They have under performed by their own standards, but Fulmer is the reason they have those very lofty expectations and he has had only one real poor season in his tenure I believe and has won at least 10 games in 4 seasons so far this decade. To say they do the least with the kind of talent they get is excluding many, many teams that aren't nearly as consistently good as they are. And while they haven't won the SEC title in a while, they have won the east as often as UGA and UF this decade. There are about 300 programs in the country that would love to have the same success as UT has.
It's all relative dude. And the qualifier that I gave was considering how much talent they have, not how many wins they have in comparison to 300 other teams. 300 teams don't have 35+ players in the NFL right now, but Georgia, LSU, and Florida do. And Tenn will continue to send them, which means they continue to get them. Nothing about my statement excluded many, many teams. In comparison to other teams that send the same amount of players to the NFL, Tenn. has underperformed. Comparison to other SEC teams alone shows that. I just think that no SEC titles in ten years,with their talent, is under performing. Fair or not, "what have you done for me lately" is how things work today. Ten years is a long drought.
Well ,we'll just have to disagree, I think their SEC East record shows otherwise. I think there record shows otherwise. The lack of an SEC title is a black eye, I agree with that. But to me they are a top 10/20 recruiting program and a top 10/20 program.
i agree, but there is a big difference between a top 10/20 program and a top 5/10 program. for almost all fulmer's time as HC he has not been able to win the big game. and since winning their recent NC UGA has firmly passed them as the #1/2 in the east
You are correct, and I don't think there are any more, but SC comes close too. When you don't have a coastline and your state is that long it sure can connect with a lot of borders. In fact I think TN borders more states than any other state in the union. However it still doesn't explain the kid from NJ, or CA. Fat Phil still has a long reach any way you look at it. I guess we can't say too much, wasn't Mauck from Indiana or Illinois? And I think Peter Dyakowski (murdered his name) the OL from Canada? Anyway I still think Phil gets more kids from out of state than any other SEC school. The next recruit will be from Alaska!
You are correct on all of the above states bordering TN, and SC is very close also. I think TN has more states bordering it than any other state in the union. It helps when you have no coastline and are so long in shape. Good point, but it still doesn't explain the kid from Cali and NJ. Anyway you slice it, Fat Phil has a long reach. I guess we shouldn't talk because didn't Peter Dyakowski--I'm sure I murdered his name-- come from Canada originally? And wasn't Matt Mauck from IL or Indiana? But I still think Phil gets more talent from out of state than anyone in the SEC.
I agree. Tennessee does a terrible job of locking down the little talent they do have in-state. Also, while they do recruit nationally fairly well, their classes are typically top-heavy with a few stars & lots of mediocre players - not enough 4 star guys. This is how they send guys to the NFL but have crappy teams.
Tennessee struggles because a ton of the top in-state guys come from Memphis, which isn't really in Tennessee. Also the Nashville private schools (MBA, Brentwood) aren't big time UT schools. Plus, they always have to go out of state since Tennessee doesn't produce many prospects and it has gone all gone downhill ever since they stopped being able to fly them in on private jets.
Obviously there are many Tennessee grads, but it sort of secluded from the rest of the state, and the larger cities. The culture is just different. It is kind of like how the Florida panhandle isn't like most of Florida.
