Get Fulmer Back.com

Some people have actually suggested that the coverage by this website of Phillip Fulmer's firing at Tennessee is any thing less than fair and balanced. Thus, in order to prove those people wrong we present the top people instrumental in Phillip Fulmer's firing.

1. David Cutcliffe
David Cutcliffe wasn't actually a problem for Phillip Fulmer, but him leaving Tennessee for Ole Miss in 1998 was a big problem. After Cutcliffe vacated Tennessee's offensive coordinator position for the head coaching position at Ole Miss, Tennessee's offense has never quite been the same. When he came back in 2005 it seemed Tennessee's program was back on track, but Coach Cut left for the head coaching position at Duke in 2008. Fulmer's and Hamilton's inability to find a quality offensive coordinator other than David Cutcliffe was the biggest problem for Phillip Fulmer.

2. Kelly Washington

Kelly Washington had huge potential when he came to college at Tennessee, and was one of the few players at Tennessee to see significant playing time as a freshman. However, many critics saw him as a "me first" kind of player. He dubbed himself "the Future", and left for the NFL after 2 years at UT. He is often sighted as the beginning of a period when Philip Fulmer had many discipline problems. Even Kirk Herbstreit called out Washington as the beginning of when Fulmer started to loose control of his teams. Many former players have since come out to defend Washington, and I doubt anyone would say Washington directly lead to the many arrests that followed his time at Tennessee. Fulmer simply did not exert enough control over his teams after 2002. Phil started to get it right in 2008 with the 5 game suspension of Britton Colquitt for a DUI and the release of LaMarcus Coker after failing drug tests, but it was too late by then.

Trick Daddy considered UT and Miami before deciding to just keep Thuggin'
(completely made up stuff about Trick Daddy)

3. Nick Saban
How could a coach that was has only been back in the SEC for 2 years cause Phillip Fulmer to loose his job? Well, Nick Saban strikes fear into the heart of SEC Athletic Directors like a paternity test strikes fear into the heart of Travis Henry. The fear hit Mike Hamilton along with the rest of the ADs in the SEC.

Athletic directors looked at Saban's faster that expected turn around of the Tide and thought they had to immediately do something to compete...Even if it was the wrong thing. How else can you explain Jay Jacob's irrational move to fire Tommy Tubberville and hire Gene Chizick at Auburn?

Jay Jacobs and Nick Saban Dramatization

4. Mike Hamilton
OK, this one is obvious. Hamilton saw his success with the hire of Bruce Pearl and hopes to create the same success with Lane Kiffin.

5. Phillip Fulmer
Many other writers have documented how Fulmer hurt his chances of retaining his position at UT, but this will focus on one thing. In 2005 Phillip Fulmer did something that he hadn't done before at Tennessee. Uncharacteristically, Fulmer actually hyped up his team in the presason. Fulmer hyped his team in 2005 because the year before he saw Auburn go undefeated and not play for a BCS national championship. The building up of Tennessee worked on the media and got Tennessee ranked highly preseason. However, the hype also worked on the players, and the 2005 Vols underperformed. The huge swing from a highly ranked (overhyped) team to Fulmer's first loosing season firmly put Phil on the hot seat.
6. Layla Kiffin
Ok, she had nothing to do with it, but what Tennessee Football article would be complete without a mention of Layla Kiffin?

With Phillip Fulmer getting the boot at Tennessee, we thought it would be good to run down the reasons why he should still have his job at Tennessee. Thus, we got our crack research staff together and they poured of reams of stats and news articles to come up with the top 5 reasons Phillip Fulmer should still be the head coach at the University of Tennessee. Here we go...

1. Head Coaching Record
We all know that Phillip Fulmer's head coaching record is 152-52 or 74.5% (5th best team record of all schools), but critics of Fulmer's win percentage point to his performance in the last 10 years. Did you know his record in the last 10 years at Tennessee (1999-2008) is 80-34 or 70.2%? That is not exactly falling off a cliff. In fact, Phillip Fulmer led Tennessee to the 16th best record of any Div. I-A school in that last decade.

NCAA Winning Percentages the Last 10 Years.

In the 10 years before Phillip Fulmer, Tennessee had a 70.7% winning percentage, and in the 40 years before Phillip Fulmer, Tennessee had a 67.1% winning percentage. So basically, Phil Fulmer's poor performance recently is still better than the previous 40 years before him.

2. SEC Coaching Record
Again, we all know that Phillip Fulmer had a 97-35 (73.3%) SEC Record for his head coaching career at Tennessee (good for 2nd best team record in the SEC). Critics, however, point to the last ten years. In the last 10 years Tennessee had the 5th best record in the SEC, and that sounds bad until you really look at the numbers.

SEC Win Percentages 1999-2008

Basically, the team was literally 1 game away from being 3rd, 2 games away from being 2nd and 5 games away from being first (out of 75 games). Also, think about this: if Georgia had one more win last season (not against TN) and Tennessee didn't go to the SEC Championship, then Tennessee would have had the 3rd best record in the last 10 years. And those are considered Phil's down years.

(That Staseen website is a statistician's dream.)

3. Phillip Fulmer Bleeds Orange
I guess you heard that Phillip Fulmer was first for this year's blood drive. However, this section is not just about actual blood. Phillip Fulmer loves Tennessee, and is constantly striving to make his Alma mater better. Just last year he donated $1 million to UT.

4. SEC Championships
Phillip Fulmer has won 2 SEC Championships while at Tennessee. Recently Fulmer hasn't won any SEC championships, but he did go to the SEC championship 5 times in the last 11 years (including last year!!!). That is more than any other head coach. I know that wouldn't be good enough for Ricky Bobby, but that is not exactly falling off the map.

5. 6 Million Other Reasons
Phillip Fulmer's buyout was $6 million. This buyout comes when the University of Tennessee is facing major budget problems and being forced to layoff faculty. Admittedly, Tennessee's athletic program gives money back to the university almost every year (we have heard, but can't find source), but that's a few extra million that could be given back this year when the university really needs it.

Both Sports by Brooks and The Wiz of Odds have it that Phillip Fulmer is interested in the Cyclones head coaching job. Apparently the stories all come from a KXNO report by Cotlar and Company.

No one knows the accuracy of the report, but if Fulmer went to Iowa it would certainly be a huge upgrade for the Cyclones after Gene Chizik.

Chizik managed to lead the Cyclones to a 2 - 14 record during his head coaching tenure. The odd part of that story is that Auburn decided to make Chizik their head coach after ousting Tuberville. Everyone thinks that was a bad idea so far. And so, the coaching carousel spins.

Even if Fulmer gets a head coaching job somewhere else, don't think that he would not jump at the opportunity to come back to Tennessee. He has said numerous times that he is a "Tennessee Man", and he has proved it by bleeding orange and donating $1 million to the school he loves (and other things too).

Update 12/20/2008: Go Cyclones.com has it that there is no truth to the rumors of Fulmer going to Iowa State. From the article:

"Hubbs also said Fulmer is being advised to sit next year out and decide if he really wants to coach again."

The good folks at Go Vols Xtra have the story on Monte Kiffin being hired as UT's new defensive coordinator.

Monte Kiffin is a great hire for defensive coordinator, and probably a big part of why Lane Kiffin was hired. However, will Monte really be better than John Chavis?

All TN fans know the Vols were bad last year, but it wasn't because of the defense. John Chavis led the Vols to the 4th best defense in the nation in yards per game (2nd best in the SEC), and 11th best defense in the nation in points per game (3rd best in the SEC).

One thing is for sure, Monte Kiffin has some big shoes to fill.