Well, for an evening, I was a Florida Gator. And it was great. Congratulations to the University of Florida and their convincing thumping of THE Ohio State University. Any questions about who’s number 1 in the country?
Though, as a UT alumnus, it was difficult to pull for the Gators, I felt like I had to stick with the SEC team in this one (it helped me along that we invited a family of Gators over to watch the game). I briefly had second thoughts about my support when it dawned on me during the game that UF would be (for a couple more months) the reigning champs in the two premier college sports, but that concern didn’t last for long.
So, we can conclude that UF has a great Athletic Department (even Zook’s hire wasn’t a complete bust). And I will concede, especially in light of Bruce Pearl’s hire, that the University of Tennessee has a good Athletic Program. But I have some complaints. Since I don’t give loads of money to the Athletic Dept. (I don’t even give a little money to it), my only potential means of influencing them is by this little ol’ blog. So here goes.
Re. our football program, I know that Phillip Fulmer has one of the best winning percentages of any active coach in the NCAA, but that’s not all I’m concerned about as a fan. Fulmer has an excellent winning percentage and I think that is VERY closely related to his excellence as a recruiter, but I want excellence in fulfilling potential, in graduation rates and in sportsmanship. I do not accept that Fulmer’s “boys will be boys” attitude (which is a big part of his recruiting success, I think) precludes discipline and high expectations/standards for conduct on and off the field. That discipline is what leads to better execution on the field and averts the problems of playing down to your opponent’s level and acting like T.O. when you make a play.
It still irritates me that the above problems (lack of discipline and failure to execute) have cost us big Ws over the years (especially after layoffs like Bowl season) and even cost us any level of respect for winning the national championship in 1998–which it is hard to argue was not a plain old ugly win.
So that’s my complaint. I’ve been told that Cutcliffe is particularly strong in this area, and Fulmer needs to realize that his personal weakness in this area costs the program.
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