Fullmer sacked
Posted by Richard on November 3, 2008
For anyone who follows Tennessee football, this announcement is probably not a big surprise:
Phillip Fulmer confirmed in a 5 p.m. press conference today at Neyland Stadium that he will step down as the University of Tennessee’s head football coach. Fulmer is scheduled to receive a buyout of between $5.47 million and $6 million.
After several minutes detailing his history with Tennessee, beginning as a player in 1969, Fulmer said, “I accept the university’s decision that this will be my last as Tennessee’s head football coach.”
He will remain through season's end and may remain at UT in some capacity.
Tennessee fans are probably among the least tolerant of poor performance of any football fans in the country. They're accustomed to and have come to expect above-average performance year in and year out. For most of his tenure at Tennessee, Fullmer delivered. But not so much lately, and especially not this year, which may end up being the Vols' worst season ever.
Today's announcement marks the end of 16-plus seasons for Fulmer that brought 150 victories, two SEC championships, five division titles and a national championship in 1998.
Since then, however, the Vols have failed to win an SEC championship despite winning the SEC East in 2001, 2004 and 2007.
The Vols are 3-6 and 1-5 in the SEC this season, just the ninth time since 1896 that Tennessee has lost six games in a season. The Vols have only lost seven games in a season once, in 1977.
For a time this afternoon (until news that Obama's grandmother had died), "phil fullmer" was the number one search term on Google.
Leave a Comment