Bama1966 said:
I find it hard to feel sorry for Fulmer, I do on the otherhand feel for the players that cared for him. Its hard on the team for a short period of time but at least the program got it right by allowing him to resign instead of firing him the way they did Majors. I always thought they did Johnny Majors wrong.
I understand your point, Bama1966, and I do feel sorry for the players who did give their all for Fulmer, but there's just one problem--the entire team was not committed to or fully respected Fulmer. If it had been, then you would not have had players "going through the motion" or finding themselves involved in off-field incidents. I saw a coach who seemed to be losing control of a team. He was able to right some of the problems and issues in 2007, but not so this season.
Fulmer brought a lot of this on himself. Sure, he may have wanted to make a difference and raise some individuals above socio-economic disadvantages by taking chances on questionable character or behavior, but some of that came back to bite him.
Maybe he should have also spent more energy, time, and effort building up his own program instead of wasting so much on bringing another school's program down in such untruthful ways.
With Fulmer gone, hopefully the UT-Bama rivalry will return to being one of mutual respect and intense competition instead of one wallowing in animosity and hate among the fanbases.
When it comes to exCPF, good riddance.
RTR!