guy who is touted for his legs and not his arm.
In college you do. Or at least someone who is as good with his legs as he is with his arm.
All of this crap is really helping with the UT search.
No coach in his right mind would go there now.
Exactly right. Mullen will soon wonder if he is out of his mind, and following a 3 time Big Ten Champion who didn’t win enough at Arkansas, is that sane?
with Schiano being such a Great Coach, which program do you think will swoop in to take advantage of are mistake? you know, which team is going snag up Schiano as their new Head Coach?
our
No program. Your fan base, politicians and media have ensured he will never work again in football. Way to go Tennessee. Trash.
are –> our. Is that all you found wrong with your post?
No, I also caught the attention of 2 trolls… but answer the question. what team would want him as a Head Coach?
Schiano to MSU? do you want him coaching your team?
Not after UT fans have ruined his reputation in coaching etc. Over flimsy allegations by a third party that would never hold up in court.
Double O, he will never coach again, your fan base has destroyed the man personally and professionally. There is not a shred of evidence he was connected to or knew about what was going on but hey, don’t let the truth and decency stand in the way of getting rid of him at UT.
UGARMYRet/ADB you two are so full of sh*t. his ruined reputation happened at Penn St… not here… and I don’t want him because he is not a good Coach….he is a Control Freak and we just got rid of a Control Freak…
Sure us sheep, I mean fans, should sit quietly and applaud every decision made by the AD regardless of how they really feel about it. We should listen to people like this moron who blames the fans for wanting more out of their AD and coaches. What garbage.
You’re insane if you think Schiano is a good coach. 68-67.. That’s his college record. He got blown out by Butch’s Cincinnati team in his last year at Rutgers. He’s a status-quo hire. No better than Butch, no better than Dooley.
You will soon be proven wrong in your assumptions about Schiano… Now that he is a known candidate for a HC job, that opens the door for other teams to hire him. With all the vacancies out there right now and him being soooo good… SURELY someone else will scoop him up, right? Since Tennessee was crazy for passing on him. Maybe Texas A&M will hire him. Or MS State.. Or Arkansas.. Will they be crazy for not going after him either?
Here’s a FACT for you. With Schiano being publicly open to accepting a coaching job.. If no one else hires him this year, you will be effectively proven WRONG in your assertion that he is a quality coach. Because there are more openings than there are quality coaches on the market right now. If he’s with OSU next year, I expect you to say the same thing about every other team who passed on him that you are saying about Tennessee right now.
Tick tock motherf***er
You miss the point completely. He may be the worst coach ever considered by UT but you all went after him personally and not professionally. You have destroyed his ability to ever work in football again with baseless claims he knew what was going on in the showers at PSU. It was a gutter approach to keeping him out of Knoxville and now no coach in his right mind would take your HC job. Its the most disgusting hit job I’ve ever seen.
MV, kudos for atacking Schiano’s coaching deficiencies rather than his character. Your argument was persuasive right up to the closing line.
Look in the mirror arsehole
there’s that personal attack person again. just like Vol nation attacking and ruining. good job! typical
All true about Tennessee. It’s a garbage school, with garbage players, no coach and garbage fans. Butch did run off a player for helping a woman that accused Tennessee players of rape. You Vol fans defended Butch Jones thru it all. You are where you are because you root for a garbage program that protected alleged rapists. Plain and simple. Sometimes there actually is justice. Enjoy.
10ner is what you get when you put Sat dishes on Ole Smokey trailors..
Garbage? This article seems to have attracted trolls galore. Double standards and uninformed comments abound.
Agreed. Painting the entire school and fan base with the brush contaminated by poor administrative decisions and a few too many rabid fans tarnishes what is, in fact, a great institution.
Wow. Character assassination is lost on these Vols fans. Due process, the 5th Amendment is lost on these folks.
