AJC > Sports > Blog > Archives > 2006 > August > 28 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USPressure to win intensifies
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here are five coaches who really need to win their openers in order to calm down parts of their fan bases. Some are already on the “hot seat.” Others could soon coach their way on to the hot seat. The first game, more than anything, is about establishing a quality of life for the season. These guys could certainly use an upgrade.
1) Phillip Fulmer, Tennessee (vs. California): I’ll say this one more time. Despite what so many on the blogosphere proclaim, Fulmer, who has won 77.6 percent of his games (that’s No. 1 among active coaches), is not on the “hot seat.” Now if he goes 6-6, this time next year he WILL be on the hot seat. But I will say this: If the Vols lose to the Golden Bears, ranked No. 9 in the preseason, the two weeks leading up the Sept. 16 game with Florida are not going to be a whole lot of fun. Fulmer needs to show his fans a sign that last season (5-6) is officially over.
2) Dennis Franchione, Texas A&M (vs. The Citadel). Coach Fran was hired to close the gap between the Aggies and Texas/Oklahoma. He is being paid $2 million per year and right now A&M is 0-6 against the Big Two in the Big 12 South. Obviously Texas A&M will win against The Citadel but the Aggies need to look good doing it. They don’t have a tough game until Texas Tech on Sept. 30.
3) Larry Coker, Miami (vs. Florida State on Monday). Coker is sticking to his guns after suspending four key players for the Florida State game. He booted wide receiver Ryan Moore off the team indefinitely. After last December’s embarrassment to LSU in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, Coker needs to convince his fans that the program isn’t in a gradual decline. A win over the Seminoles cures all ills.
4) Chuck Amato, N.C. State (vs. Appalachian State). Normally, an ACC team against a I-AA team is a walkover. But Appalachian State, the defending national I-AA champion, is a good team that is very well coached. The Wolfpack has finished 3-5 in the ACC the past two seasons and are looking for the program to take a step up. Struggling against the Mountaineers would be a step back.
5) Rich Brooks, Kentucky (at Louisville, Sunday). Brooks has won only four SEC games (two vs. Mississippi State and two vs. Vanderbilt) in three seasons at Kentucky. This will be his best team since he arrived in Lexington. He doesn’t have to beat Louisville, ranked in the Top 15. But the Wildcats have to compete or the questions about his future will start next Monday morning.
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Comments
By mcdwag
August 28, 2006 12:21 PM | Link to this
Okay-four of the five are reasonable but Larry Coker??? He is cleaning up THUG U and still winning-it would be a terrible mistake to get rid of him-bad for miami and bad for college football
By Stone Mtn Vol
August 28, 2006 12:31 PM | Link to this
Hot Seat? C’mon you geeks and lap dogs, Phil Fulmer is the winningest active coach in 1-A, with a fan base that traditionally boasts to be one of the most loyal in the Nation. He is the only coach in college football history to lead a team to a bowl game in each of their first 13 seasons. He leads the SEC with an average 9.5 wins per season over the last ten years. That is why he is the Dean. One losing season in 18 years of coaching Does anyone remember the #1 recruiting class just a year ago. The Vols WILL reclaim the East, it is inevitable. Let me define hot seat; home opener vs. Notre Dame with a 5’8” QB who throws more INT’s than TD’s(Irish will score 60+); playing in the SEC East with no QB and 3 RB’s (easy defense for the Vols, look for some defensive records being set), my money is that Kregg “Pumpkin” will complete more than Joey T., doubtful that he has learned how to hold on to that pig more than 3 seconds before passing it to his opponent.
By Titus
August 28, 2006 12:41 PM | Link to this
With a favorable schedule (no Va tech and no Miami), if the Wolfpack steamrolls Appy State and wins in Hattiesburg against S. Miss, this team should win 8 games Despite NFL exodus, the team still has talent and is flying under the radar. Horses in backfield will produce but the key is QB Marcus Stone.
By GW
August 28, 2006 12:57 PM | Link to this
Many school’s fans don’t like their coach when they are winning. Fulmer is the best example. Auburn fans complained about Tuberville during the 13-0 season of 2004. The seat is always hot in college football, especially the SEC.
By whit-dawg
August 28, 2006 01:03 PM | Link to this
Well, though I agree with Mr. Barnhart about all 5 I do have some questions about Chuck Amato and Rich Brooks, namely “Who cares?” Take away Phillip Rivers and Tim Couch and the bloated expectations that followed each and you’re left with two schools to cut your teeth at and move on to a coordinator’s position at a school with some tradition of winning. Now with regards to Humpty Dumpty up at UT, if you’re a fan of just about every other school in the SEC East, I’ve got to think you want him to stick around and lose as long as possible! The spotlight is off Vandy, say hello to your new regular homecoming opponent!
