Amen.

Great way to sum things up in approximately 2,000 fewer words than I did with “discretion” (something I’ve never been accused of having, but which was my goal in penning my encyclopedic look at the coaching crisis).

The folks that are out there ranting and raving don’t understand how bad they are making the program and the university look. I’m a Fulmer fan (as if that wasn’t obvious after this morning), but I can understand why others aren’t. I have no problem with them expressing that. When they do that at the expense of the program, of the team, of the recruiting base, of the national perspective on Tennessee, then they completely miss the picture. It is the proverbial case of cutting off your nose to spite your face.

I think you may have hit the nail on the head. The flamers and attack-dogs, the boo-birds and “leavers” are creating an absolutely poisonous atmosphere. Very well said indeed.

I just hope — and I would welcome any response or thoughts from you on this — that I didn’t help make the situation worse by speaking out the way I did today over on my rag. My goal was to express the same fundamental premise that you did, but in over 3,700 words I don’t think I came nearly as close to hitting it dead on as you just did.

Gee, I hope I didn’t add one more log to the fire…

Great post.

Before I start, here is my background: Grandparents are retired UT Faculty, Dad was an UT ROTC graduate. I started my journey for an undergraduate degree at the United States Military Acadmey. When my West Point career blew up, I enrolled at UT and got my undergraduate degree knocked out. This will all will explain my position on this.

I’ve been going to UT games since my parents had to carry me in. The point is, I’ve experienced college football at the ugly level (Army), the really ugly level (The Season That We Do Not Speak Of), and during the glory years of the 90’s.

So here is my perspective of fans booing. I hate it. I HATE IT. But I see the thought process behind it. During Todd Berry’s tenure at Army, going to games was painful.

Berry went 5-36 in four years. Let’s let that sick in for a second. 5 wins. 1-10, 3-8. 1-11, 0-7, canned. I’m gonna quote Marvin again. “Incredible…..It’s even worse than I thought it would be.”

The Corps of Cadets are made up of a lot of college football fans that decided, that instead of going to your Texases, Nebraskas, Floridas, and Tennessees, to go to this wonderful little slice of heaven in almost up-state New York that used to have a enormous impact on college football. So my point is, that there are a lot of good knowledgeable football fans at the Academy. Well it got so horrendous at Army during these years, that the fans and the Corps of Cadets couldn’t take it anymore. You would hear chants of “FI-RE BERRY!!!” and “boos” and all sorts of things. And it was something that was noticed by a lot of recruits. I’m sure many chose not to come. But here is where it gets complicated. Do you openly voice your displeasure at the most public oppurtunity (a la a game) or do you keep it on message boards, radio call in shows, and letters to the AD (which I’m sure he spends an entire day per week reading….)? You see, my thinking is that the people who choose to leave the stands and the people who choose to boo believe that their actions can not affect the program any worse than that of the Coach and staff. And there is a lot of evidence to support this.

Look at Ron Zook. The Gator nation absolutely ripped him. They couldn’t stand him. They made their displeasure evident. And yet somehow this guy is probably one of the top five recruiters in the country. The Florida fans made clear their feelings and eventually the guy was fired. Two years later…..well we know that story. My point is that while fans can play an impact on the short term with boos and early stadium departures etc., I still think it ultimately falls to the coach and staff on long term effects. The UF fans turned on Zook and Chris Leak and two years later they, well Leak anyways, are holding up the crystal ball.

 If Fulmer left tomorrow (And I really hope he does not because I think we can get another W in Atlanta with him), a new staff would come in and they would start over. They would go after their recruits. And the fact that Nunes decided to reopen his recruitment would forever be forgotten. All would be forgotten and we would choose to remember Fulmer as the guy who led us to the Promised Land.

