Big Phil Out At Tennessee

Phil Fulmer is being forced out as the Tennessee Volunteers head football coach 10 years after winning a national championship. Fulmer has a 150-51 record in his 17 years as the Vols head coach and led Tennessee to the SEC Championship Game last season.

Tennessee fans have been frustrated with Fulmer for several years now but the coach has seemed to do just enough to get by and survive to the next season. That won’t be the case this year at the Volunteers currently stand at 3-6 (1-5 in SEC games) and are just one more loss away from guaranteeing a losing season and missing a bowl game for the second time in four years. That hasn’t happened in Knoxville since Tennessee missed bowl games in 1975-1978 seasons.

Fulmer seems like a likable guy and his record shows that he knows a thing or two about coaching college football. Things have just become stale for some reason at Tennessee. Maybe it is due to the rise to power of other SEC schools or perhaps it was some recruiting risks that Fulmer took in recent years on kids who had the type of character you wouldn’t otherwise find in Knoxville. Whatever the reason, it was evident that this was the time for a change.