ESPN is reporting that Phil Fulmer will announce today at 5 that he will step down at the end of the season.
Thanks Phil for all you have done and I hope we can move forward in a positive manner with a new coach.
Sources: Fulmer agrees to step down as Vols coach by Chris Low
Well I think the decision has already been made but I will say it anyway. Philip Fulmer needs to be shown the door.
I sit here watching a great Texas vs. Texas Tech game and I cannot help but think to myself, this is what Tennessee games use to be like. What is the difference you ask. The game actual means something.
It is hard for me to say but I think until Tennessee makes a change we are going to continue to be irrelevant in the national picture.
So Mike Hamilton you need make your decision tomorrow and have a press conference on Monday. This speculation needs to be ended in order to move forward.
So after another laughable effort by the Philip Fulmer lead Vols we sit at 3-5.
So what Now?
Seems like a question most Vol fans are asking these days. I say let’s move on. What good can come of dragging this firing or resignation out. Do we want another Johnny Majors spouting off rude comments about the University of Tennessee administration or our next coach.
Johnny got the shaft when there was no Internet or blogs and most of all Tennessee was traditionally a great program but Majors was not thought of nationally the same way Fulmer is. Fulmer holds a huge amount of respect in the coaching community and in the national media and deservedly so.
Coach Fulmer took us to a place that many thought to be unattainable at this school, a National Championship. Yes this was a great accomplishment and no one should diminish the things Coach Fulmer has done, but that was 10 years ago. I say how much farther do we have to fall.
Okay let’s look a scenario for a brief moment. On November the 22nd we play the Vanderbilt Commodores in Nashville, what if anything will be playing for. Vanderbilt a team that has and never will have the talent of a Tennessee. We could come into that game with a 4-6 or at best 5-5 record and a 1-5 or 2-4 in the SEC. Vandy by then will be bowl eligible and will probably be in third place in the SEC eastern division. This to me is just totally unacceptable and I know of no other way to put it.
So the word around town is that nobody else can do the job and Fulmer’s agent Jimmy Sexton is even spewing the same propaganda saying Clemson is a better job than Tennessee. This cannot be further from the truth.
What coach would not want to come to a program where he has great facilities, a national fan base, an established program with instant legitimacy, and a recruiting budget that most schools can’t even touch. Did I mention you will be in making 3 million plus and playing in the best conference in the nation or that you will be with a University that has a history of long tenured coaches.
The only negative that I can see is the fact that you have to recruit nationally and that you have to compete against the likes of Myer and Saban.
I just think any good coach that wanted to show the world what he was made of would never turn down a place like the University of Tennessee.
I never thought I would see the day when and Athletic Director would come out and say he is not opposed to firing a coach in the middle of the season. Things must be getting pretty hot over there in the University of Tennessee football complex for coach Fulmer. Hamilton in an article by Dave Hocker of the Knoxville News Sentinel basically said that he is not afraid to make a coaching change and that the financial implications that go along with that will not stop him from making a change. Hamilton also went on to say that unless things change he would take his normal course of action with coach Fulmer and wait till the end of the year to evaluate him and his staffs performance.
I like most fans believe that coach Fulmer has done great things hear at Tennessee, but the growing majority believe that his time has come. I trust Mike Hamilton to make a good decision like he did when he hired Bruce Pearl but finding another diamond in the ruff like coach Pearl may be a hard task.
Oh and one other side not. If you don’t believe that the fans have turned, take a look at this poll from govolsextra.com. Vote to Re-elect Coach Fulmer
Hamilton not afraid to make coaching change by Dave Hocker
Okay I know the score was close, but realistically we where still embarrassed. Georgia which is a team that is talented but I still believe this Tennessee team is good enough to beat them. This coaching staff just does not get their players ready and does not make enough in game adjustments to win in the SEC. 
To me it is obvious that Arian Foster must have incriminating evidence that he is using against coach Fulmer. Foster has to be the slowest back in the SEC. I hate to say this but I am not sure he could start for any other team in the SEC.
My biggest problem with this team is the Head Coach Phillip Fulmer. It is very clear to see that Nick Stephens is a much better quarterback than Jonathon Crompton and it has been widely reported that offensive coordinator Dave Clausen was in favor of starting Stephens in the spring. Stephens seems to be a quarterback that sees the field and makes good decisions, these are things Crompton could only do in practice.
I fear that this season could get even worse considering that it looks as if Mississippi State has gotten its legs under it and beaten Vandy. The rest of our games are all winnable except Bama but I have no confidence that this coaching staff hasn’t lost the team. This team that started with such great expectations has completely fallen on its face. I have never in my life seen a team look so bad on a consistent basis. I believe that the quarterback decision has really hamstrung this entire offense, but they are equally as bad at receiver and offensive line too.
Okay so after all that there is only one conclusion you can come too and it is that we need a change. The folks over at State run radio would have you believe that we need to let things play out, but I would beg to differ. You don’t have to look much further than last year to see that it helped Michigan by having Loyd Carr resign after the year was over. Mike Hamilton needs to make the decision now and move forward with finding the guy you want. If you mull it over and don’t get the guy out until late December you will loose a huge amount of time in recruiting. Let Phil resign on the Monday after the Kentucky game and then you have all of December to get a staff in place. This in turn gives you all of December to recruit and still make a splash nationally at the same time.
So I will end this post with another list.
