Next Coach Could Be....

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I have no interest in Phil Fulmer as our coach. It would do nothing to excite our fan base. I would much rather have a young up and comer.
 

Fulmer doesn't do anything to excite me what-so-ever. Alomst every name mentioned here, from the risky (Leach), to the seemingly unattainable (Harbaugh, Peterson), to those "connected to the U" (Sumlin, Dungy, Trestman), to those that would be "falling from grace" (Richt), to those maybe wanting back in the game (Bellotti), to those up-and-coming (Golden), to those having success now (Briles, M. Stoops) all do more for me than Fulmer, who is not a short-term or long-term fix to our woes. I see very little upside here and lots of downside. If we are really going to try and build our program a la our Big Ten brethren Wisconsin, Iowa, and even Northwestern, hiring a 60-year old formerly successful coach is not the recipe for success IMO. We need someone to build and it's gonna take someone to be here awhile, build year-after-year, outwork his rivals, and create an identity, to make that happen. I don't see that happening with Fulmer
 

Fulmer was virtually run out of Tennessee. He lost his ability to recruit and could not get along with the alumni. I met one of the big $$$ alum at a golf tourney in Tunica, Ms. and he was beside himself, was ready to suspend his financial support. Two weeks later he was shot. Get on the Tn board and ask about him.
 

I wouldn't mind fulmer at all if he still 'wants it'. Not many coaches with his resune are available.
 

Fullmer was run out of Tennessee! He lost respect of the alum, the admin, the press and the players. I met a big time big $$$ alum at a golf tourney in Tunica, Ms. He was there for a major Volunteer fund raiser near Memphis! Fullmer was not invited. Go to the Tenn board and see what they say.
 


My view is fulmer would be like gerry dinardo@ Indiana. No thanks. Smith was a consistent sweet 16 coach...fulmer doesn't fit that mold. Richt or Belotti maybe would.

GM
 

I'll be honest, I think I would possibly rather have Trestman than Fullmer. It hurts me to say that but it's true. I just don't think Fullmer has enough left in the tank to get us back where we need to be.
 

Tricks said:
I'll be honest, I think I would possibly rather have Trestman than Fullmer. It hurts me to say that but it's true. I just don't think Fullmer has enough left in the tank to get us back where we need to be.
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That is pretty steep, but you cannot deny the amount of success he had at Tennessee.

I would be pleased with Fulmer being the Gophers HC. I am still rooting for Leach, but his chances here appear to be slim to none. Belotti and Fulmer are about the same to me excitement wise for the program.
 

No

This program does not need a 60-61 year old coach. The talent level is so low that it is going to take too long to hire someone that close to retirement. It really is one thing to be 60 or older and coaching at a program that you have been at for a long time (Paterno). It is also something different to bring a 60-61 year old coach into an opening where the program is in good shape and you are just looking to maintain. This is not a re-building job. This is a make-over.
 



It would be difficult for me to imagine Fulmer coaching at Minnesota, or really anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon line for that matter, as he is *so* Southern. I mean he was born and raised in Winchester, TN, a UT grad and UT player who'd been a coach at Tennessee since 1980, all in all spending 28 years in the coaching ranks at Tennessee.

I'm not sure how he'd translate up north, or how strong his recruiting connections would hold here.

I don't know. Beyond the deep Southern roots, I sort of feel like his ship has sailed, and we would be getting him on the unquestioned down-slope of his career, and I'd rather not.
 

Carlson 79 said:
No on Fulmer. Too old. Maybe too southern. We need a fresh start with a younger, more vital coach. Peterson would be great, as would Richt. There are others. Harbaugh would be phenomenal.
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Too Southern? What does that mean, lol?
 

hillbillygopher said:
I live down here in Vol land. In this place where everyone has a big orange T somewhere on their pickup, it takes a lot for a coach who won a national championship to get fired. Fulmer was all washed up 2-3 years before he got let go. His teams weren't winning the key games, recruiting was going downhill and his players were always getting into scrapes. He seemed very burned out and that seemed to be picked up on by recruits. Both Lane Kiffen and Derrick Dooley have paid the price for Fulmer's recruiting woes. If you think that hiring him would help to recruit the southeast or the west coast, think again. I can see no reason to put him on the list of candidates.
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Isn't this almost identical to the knock on Tubby coming out of Ky?
 