By Burdell's Brother
August 28, 2006 01:10 PM | Link to this
If G Tech comes out flat and gets steam rolled against ND, contract extentsion be damned Chan has go to go, 7-5 does not cut it.
By Hey Man
August 28, 2006 01:19 PM | Link to this
Hey Stone Mtn. Did you read Barnhardt’s comments. He said Fulmer was not on the “hot seat” due to his prior successes. But after a 6-6 season coming, he sure as heck will be. Good luck with Ainge. Without competition from Shaefer he is about as gifted at QB as Jim Bob Cooter.
By GTGreg
August 28, 2006 01:26 PM | Link to this
Fulmer is the winningest active coach in 1A eh? A couple of guys named Paterno and Bowden might have a thing or two to say about that…
I disagree about Coker too though… I don’t see him going anywhere, especially this year.
By Buck Cochran in the NW
August 28, 2006 01:33 PM | Link to this
Tony, I think you were the one who said it: the blog is changing the face of college FB. It’s become a factor that NOBODY ever thought it would. The spread option “O” is changing the face of the game and some writer wrote that the QB with the feet & arm have become the rage across the nation. I point out just these two major changes because coaches are paid a lot of money, millions, and I think the fans expect them to win. The bowl games have lost a lot of luster compared to what they had. With the NC game, winning a conference title still carry’s clout but not like it did. No, the big bowls are just bigger pay checks, it’s the NC game that is becoming the barometer of success major college programs. Hot seat? watch, 10 win seasons will become worth less and less with a 12 game schedule unless you get to the BIG ONE!!
By Diggs
August 28, 2006 01:37 PM | Link to this
Whit-Dawg: Interesting that you patronize other schools when your “winning” tradition is second to the other school in your state. Oh yea, go Gym-Dawgs!!!
By The Man
August 28, 2006 01:48 PM | Link to this
Diggs - what school is first, you turd. And you like men.
By AltamahaDawg
August 28, 2006 01:54 PM | Link to this
Stoned Vol fan, you really need to read before you blast everyone. Also Fulmer is the WHAT? By what? Number of victories. mmm NO. Percentage?.mmmm no. He’s not even top 2 in the SEC EAST right now. But he is a very nice coach.
By War Eagle
August 28, 2006 02:13 PM | Link to this
I had a weekend visitor from Knoxville this past weekend, a Tenn. diehard. He said Phil would be gone if 9 WINS are on the board and a very good bowl. Reason: recruited too good for lackluster seasons.
By davedawg
August 28, 2006 02:40 PM | Link to this
Rich Brooks is a disgrace to the SEC and should be fired for the good of the conference. He never should have been hired in the first place. He has a lifetime losing record and bolted to the St. Louis Rams after his only nine win season at Oregon in 1994. He continued to stink it up at the Rams. Kentucky with the facilities and fan support they have should be in bowl contention each year, but instead they struggle to win 3 games.
By Bob
August 28, 2006 02:46 PM | Link to this
Have you noticed that Tennessee’s problems began shortly after Coach Garner left to go to Georgia. They were depending (and successfully) too much on recruits from Georgia. The Bulldogs have, for the most part, put an end to that.
By gdawginkalamazoo
August 28, 2006 02:59 PM | Link to this
I think you guys misunderstood Stoned Vol Fan. What he meant to say is that Fulmer is the “winningest active pumkin” in division 1A.
By AltamahaDawg
August 28, 2006 03:07 PM | Link to this
Ohhhhhhh, ok then.
By Ft Worth Dawg
August 28, 2006 03:09 PM | Link to this
or Winningest Inactive Coach still coaching.
By AltamahaDawg
August 28, 2006 03:15 PM | Link to this
stoned vol fan , You intereted me, so I did look it up. One service (scout) did have Tn at #1. Of cource, they followed it up with a 24Th rating the next year. Oh its inevitable all right.
By Carl
August 28, 2006 03:35 PM | Link to this
Garner is a QC. True he has done well as a hired gun, but it is ironic that after every job the NCAA comes snooping around. The same will happen when he leaves Georgia.
By Bob
August 28, 2006 03:54 PM | Link to this
Coach Garner has really only been at two schools before Georgia… Auburn and Tennessee… and they’ve had plenty of problems long after he was finished with em.
