First of all, this whole story still sounds pretty outrageous to me. So until Fulmer is officially introduced as AD, I won't believe it. That said, if it DOES happen:
-You've got a slam dunk AD candidate 90 minutes down the road, a UT guy through and through who would probably crawl to Knoxville on his hands and knees for the job. How many schools could fizzle that up? There's only one, folks. He'll be working against us at one of our SEC rival schools soon enough.
-There's really only one way I can see this working: They bring in Blackburn or someone of similar qualifications along with Fulmer. This person, while officially Fulmer's #2, is in actuality "The Man Behind the Curtain". He's given full run of the day to day operations of the UTAD, to include hiring and firing of coaches. Fulmer, meanwhile, serves as a figurehead- someone to stand in and gladhand the Thorntons and Haslams of the world. A "fundraiser in chief", if you will. Besides, Fulmer is, what, 67? He isn't going to do this for more than 4-5 years. Bring in Blackburn as well to be the AD in waiting. Easy enough, except I don't think Blackburn OR Fulmer would agree to such an arrangement.
-I think I've decided what I want to do when I grow up: Run my own search firm. Remember a few weeks ago when they announced they would employ this firm, and we were all worried that it meant they were looking past Blackburn, and bringing in an outsider? Well, we were half right, anyway. So after weeks of "searching", this firm led us to hire
Phil Fulmer? I hope we paid them well for
that sage bit of counsel. What a freaking racket.
-It occurs to me that if Fulmer's our guy we could've easily hired him last year, the day Hart announced his retirement. It's not like he had anything else to do. And even a year of Fulmer running the show would be preferable to a Hart lame duck year.
Again, we shouldn't be surprised. There's only one school that could fizzle things up to this degree.