There is scuttlebutt out there that former Michigan offensive coordinator Mike DeBord will be interviewing with Fulmer for the same post at Tennessee. My first reaction is "yikes!", because this guy was pretty roundly hated by Michigan fans while he was in Ann Arbor. For example, look no farther than Brian's sentiments from when DeBord was hired to be Michigan's OC for the second time:
Rock totally beats scissors. Why would anyone pick anything else? Sure, occasionally someone will throw his own rock, but this is Michigan. We can out-execute their rock. And there are rumors of this thing called "paper". Apparently it beats rock, which seems darned unsporting, but Mike Debord will believe that when Mike Debord sees it. We can probably out-execute paper, too. Some people will hypothesize that the potential existence of paper warrants the occasional scissors throw, but only three things can happen when you throw scissors and two of them are bad. The idea of throwing "paper" is to be regarded with naught but scorn. Oooh, a Snickers bar! Mike Debord likes Snickers and will let pet monkey Bonzo call a series as he enjoys a candy bar.
Hey, Bonzo scored a touchdown. Now we're ahead. Let's go back to rock. Rock beats scissors.
Rock, rock. Definitely rock. Rock. Judge Wapner's on at ten.
In between there are few kind words for DeBord that I can find (though there are references to DeBord as "Capitan Failure" and a little-used but telling post tag "loldebord") but you can look for yourself here. I think it's safe to say that Brian's pretty well on the pulse of Michigan football. So while getting a former Michigan coordinator might be a big deal to some, any news that DeBord has done anything but interview with UT will be met with a roll of the eyes from yours truly, FWIW.
However, there are a couple of good points about a potential DeBord hire if it comes to that -- and at this point we don't even know if he has or is going to interview for sure -- but Michigan football looks a lot like Tennessee football, so there would probably be a natural comfort level. DeBord was in charge of M's special teams for a couple of years before his second stint as OC, and I'd love to see Fulmer hire someone to coordinate special teams full-time (though I'm doubtful anyone would go from offensive coordinator at a major school to special-teams coordinator at another major school without seeing it as a major demotion).
Another thing, DeBord would potentially bring QB coach Scot Loeffler with him, a guy who is a top recruiter and by all accounts a very good position coach who should be a coordinator himself one day. There are pretty strong rumors that VHT and Michigan's part-time starting QB in 2007 Ryan Mallett will follow Loeffler wherever he ends up. Are gaining Mallett and Loeffler worth putting up with DeBord? Maybe, but from what I've read I'd rather have Richmond's Dave Clawson, who we know has interviewed.
Go Vols