GMan said:
Year, Overall Record, SEC record
1992, 4–0, 2–0
1993, 10–2, 7–1
1994, 8–4, 5–3
1995, 11–1, 7–1
1996, 10–2, 7–1
1997, 11–2, 7–1 - SEC champs
1998, 13–0, 8–0 - National champs
1999, 9–3, 6–2
2000, 8–4, 5–3
2001, 11–2, 7–1
2002, 8–5, 5–3
2003, 10–3, 6–2
2004, 10–3, 7–1
2005, 5–6, 4–4
2006, 9–4, 5–3
2007, 10–4, 6–2
2008, 5–7, 3–5
Total: 152–52 98–34
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People who are outright denouncing this because the program had fallen off need to take a second look at this post. I see a pretty steady record of winning. 6-2 in the SEC his second to last year? This reeks of a fanbase that was spoiled by success and felt entitled to nat'l title runs every year. I see only ONE LOSING CONFERENCE record in 16 years?!? That's impressive in the SEC. I don't know if he'd be a great fit, but he's definitely worth a long look.
 



Section2 said:
People who are outright denouncing this because the program had fallen off need to take a second look at this post. I see a pretty steady record of winning. 6-2 in the SEC his second to last year? This reeks of a fanbase that was spoiled by success and felt entitled to nat'l title runs every year. I see only ONE LOSING CONFERENCE record in 16 years?!? That's impressive in the SEC. I don't know if he'd be a great fit, but he's definitely worth a long look.
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Yes. 10 out of 16 years he was AT LEAST 6-2 in conference play. This aint the WAC folks, if he still has the desire and drive to run a program there is not a more impressive resume out there.
 

ruralgopher said:
Yes. 10 out of 16 years he was AT LEAST 6-2 in conference play. This aint the WAC folks, if he still has the desire and drive to run a program there is not a more impressive resume out there.
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I agree. A lot of nit-picking by folks here. Fulmer is too 'southern' and too old. Bellotti is too old. Richt won't win here if he can't 'win' at Georgia.

We are in utter disrepair. In reality, we should count ourselves lucky if either would consider us. Newsflash folks, we're not getting Harbough, Petersen or Patterson. If you want a proven BCS coach it's likely going to be one of Richt, Bellotti or Fulmer.
 

Section2 said:
People who are outright denouncing this because the program had fallen off need to take a second look at this post. I see a pretty steady record of winning. 6-2 in the SEC his second to last year? This reeks of a fanbase that was spoiled by success and felt entitled to nat'l title runs every year. I see only ONE LOSING CONFERENCE record in 16 years?!? That's impressive in the SEC. I don't know if he'd be a great fit, but he's definitely worth a long look.
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For those who say this is Mason 2.0, Mason had two seasons with winning Big Ten records in 10 years, two 5-3 records. Fulmer had 14 winning SEC seasons, one 4-4 season and only one losing season, his final season. (Not counting his first season, which was only partial)

I'll take 87.5% winning conference seasons vs 20.0% winning conference seasons. That's not Masonesque at all.
 

gophermartin said:
Smith was a consistent sweet 16 coach...fulmer doesn't fit that mold. Richt or Belotti maybe would.
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So two coaches that haven't accomplished what Fulmer accomplished fit the mold better?
 

People have to face the facts, an established employed head coach just isn't going to take this job. It is going to be a coordinator or former head coach that is not currently employed. The risk is to great.
 

hillbillygopher said:
I live down here in Vol land. In this place where everyone has a big orange T somewhere on their pickup, it takes a lot for a coach who won a national championship to get fired. Fulmer was all washed up 2-3 years before he got let go. His teams weren't winning the key games, recruiting was going downhill and his players were always getting into scrapes. He seemed very burned out and that seemed to be picked up on by recruits. Both Lane Kiffen and Derrick Dooley have paid the price for Fulmer's recruiting woes. If you think that hiring him would help to recruit the southeast or the west coast, think again. I can see no reason to put him on the list of candidates.
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Right on. Not only weren't they winning key games, but they were losing to the likes of Wyoming. I just don't think Fulmer has the energy to take on the kind of building project that it's going to take in Minnesota. Do some of the other older coaches? I don't know, maybe. UT has all the institutional prerequisites in place for a successful big-time football program. The new coach will have to build those at MN and I don't think Fulmer has what it takes.
 


