02-24-2008, 07:57 PM
How many times have you heard this statement concerning Mike Cavan?
"I don't care what his record was here, he brought THUGS to this university!"
And you can discuss the ride to Jonesborough so his players could go to court and such but let me ask this-
Were the 1996 Bucs more of a team of undesirables than the Vols have been under Phil Fulmer?
The talk radio psycophants of Phil Fulmer are having a field day criticizing John Adams- stating it's not Fulmer's fault seemingly every player not named Peyton Manning who has ever played for him has killed a guy.
Wait. That's a cheap shot. Travis Henry has singlehandedly tried to replenish life whenever one of his old teammates has taken it away.
My bad.
But none of Fulmer's defenders want to ask the question- "Just who is this guy recruiting, anyway?"
If Dennis Erickson can be branded as a criminal coach for the players he brought in- to the point Sports Illustrated once wrote a cover story in 1993 urging Miami to drop their football program because it had gotten so out of control- then why the apologists for Fulmer?
Where I'm going with this is I don't think you'll ever prove it, but I think that 1996 team may have done as much to eventually kill football at ETSU as it did to promote it.
Whenever someone mentioned Mike Cavan in the years after he left, somebody would call him a racist, a hillbilly, a recruiter of thugs, or worse.
In comparison to the current edition of the Vols, whatever character flaws the '96 Bucs had were slight.
And if UT was held to the same standards ETSU was back in the day, Vanderbilt would be this state's best college football program.
"I don't care what his record was here, he brought THUGS to this university!"
And you can discuss the ride to Jonesborough so his players could go to court and such but let me ask this-
Were the 1996 Bucs more of a team of undesirables than the Vols have been under Phil Fulmer?
The talk radio psycophants of Phil Fulmer are having a field day criticizing John Adams- stating it's not Fulmer's fault seemingly every player not named Peyton Manning who has ever played for him has killed a guy.
Wait. That's a cheap shot. Travis Henry has singlehandedly tried to replenish life whenever one of his old teammates has taken it away.
My bad.
But none of Fulmer's defenders want to ask the question- "Just who is this guy recruiting, anyway?"
If Dennis Erickson can be branded as a criminal coach for the players he brought in- to the point Sports Illustrated once wrote a cover story in 1993 urging Miami to drop their football program because it had gotten so out of control- then why the apologists for Fulmer?
Where I'm going with this is I don't think you'll ever prove it, but I think that 1996 team may have done as much to eventually kill football at ETSU as it did to promote it.
Whenever someone mentioned Mike Cavan in the years after he left, somebody would call him a racist, a hillbilly, a recruiter of thugs, or worse.
In comparison to the current edition of the Vols, whatever character flaws the '96 Bucs had were slight.
And if UT was held to the same standards ETSU was back in the day, Vanderbilt would be this state's best college football program.