Justifying the fact they thought Schiano’s resume was no better than Butch’s by pulling a kangaroo Jong-il and feeding him to the dogs. Doing a guilt-by association Ox-Bow trial on the guy because the fanbase thinks they deserve a Saban.
Creating an unfounded onus for the man to live under for the rest of his life.
All the rest is just a revisionist witch hunt. Welcome to the trial by Twitter modern media age.
We have a “Bingo” here…
It was a modern lynching as sure as we are commenting here. Disgusting hit job.
It was under oath court testimony. Penn State coaches said it. Why would they lie?
Hey Matt, here’s the irony in your less-than-creative, copy-cat article critical of the Vols program. The maturity level shown in your name-calling goes beyond that of the mob mentality and rivals that of a middle-school brat instead of a knowledgeable sports columnist.
I suppose there is no way to know for sure what Schiano knew or did not know about the child abuse. Put into context and perspective, UT just recently settled a $2.48 million dollar lawsuit on the same subject of sexual impropriety. Sexual harassment allegations are currently the national headlines and on everyone’s mind. Perception is almost reality. The climate would not allow UT to go through with that hire.
Good points
Gee, I thought this was one of the best written articles I’ve seen on SDS in some time.
I’m a little shocked that he doesn’t mention the ineptitude of John Currie here. Just that “Currie had his man”. While I am pretty positive that the Schiano/child-rape link was really really really really flimsy it was still obvious that he wasn’t the big name splash needed to turn UT Football around. He was a bad hire.
Like most people are saying here, Schiano will NOT be hired as an HC at a Power-5…so that proves that point pretty easily.
All the same…it’s hard to imagine a great coach coming to UT at this point because it’s just such a mess and now has a national scope on that mess.
Meant to highlight the fact that Currie waited so long to fire Butch and secure a replacement as his biggest failure as an AD.
Rec that comment, WE. Well stated, sir.
But Tennessee isn’t going to be able to find a big name splash. It’s just not an attractive job right now. They need to find a solid coach who can rebuild the program, not waste time looking for sexy hires that will never materialize.
The Tennessee fanbase’s expectations are WAY too high right now.
I think they would have been better off with Schiano than with whoever Currie ends up finding.
Well…they are down to praying for Tee Martin. So I’d say their expectations have hit the Rocky Bottom at this point.
This whole lunacy at Tennessee narrative is just making media members sound like self-righteous aholes. The ad should possibly be fired, but seeing as the chancellor never signed anything, you people should probably shut up now. I don’t know much about the guy, but as for the FBI they let Hillary walk, too, so they could be wrong. And there is some reason the guy has gone so long without getting picked up. Where do so called journalists and frickin commentators get the cajones to preach morality? This was simply a protest, you guys drag folks through the mud at will. You, specifically, are a hypocrite for writing that sanctimonious garbage at the top.
100 protestors showed up to protest and what, a few thousand tweeters. Do that equals about .01% of the fan base yet this writer and some idiot posters on here indict the entire UT fan base.
I think the author was going after the tweeters and the administration that caved to them, not the University or Volunteer Nation as a whole. That’s what I took away, anyway.
Media currently accusing Tennessee of exactly what they themselves do every day to anyone who disagrees with them, but the Vols are the lunatics. Got it.
Some truth to this. But that’s the media’s job. The criticizing part. Not the character assassination part.
Tennessee football will not be relevant for at least 10 more years. And they’ve already been irrelevant for the past 10+ years. Good luck.
UT needs to stop looking elsewhere and get Norvell from Memphis before it’s too late.
What person in their right mind would go there now? Only the most desperate coach would even consider it.
Kiffin.
Agree. You throw $7 million at Kiffin and he’d come.
The Tennessee football program is that really hot homecoming queen from high school, got a little too far into the bottle during college and everything came off the tracks. At the high school reunion she comes walking in reeking of booze, missing some teeth, hasn’t showered in days, absolutely hammered, and is screaming at everyone “TELL ME IM PRETTY!!!”