By Go AU
August 28, 2006 03:56 PM | Link to this
Hey GW. Im a huge Auburn fan and not once during their 13-0 run did I not like him or complain. Ok, I lied, I got a little peeved he didn’t run over some teams to get a bigger win spread, but I certainly wanted him as coach.
By 2N4YEARS
August 28, 2006 04:17 PM | Link to this
This article is ‘right on’ target with what all of you already know deep down. Larry Coker is thisclose to being on the Hot Seat. Phat Phil is also. It might not seem like a good idea to some to get rid of a guy that’s won 77.6% of his games, but all of you know that the pressure mounts from ‘What Have You Done For ME Lately’ in CFB. Personally, I hope TENN keeps Phil around. We’ve had a lot of fun in Knoxville the last few trips. Hardly any trouble fighting a crowd to find our car.
By matt
August 28, 2006 05:07 PM | Link to this
How is Fulmer the winningest active coach @ 77.6 when Mark Richt is @ 80.0 and Urban is @ 81?
By Doug
August 28, 2006 05:33 PM | Link to this
Hate to disagree with the most knowledgeable follower of SEC football in Mr Barnhart. But if Fulmer goes 6-6 he is gone mainly because our home schedule next year is pathetic, with only one good Game(Georgia).
By McGowaninDallas
August 28, 2006 06:03 PM | Link to this
OK, here we go. All you non objective Dawgs give me cause to chime in. We beat you either 7 or 9 times in a row. We just now are starting to notice. I love the AJC and the UGA vent, but you guys take such cheap shots it eventually gets old. We might have the best year since Tee Martin. Eric Ainge is the real deal. If Cutcliffe gets his mind right, it’s over. Over. If he doesn’t, bring the hillbilly crap. Then I’ll have to retort that the rednecks in Georgia are so afraid of living in Atlanta proper, South Carolina is about to be a subburb of Atlanta! Ok, just kidding. Snellville……Who named that? That’s like Gastonia, North Carolina…..Go Vols. Beat Cal….
By drdawg
August 28, 2006 09:33 PM | Link to this
I want Phat Phil to have a life time contract. What’s all the hubbub?
By drdawg
August 28, 2006 09:37 PM | Link to this
I’d just like the AJC to update the DawgVent once every 24 hours which they DON’T. Who is the person with that job? What is so hard about updating once a day?
Must be a Tech Grad. Too hard, too complicated.
By pete
August 28, 2006 09:56 PM | Link to this
good lord, we’ve got UT fans giving us grief now? How many thrashings at Knoxville does it take to shut you guys up? Ya’ll work on beating Vandy and SC and going to a bowl - baby steps.
By Super
August 28, 2006 10:44 PM | Link to this
I am so glad that the dawgs have something to talk about now other than Herschel Walker.
By Stone Mtn Vol
August 29, 2006 12:23 AM | Link to this
Mutt fans are so predictable. This time make sure your english soccer team has its moonshine cocktail after the match in Jacksonville instead of before. Have some sort of pride about yourselves and try and win one of these things.
By Mayretta_Dawg
August 29, 2006 09:07 AM | Link to this
Ah Stone Mountain Vol acting like a Techie by living through the Gators beating the Dawgs. What next, our academics are better than you academics? (LOL!) How far the “mighty vols, big urnge” have fallen…
By proteustein
August 29, 2006 09:07 AM | Link to this
Newsflash: Coach Fulmer is hospitalized after consuming 2 dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts while reviewing game film from a thrashing on the hill. Before he can fully recover and return to the field, Coach Cutcliff is named the head coach … sound familar? Keep repeating to yourselves VOL nation … Cutcliff is the answer … Cutcliff is the answer!
By J Dawg
August 29, 2006 09:23 AM | Link to this
Over his first five years Coach Richt is 52-13. That works out to 80% victories, so how is coach Fulmer (77.6% per Barnhart) the winningest active coach?
By Mayretta_Dawg
August 29, 2006 09:40 AM | Link to this
PS Our three backs won’t even touch Jabari “Peach Bowl” Davis in being disappointments to Dawg Nation.
Cheers!
