From another board:
Here's what I'm hearing....Haslam owns Pilot Oil, played for the General on the '51 NC team etc(I once attended a party at a fire station on his property, never saw the house)-Thornton is a real estate mogul
The Inside Story on Haslam, Thornton, & Fulmer's Contract?
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I've been piecing together what the true story is regarding Fulmer's current contract. Here's what I've been able to come up with based upon those supposedly "in the know" about it:
1. Thornton, while he is not on the Board of Trustees & is a much smaller donor than Haslam & several others, is Fulmer's best friend among the bigger donors. He screamed long & loud to give Fulmer the new contract that included the automatic rollover for 8 wins a year. Being the loudmouth he is, Thornton also personally guaranteed UT that he would personally pay the buyout of Fulmer if UT ever fired him.
2. Now that the season has played out as it has, with virtually no chance for 8 wins & the likelihood being more like 8 losses instead, there was a meeting of the big donors at the Auburn game, held there so that it would be away from the gaze of the Knoxville media. Thornton was asked to reiterate his pledge that he would fund the buyout upon Fulmer's forced resignation. He balked & was confronted by Haslam. Both stood toe to toe in a fiery exchange.
The bottom line is that Fulmer's buyout will cost donors $1.5 million per year for 4 years. Buying out his assistants will cost an additional $2 million or more over the next year. Thornton supposedly agreed to fund all of Fulmer's buyout & has now backed out of that promise. Haslam, as UT's lead donor & fundraiser, at least as far as athletics is concerned, is none too happy about that. Neither is Bill Stokely, UT's lead donor for academics.
The reality of the situation is that with the new CBS/ESPN 15-year TV contract, UT & all other SEC schools will get $15 million each from TV annually alone. That's nearly twice as much as Notre Dame gets from its NBC-TV contract. Thus, UT has plenty of money to pay off Fulmer & all of his assistants in one lump sum from the extra TV money coming our way in 2009 alone.
That's what the UT administration should do, & after what will most likely be a highly embarrassing loss on Saturday afternoon in Athens, they should announce that Fulmer is stepping down at the end of the season, that a present value lump sum payment will be made to him & any of his assistants that aren't retained by whoever the new head coach is, as long as they don't get jobs elsewhere, as per their contracts, & that UT is hiring the top national search firm to solicit interest from all coaches' agents in the UT job.
Doing so would clear the air, possibly inspire the team to win the last Bama game that Fulmer will ever coach, get the ball rolling on a successor, save recruiting, & have someone in place for any possible minor bowl game we might achieve if we manage to get to 6-6. That would allow the new coach to have all of December to install his new system & get a head start on next spring, & to also have him & any new staff he hires out on the road recruiting. |
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