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Tennessee football: 5 assistant hires that got a Vols head coach fired

By Caleb Calhoun

COLUMBIA, MO - NOVEMBER 11: Head coach Butch Jones of the Tennessee Volunteers coaches from the sidelines during the game against the Missouri Tigers at Faurot Field/Memorial Stadium on November 11, 2017 in Columbia, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA, MO - NOVEMBER 11: Head coach Butch Jones of the Tennessee Volunteers coaches from the sidelines during the game against the Missouri Tigers at Faurot Field/Memorial Stadium on November 11, 2017 in Columbia, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Mike Comer/Getty Images
Photo by Mike Comer/Getty Images /

1. Dave Clawson – 2008

Head Coach: Phillip Fulmer

Position: Offensive Coordinator

We began this list with the hire of Phillip Fulmer undoing the career of Johnny Majors. Well, 16 years after Fulmer became Tennessee football’s head coach, his own offensive coordinator hire undid him.

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Fulmer’s career in Knoxville was marked by stability. At his best in the 1990s, he had David Cutcliffe and John Chavis as offensive and defensive coordinators, two guys he promoted from within. When Cutcliffe left for the Ole Miss Rebels, Fulmer promoted Randy Sanders, who was there through 2005.

A bad 2005 season resulted in Sanders resigning, but Fulmer then was able to bring back Cutcliffe. So when Cutcliffe left after 2007 to take the Duke Blue Devils head coaching job, Fulmer decided to go national for the first time in his career. And it was a mistake.

Trooper Taylor, a highly successful assistant, had been studying under Cutcliffe. Fulmer should have stuck to his philosophy one year after a 10-win SEC East title season and promoted Taylor. Instead, he went for the splash.

That splash was an FCS coach in Dave Clawson. Now, Clawson, like we said with Larry Marmie, actually has a brilliant offensive mind. The problem is his emphasis on versatility and cerebral decision-making to get the ball in playmakers’ hands clashed with what Cutcliffe was doing the year before. Everywhere Clawson goes, the offense requires three years to get going.

So with Jonathan Crompton stepping in for Erik Ainge in 2008, disaster struck in this new offense. Tennessee football lost its opener to the UCLA Bruins. Then they lost 30-6 to the Florida Gators and 14-12 to the Auburn Tigers.

By midseason, they were 3-6, failing to break 10 points in three of their losses and failing to break 15 points five of them. Oh, and one of their wins was a 13-9 win over Northern Illinois. They couldn’t get things going at quarterback, alternating between Crompton and Nick Stephens.

The resulting disaster prompted Mike Hamilton to fire Fulmer. How did Tennessee football respond? They suffered their most embarrassing loss of the decade, falling 13-6 at home to the Wyoming Cowboys. The Vols won their final two games to finish 5-7 and send Fulmer off right, but this was a disastrous offense.

Next. Projecting the Vols' 2019 2-deep depth chart. dark

Clawson would actually go on to have success with the Bowling Green Falcons and is now thriving with the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. So he can actually coach. But he wasn’t the right fit for Tennessee football at that time. His scheme clashed with the personnel far too much, and it resulted in the Vols firing Fulmer and entering a decade of futility. So it tops this list.

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