1. Jon Gruden (Tampa Bay Bucks)
2. Gary Pinkel (Missouri)
3. Lane Kiffin (former coach of Oakland Raiders)
4. Brain Kelly (Cincinnati)
Okay I bought this domain after the debacle that was the UT Florida game in 2007. I have been posting for a few months and have not really thought about the way I felt after that game. Today again I feel like as a fan I have a right to expect a better product.
I have been watching the Vols all my life. The first games I can remember where in the 85 season, so I guess that make me a Vol fan for 23 years. I have owned or had access to season tickets for at least the last 15 years. So when I make this next statement know that I have given a lot to the University over the length of my life.
I believe that it truly is time for a change at the head coaching position at the University of Tennessee.
Fulmer’s record in the 2000s against top 10 teams is 1 and 9. Fulmer’s record against his last 27 SEC opponents is 14 and 13. These are staggering numbers.
These numbers would mean nothing if he was putting a changing and or improving team on the field. As the SEC has become a truly elite conference the coaching talent has risen. This has made recruiting a highly important and competitive affair. The talent we have recruited in the past 5 years has just not been on par with the rest of the elite SEC teams. This never has been more evident than in the 3rd and 4th quarters against Florida today.
If you notice I have not really spoke much about the game. I just believe that anyone who witnessed what was in my opinion one of the worst performances in Tennessee history. In my life I have never seen a team that is more poorly coached. You have a player in Brandon James who has returned a kick on Tennessee three straight years now, so what does our great coaching staff do, they kick to him every instance possible.
So I will end this post with a list.
1. John Gruden
2. Lovie Smith
3. Brian Kelly
4. Lane Kiffin
5. Steve Spurrier
6. Jeremy Bates
Okay Jon Tyner turned me on to a couple videos and I cannot help but share them.
“Jesus is A Friend Of Mine”
Okay this one is even better. The guy bustin a move just kills me.
“The Renewed Mind Is The Key”
The University of Tennessee faced UAB in their home opener Saturday in front of more than 20,000 empty seats.
I have been attending Tennessee football games for as long as I can remember. I never in my life thought I would see a day when there where that many empty seats. I know what you are thinking, what does this have to do with the game. In my opinion it has everything to do with the game. In the past seven years our athletic department has been turning the blind eye to consistent slippage of our program. Yes we have done good things good, but look at our record against our key rivals. I like most fans care about three games on our schedule: Florida, Alabama, and Georgia. We are 11-10 verses these teams since 2000. Make your own conclusions but this to me is just mediocre in my opinion.
Okay back to the game. Tennessee in my opinion had a very lack luster performance against a team that was less talented at every position. The game was close in the first half and UT broke it open in the second half, because of their superior depth. The one bright spot for Tennessee was that they look to have found a running game. Tennessee rushed for 276 total yards with Arian Foster running 12 times for 101 and Lennon Creer ran 8 times for 93 yards. The real problem with the offense is the lack of consistency from the quarterback position. Jonathon Crompton came to Tennessee as the 3rd ranked quarterback in the country, but has never lived up to the expectations. Crompton was 19 of 31 for 240 yards 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.
The defense played the classic Tennessee bend but don’t brake style that most Vol fans have become accustomed too. UAB drove the ball deep a couple of times but Tennessee capitalized on sloppy quarterback play by intercepting 3 passes. I think overall the defense played together as unit very well, but I still think we need to work on our run defense and 3rd downs are still a problem. 
Okay so i have drug this post along and am finally to part where i just tell you what i really think. I am so disappointed in the direction this football team seems to be heading. The overall team seems to have great athletes that can make plays, but the scheme in which they play does not support that. I think offensively our quarterback is our main problem. On defense i just believe that we are not aggressive enough when it really matters. Against a team like UAB, Tennessee can get by on just shear talent alone. Next Saturday that will not be the case.
I know this post is nothing revolutionary but these are my thoughts so deal with it.
Photosynth hit the web in a hugely popular TED video in 2006. Now two years later the product that many of us saw in the demo has finally come to fruition.
I must say that originally when I saw this product I could see no way that this could ever live on your machine. The computing power that it would take to combine all those images into a viewable selectable grid must be enormous. The team at Microsoft figured out how to take something enormous personalize it. I cannot wait to see this service grow into something you can collaborate on. Maybe integrate some Geo Tagging that would allow you to search for a synth that was done in the area you took you pictures. Then you could add your shots to the synth. For tourism the aplicaitons could be enormous. Places like New York and other national landmarks could really be visited without the viewer ever stepping foot there.
Photosynth to me could be the new technology that puts Microsoft at the forfront of inovation once again.
Here is a little demo I did.
I have been tinkering with Windows Live Writer for a month or two now. It seems very functional for the common blogger. It works with pretty much every blogging format known to man except Blogger.com(beta). It allows for easy spell check and standardization, but the most functional feature that I have seen is the use of plug-ins. 
Plug-ins allow the user to expand he functionality to more easily accommodate their blog style. For example, there is a great Flickr insert tool that allows you to search for and then insert images from Flickr. This could be very useful for say a non tech savvy wedding photographer that has started a blog to support their business. This is just the tip of the iceberg and I am sure there are more great plug-ins in the works.
Microsoft seems to really be moving in the right direction when it comes to their Live products. I hope we will see more software tailored to web 2.0 users in the near future. Oh an example of these products Windows Live Photo Gallery. I won’t go into too much detail but this really extends the use of the built-in picture viewer in windows. It gives you editing functions, but its biggest asset is the ability to manage a large amount of picture files. It makes viewing and finding images with-in a large library easy.
That is all for now. Thanks for reading.