By TennDawg
August 29, 2006 10:52 AM | Link to this
Living in the state, I see that ugly shade of orange and that T all too often! What makes me laugh out loud? All of the trucks, cars and campers flashing their orange, each decked out with 3 to 10 of those T’s that are being driven by “Bubba” whose “hotboxing” it (smoking with windows up for those of you not familiar with the south) with his whole family in the car and yet collectively, they can’t spell COLLEGE. My wife, a vey intelligent woman, is a double grad from UT; so I try to respect the Vols as much as possible. However, then the images of the mullet-haired Vol fan mooning those of us in the UGA section last year in Neyland just seep back into my mind and make it all too hard to forget. Why am I busting on the Vols so hard this morning? I have no idea, but these days it’s just so easy to do! Stone Mtn Vol - this is a DAWG VENT and yet you come in here and start spewing your nonsense about “Kregg Pumpkin (come on dude, we ALL know there’s only room for one Pumpkin in the SEC), no qb and try winning one of these things (must be referring to our inability to beat the Gators because I know you aren’t talking about the SEC East or the SEC title)”? Man do I hate the Vol fans, except for my sweet and loving wife! GO DAWGS!!!
By AltamahaDawg
August 29, 2006 03:37 PM | Link to this
stoned vol fan, that may very well have qualified as the lamest responce ever.
We totally trashed your points so you go out and you come up with Fl beating us last year??????? WOW. You really got us there junior.
By vladfromvandy
August 29, 2006 04:20 PM | Link to this
phats fulmer has so much padding he can survive a couple of years unemployed…fun to see expression on his face after we took them last year for state championship….GO ‘DORES!!!!
By AltamahaDawg
August 30, 2006 04:16 PM | Link to this
I talked to one of my buddies who is pretty connected in TN, and he was telling me that nobody was getting thier hopes up this year, and there was some injuries slowing them WAY down. For what that is worth, which might not be a thing.
By old pro Vol
August 30, 2006 07:33 PM | Link to this
I remember well when (not too long ago) the Jawja dawgs lost NINE (9) STRAIGHT GAMES (!) to the Vols. Let’s see, after Vince Dooley and Herschel, how many loser coaches did the Pink Pansy Poodles from Athens have? Remember “Win one for the Goff-er?” Gawja is averaging one winning football coach EVERY THIRTY (30) YEARS!!!!! Only Vanderbilt can top THAT statistic! The surprising thing is that a pretty nice guy like Richt can stand to coach and live at a school whose fans are so eaten up with (for the most part) such grotesque ignorance and repulsiveness. I’m gonna e-mail Randy Newman and tell him he’s really missed a chance by not having written a song (yet) about you guys! As for us in Knoxville, we’ll hang on to “Fat Phil” a little longer. Better give Richt a lifetime contract NOW. Thirty years is a long time to have to wait.
By Jsonic
August 31, 2006 06:30 AM | Link to this
It’s a shame that Notre Dame is playing Tech and not the Poodles. It would be entertaining as hell not only to see the Irish crush the Poodles but to listen to all the Georgia fans on these blogs talk about how the Poodles would put the Irish in their place. The Poodles are really pi$$ed that the Tech/Irish game is stealing their opening day thunder against W. Kentucky….. I mean come on WESTERN KENTUCKY!!! At least Tech has the guts to schedule opponents like Notre Dame. Somebody kick UGA, swat him with the newspaper and put him in the garage!
By wild thing
August 31, 2006 10:49 AM | Link to this
jsonic…who do you play next week/UNIVERSITY OF SANDWICHFORD?….had to get in line early for that one
By Sarccastik Rules!!!
August 31, 2006 11:08 AM | Link to this
Here’s my 5 cents:
Fat Phil - He’s been on the hotseat for the last couple of years…this year he has to atleast take Tennesee to a BCS bowl or he’s in big trouble going into 2007
Franchie - He’s been on the hotseat since he left Alabama. The people in College Station expected more from him Day 1.
Coker - I agree with you, that he’s on a serious hot seat…to me it starts with the QB. Wright has not been cutting it…we’ll see this weekend.
Brooks - He’s been on the hot seat since Day 1. I didn’t agree with “recycling” a coach anyway. They should have hired a “fiery, young head coach” to give the Kentucky fans hope.
By WRDAWG
August 31, 2006 11:25 AM | Link to this
Under Ray Goff and Jim Donnan the Dawgs went 86-53-1 (61% winning record). Last time I checked that’s not a loosing percentage but still unacceptable to Dawg fans. Vanderbilt would kill to have such a winning percentage. And the way it looks, after last year and the way this year looks, the Orange Crushed will too.
By Cody
August 31, 2006 10:09 PM | Link to this
Look Franchione may be getting payed alot. But he is doing a desent job. He just needs to come out and when his opening games before the conferance starts..