Martinez has "SEC experience" and ""recruits well". Heupel hired him at UCF and brought him with him because he didn't have a DC yet.
I hated watching that 2008 team. Not the team/players themselves, just the act of watching the games. So miserable. Average score of 17.3-16.8. Crompton/Nick Stephens combined for 1,729 yds, 8 TDs, 8 Ints, 5.8 ypa, and a stellar 49.5% completion %.
That was an underrated group that probably played much better as a unit than the more talent ladened squads of post-2000. In fact, you could say that that defense played so well that they nearly saved Fulmer even when it was apparent that the wheels had come clean off way back in the rearview.
That '08 primetime game against Auburn was the most wretched thing covered by CBS Sports dating back to their flirtation with broadcasting the absurdly corrupt Mr. Olympia contest of 1980.
I was there, neither team could get a first down. So Foster literally laid the ball down in the end zone for them. And then Chavis or whoever played soft coverage on a 3rd down at the end because reasons and then I think Larry Slade complained afterwards how mad people would’ve been had we given up a deep ball even though a first down ended the game
You've got a very good memory. That game is also noteworthy because Tubberville fired OC Tony Franklin immediately following the win yet that didn't earn him the necessary political capital to keep his job at season's end. The OC situations for Tennessee and Auburn were nearly identical going into that season as both respective schools made wholesale changes despite open objections from the holdover offensive coaches. I wonder if Phil could have hung on for a few more lackluster years had he scapegoated Clawson at the same point in time as Tubberville.
I think it was after this game that the late great Keith Hatfield posted those immortal words: “Foster: it’s Australian for Fumble”
