So, Phil Fulmer, do you have anything nice to say about your successor?
“First thing, I’m a Tennessee guy. I want Tennessee to always do well, and I want us to do it with character and integrity, which we’ve always done, and to appreciate our traditions and our history. Appreciate what other coaches and players have done here prior to me, and what others will do after me or Derek or whoever. We didn’t have that (with Lane Kiffin)…”
But didn’t you leave Junior in a tight spot, talent-wise?
“The knock on the talent, we had four guys play in the Super Bowl, we had two first-rounders this year, looks like four or five guys are going to be drafted,” Fulmer said after the first round of the draft. “I think it’s just par for the course when somebody replaces somebody and they have maybe a holier-than-thou attitude of arrogance or whatever. Then that’s just kind of normal…”
Oh. Okay. But what about that new sense of spirit that was part of the Laner’s plan?
“There are certainly good players at Tennessee, and it’s a shame what we’ve gone through with losing as many guys from the program for whatever reason, counting the really good players that I had committed my last year.”
Thanks for sharing, Coach.
Get The Picture 
This quote made me chuckle: “I want us to do it with character and integrity, which we’ve always done”
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Beat me to it. Exactly what I was thinking.
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Kelly. Washington.
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Bad character and low integrity are still character and integrity, techinically.
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“they have maybe a holier-than-thou attitude of arrogance or whatever.”
Which only goes to show that big-time deciders, like Lane and this guy, may sometimes leave behind clues consisting of “gripping, never-before-heard detail” on when and how to abandon people, places and things…
http://gawker.com/5524256/here-is-the-cover-for-george-w-bushs-memoir
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I am no fan of Phats, good guy but not very bright and his lack of discipline brought the program down, but even he is qualified to run Junior down. The ones who should have their faces slapped for saying anything critical about Kiffin are those “fans” who defended him as he openly mocked their fans and traditions for a full year. Those people had enough information to know what everyone else saw but sold their soul to the devil just because Mike Hamilton signed him to do a job he wasn’t qualified for. Everyone wearing your school colors do not qualify for your support. The smell around that scumbag was even noticeable to a senile Al Davis. I say let Fulmer take some shots, he wasn’t blindly jumping on the “Lane Train.”
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…which is why they are and continue to be Tennessee fans.
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I agree with everything Mac said except that Phats was not and is not a “good guy.” He taught his players to cheat. His own players did not trust him and his staff. Chris Leake said that was why he did not go to UT even though his older brother went there. Karma is a bitch and Phats got what he deserved after the way he turned on Johnny Majors. F#ck the guy.
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What I meant by “good guy” was he is basically a local guy, played for the state school, loves the program, and tried to the best he could for it. To me he is a great example of the “Peter Principle” and simply got into a traffic lane that was moving too fast for him to keep up. I don’t think he yet realizes how bad his choices on discipline were and how they led to his demise. To me he is a Ray Goff who happened to win more games, unrelated to his mental capacity. I can see how you can paint his actions as evil, and I said I didn’t like him either. I just think he was a good ol’ boy who wandered into the traffic and tried to cover up why he was there. Perhaps that is a naive opinion on my part, because I hated the way he did anything possible to keep players at UT who should have been kicked out of school. The worst was when he gave a RB a FOURTH chance on failed drug tests, disgusting.
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This is Fulmer (and I purposely use an example from another school so I and everyone else will have no dog in the fight on this): A few years ago Bama was playing UT (at UT I think) and was leading (by 4 as I recall) with almost no time on the clock. UT had the ball one Bama’s 1 yard line with 5 seconds to go and timeout was called (UT’s last). A field goal would do no good. Fulmer huddled with his entire offense on the sideline. A play was called and the UT team lined up. At the snap every UT player grabbed a Bama jersey, fell down and the UT back walked into the end zone. No flags. UT won the game, but cheated to do it. Would you want your kid to play for a guy like that? I wouldn’t. Fulmer got what he deserved for selling his soul. He was and is a disgrace to coaching.
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