I’m not opposed to a coach from a different part of the country. Maybe we need someone from the outside who is not ”Minnesota-like” to show the fan base what this football program could become if we would just stop selling ourselves short. After all, Warmath was from Tennessee and built a pretty solid program at the U.
 

We could do a lot worse than Phil Fulmer. He's not at the top of my list but I wouldn't complain if it were him.
 


The last time we won 6 Big Ten games was 1973. He's done better than 6 conference wins 7 times since 1992. We've had only 5 winning Big Ten seasons since Warmath was fired.
 

Phil Fulmer = Tubby type hire

RodentRampage said:
The last time we won 6 Big Ten games was 1973. He's done better than 6 conference wins 7 times since 1992. We've had only 5 winning Big Ten seasons since Warmath was fired.
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Similar to Tubby in that: He was a longtime coach that has been mostly successful at the previous gig. Fans mutiny after 1 or 2 down years. Has something to prove...unfinished business. Wants to go out on top.

Fulmer had a 75% winning percentage at Tennessee. Unfortunately got run out of town. The guy's got something to prove and I'd love to see him on the sidelines. He has recruiting channels that few have access to.

These three are very close in my book:

1) Richt
2) Leach
3) Fulmer

Any one of those three would be awesome.
 

Too Long in the Wasteland said:
He talks like that assistant coach in "The Waterboy". I spent a lot of time in Decatur, AL in a previous job. Aside from the funny accent, it is a different mindset down there. Not sure how it would play with MN passive-aggressive.
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I want the Southern accent. I want a Southern accent thicker than Bar-B-Que sauce!

As for Fulmer, the guy could--and probably can--still coach. It's going to boil down to how much energy he can invest and if his once-considerable cache can still attract top-quality assistants.

I don't rag on Maturi as much as others, but one area where he has really come up short is in providing cover for his coaches. Granted, Tubby and John Anderson are so straightforward, they don't need cover. One of the reasons I think Bo Pelini would have failed here (likely not to the extent of Brewster) is that Maturi wouldn't have run cover for him and protected him during his early-career sideline melt-downs like Osborne has in Lincoln.

I don't know what Dave Mona will be doing after the coaching search, but it sure would be nice to have someone around the new coach to help him understand some of the PR landmines that exist in Minnesota and how to steer around them.
 

Seany said:
It would be difficult for me to imagine Fulmer coaching at Minnesota, or really anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon line for that matter, as he is *so* Southern. I mean he was born and raised in Winchester, TN, a UT grad and UT player who'd been a coach at Tennessee since 1980, all in all spending 28 years in the coaching ranks at Tennessee.

I'm not sure how he'd translate up north, or how strong his recruiting connections would hold here.

I don't know. Beyond the deep Southern roots, I sort of feel like his ship has sailed, and we would be getting him on the unquestioned down-slope of his career, and I'd rather not.
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I'm not saying I think he would be a good hire but awhile back we hired a coach that was born in Tennessee and played for the Volunteers. His name was Murray Warmath and worked out okay. On my list of important traits for the new coach where he is from is not at the top.
 

From Doogie:

"#Gophers update: Got an email from a semi-reliable contact who says he hears Fulmer's name... could be one of a handful I'm thinking."

Go Gophers!!
 

An e-mail from a buddy of mine who is a HUGE Vols fan and is very active in their message board communities, a TN Vol alum and donor there:

"Looks like the word is out – the guy who runs the UT Scout.com site tweeted something about it last night. My take on Fulmer is this: He is a better-than-average coach, very good recruiter, good man.

Is he dirty? You know, I don’t know. Certainly not in the Lane Kiffin, “I do not care about the rules” way. Not in the John Blake, “I am in bed with agents” way either. Does he play the game like everyone does, in the “if kids are getting some kind of extra benefits in a very under the table way and I have no way of knowing it so I’m cool with it” way? I think it would be naïve to think otherwise. I don’t think that there’s a coach out there who isn’t like that though.

I think it would be a good hire for UM. I think he could recruit well enough to get UM to be even with everyone below OSU and Mich in terms of talent, and if he had the right assistants could win a lot of games. I’d root for him."

Go Gophers!!
 

jovs said:
People have to face the facts, an established employed head coach just isn't going to take this job. It is going to be a coordinator or former head coach that is not currently employed. The risk is to great.
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Glen Mason was an established employed head coach from a major conference and he took the job when the program was in significantly worse shape.
 

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