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Beating UT in a bowl game may be a hazard to your program

by Tony Basilio

UT’s bowl opponent had best beware; beating Phillip Fulmer’s Vols in a bowl game is hazardous to the health of your football program. Call it the Curse of the Fulmbino. Every team that has beaten Tennessee in bowl games in recent years has tasted the curse.

Take Nebraska, which whipped Tennessee in 1999 by a score of 31-21 in the Fiesta Bowl. The win capped a 12-1 season under second-year head coach Frank Solich. Then the Huskers felt the sting of the Curse. It didn’t happen overnight, as Solich’s team still managed 10-2 season in 2000—sometimes the curse of the Fulmbino takes time. But by 2003, Fulmer’s Bad Orange Karma was all in Nebraska’s silo! When you suffer losses to the likes of Penn State (a fellow Curse recipient), Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Kansas State (another Fulmered program) and Ole Miss, you’ve been cursed. Or in Solich’s case, you’ve been fired. Enter Bill Callahan, who went 5-6 this year, meaning that Nebraska won’t see a bowl see a bowl game this year unless they watch ESPN.

The curse recognizes no sacred cows. It even works on coaching legends! Exhibit 1A: Joe Paterno. Before beating Tennessee twice in the mid-90’s, Penn State was a household name in college football. Then PSU defeated second year head coach Fulmer 31-13 in the ’94 Citrus Bowl, little knowing what was about to happen. As would be the case with Nebraska, the Curse took effect gradually. In the 11 years prior to Penn State’s thumping of Fulmer, the Lions won 96 games, including 2 National Championships while playing for another. Since then, the Nittany Lions have failed to qualify for a BCS bowl. State’s recent consecutive 3-8 seasons tell of the awful price teams pay when they defeat Fulmer’s Vols in a bowl.

Sometimes the curse takes very little time to work. Ask the little Orange of Clemson about how their euphoric victory over Tennessee last January in the Peach Bowl was harbinger of ruin. When Tommy Bowden’s troops thrashed Tennessee 27-14 in the Peach Bowl, they received a healthy dose of the curse. A Sept. 11 loss to Georgia Tech proved that Clemson was damned. Four more losses along the way, including an embarrassing 27-6 result versus Texas A&M showed how far and fast the hex took effect. Even in victory, the bowl eligible, 6-5 Tigers proved that they were cursed, when Clemson’s administration chose not to accept a potential bowl bid in the aftermath of an ugly season-ending brawl against the University of South Carolina. How does a bowl eligible team miss a bowl bid? They’re either on probation, or they’ve been Fulmered, that’s how.

Ralph Friedgen knows a thing or two about getting Fulmered. His Terrapins walked the dog on Tennessee in the ’02 Peach Bowl for the school’s first postseason victory since the ’85 Cherry Bowl. (Yes, the Cherry Bowl.) Maryland was primed to take the next step with an offensive mastermind they call the “Fridge”. What have the Terps done since knocking out Tennessee? Last season was great, with 10 wins capped by a Gator Bowl triumph over West Virginia. Perhaps the Curse is losing it potency? In words of the great Lee Corso, “Not so fast my friend!” The cursed Terps finished below .500 this season, and missed a bowl game for the first time in four years.

The aforenamed aren’t the only Fulmbino curse recipients missing the postseason. That distinction also falls to Bill Snyder’s Kansas State program. The Wildcats were flying high after thrashing UT in the 2001 Cotton Bowl, but since that fateful day, the Cats have tasted post-season victory just once, in an ’02 Holiday Bowl win over Arizona State. KSU’s lone BCS appearance was marred by sexual assault allegations against starting quarterback El Roberson a few hours before last year’s Fiesta Bowl loss to Ohio State. State managed to follow up that debacle with a brutal 4-7 season in 2004, thus ending their string of 10 consecutive bowl appearances. Bill Snyder has to be scratching his head wondering what could’ve gone so wrong so fast. But we know the score: Kansas State has been Fulmered!

Tennessee fans hope it will be a while before another program suffers the curse of the Fulmbino. Still, we do have a twisted sense of security in knowing that while this year’s bowl opponent may beat us on the field, they will lose in the long run! Bad Orange Karma awaits.

Tune in and talk sports with Tony Basilio weekdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on ESPN Radio WVLZ 1180 AM.

December 2, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 49 © 2004 Metro Pulse