The displeased fans really believe that open discontent is the only thing at this point that is going to remove Phillip Fulmer. I hate hearing it….it makes me feel sad. It makes me think that fans are ungrateful. But, maybe they feel that the best thing for the Program is for Fulmer to leave. It may hurt us this year and maybe with some of this year’s recruits, but I truly believe that in the long run, the coach and staff are biggest proponents of success on the field. The help/effect of the fans is just an extra benefit/obstacle. Look, if fans helped shape the product on the field, then Ole Miss would win every game they played. I believe in Fulmer and while I disagree with those who want to jump ship on him, I feel like its not my place to call them out. I’ve seen where open discontent with a staff can lead to change and ultimately better things (Bobby Ross in Army’s case). I do not believe that we would be better off without Fulmer but to those who truly do, I can’t really call them out for the way they choose to express this….because I once did it to get rid of Todd Berry.

A lot of people are getting so worked up over the program that they’re seeing problems that aren’t necessarily there. For example, a lot of people have decided that Clawson’s offense is worthless and needs to be scrapped. The problem is, we haven’t seen his offense yet.

All reports on Clawson say his offense relies on establishing certain plays to open up other plays later on. Our offense has been so mistake-prone that nothing has ever been set up. Until the offense has a good first half, we’ll never see the second-half adjustments that got him hired in the first place. I’m waiting on that before I make any judgments on the offense.

We’ll see. I hope the end of season outlook is better, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

I left the Florida game with 3 or 4 minutes to go, but I stayed to watch the fans not only turn on the team but turn on each other. It was ugly. This isn’t Tennessee football. I was ashamed of some of the things that happened on the field, but more than that, I was ashamed of what happened in the stands. I will never, ever boo my football team. Ever. Just because I’m not on the Fulmer Train anymore because I don’t want to go off the cliff, you’re either on the Tennessee Train or you’re not. The way we’re acting at the games is just shameful.

I’m going to equate it to one thing: I grew up on the Tennessee-Alabama line, and throughout much of the late 90s and especially the past few years, you couldn’t hardly find an Alabama fan in Huntsville. It seemed everybody here had on orange clothes or -more likely - Auburn gear. Now? You can’t sit down another trailer without squashing 10 Bammers. Seriously. I’m not kidding. Everywhere there are “S: The Coach” bumper stickers and Crimson Tide flags. They’ve come out of the woodwork.

Sure, this is a slight dig at Bama. My whole life tries to come up with ways to do that. But it’s also a dig at us. We have too many fans who like to brag but, at their core, could care less about Tennessee. If you care less, stay away. There are REAL fans who want your tickets.

You don’t have to like what’s happening. But don’t boo what’s happening. There are a bunch of kids out there giving their all for Tennessee, and they’re doing what their coaches tell them to. Blame the coaches if you want to. But don’t boo the players. It’s killing the program, and for Josh Nunes to say he’s looking around is an indictment to the coaches, the players, the fans, the program.

We’re all in this together, the ones of us who’ll still be on the ship when it has gone under. We might as well stand up for UT.

I don’t think Crompton is very smart. Watching his press conference after the game Saturday he really came off as dumb. He thought they should have won the game? WTF was he watching? His team was never in the game.

Regarding Nunes, what was the family emergency he had while he was out here that made him reconsider going 7/8 the way across country to play ball? Does anyone know? I can understand him wanting to be closer to home to be near his family.

I hope this looks and reads OK. Doing it from my iPhone – fraggin work blocked RTT. Bastards!

I would never boo the vols. I think it is bad policy. I do believe, however, that dissent is the highest form of patriotism. I think fulmer should go. I think the program needs to go in a different direction. And I am still one hundred percent ALL VOL.

But, yeah, booing is busch league. Save it for the water cooler.

This weekend will tell a lot about this team. No one circles the wagons like Phil Fulmer. (sorry fat bald guy on ESPN). If they lose “ugly” Saturday this might go down as one of “those” years.

Coach Phillip Fulmer. He hates “Phil.” Call him Phil only if you are on the Anti Fulmer Train.

Trust me, I don’t know this because me and him are best pals or anything. I just remember a scene in the Winchester square where he was coming to his hometown, where his Mama still lives, after a season and there was some sort of ceremony. During rehearsals somebody said Coach Phil Fulmer and a old family friend made the correction. Funny the wierd little stuff you remember sometimes….