Why did they fire Fulmer in the first place?
Here's a pretty good summary of their coaching history going back to Majors that someone put on Texags.com.
http://www.texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?topic_id=1561944&forum_id=5
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Vol fans of a certain age always looked at Johnny Majors, two-time SEC MVP and runner up for the 1956 Heisman Trophy, as a god and the key to making Tennessee a power in the SEC. Majors did very well at Pitt while Bill Battle went .723 at Tennessee between 1970 and 1976.
Unfortunately, Battle didn't beat Alabama enough. The fact that he was also a Bama letterman didn't help, and the big money Vols of the era threw Battle overboard and brought Majors in after he won the MNC at Pitt.
Majors took a bit to get up to speed but was winning within a couple of years. Three SEC championships in the 1980s and a near-miss at the MNC. Phil Fulmer was Majors' OL coach and then OC, and he was very well connected those upcoming big $$ guys who were too young to remember Majors' glory days. Incidentally, Fulmer and Phil Garner were roommates during their time at UT.
Comes 1992. Majors complains publically about his contract during spring banquets around the state, causing much consternation with high $$ boosters. He has a near heart attack and has bypass surgery just as the season begins, leaving Fulmer to lead the team in his absence.
(It's still hard for longtime Knoxvillians like my family to figure out how Johnny could have had blocked arteries since his blood was 10% Jack Daniels most of the time. He was well known for showing up at the Sigma Chi house after games. The joys of life before cell phone cameras.}
Fulmer goes 5-0. Johnny comes back and goes 0-3, a stretch during which the student section chanted "BLOCK THAT ARTERY!" A power struggle ensues with Fulmer engaging in all sorts of intrigue with the AD, Doug Dickey - who also coached Fulmer. Politically, Majors never had a chance - and many long-time Vols were disgusted with the open backstabbing in which Phil indulged.
In a scenario that will strike most Aggies as very familiar, Fulmer won early with Majors' recruits, eventually winning two SEC championships and the 1998 MNC. But he never beat Florida with any consistency. The seniors on the 1998 MNC team lost only five games, three of which were to Florida and one to Memphis (!). This is the time when Spurrier - a native Tennessean - makes the pronouncement that "You can�t spell 'Citrus Bowl' without UT." He�d rack up wins in front of 105,000 against lesser teams, then get pounded by Florida or Alabama, even occasionally blowing up against Memphis, Vanderbilt, Mississsippi State or even Wyoming. He�s got a reputation for being a bit slimy on the recruiting trail. Every year, a Fulmer recruit was arrested, and not for piddling stuff.
Comes 2003, Coach Dickey retires and costs Fulmer his biggest political backer. His replacement changes ticket policy and requires donations for good seats for the first time, resulting in a lot of outrage. The dissatisfaction grows for so many just as Fulmer starts to slip on the field. He has a whopping 4 career wins against Meyer, Richt and Saban, and it's apparent that Meyer�s game is far, far past anything Fulmer could ever develop. So, in 2008, he's forced to resign mid-season � and walks away with $15 million, thanks to the new contract he had signed just the year before. Old Vols hate him and new Vols hate him while middle-age Vols are ambivalent at best.
I'm no Fulmer fan by any stretch, but I did think they should have given him another year. Cutcliffe's potential return makes the current Vols fan feel an order of magnitude more depressed than Aggies were at the prospect of Bennett coming in as DC.
Here's an indication of how bad support is now: they had backing to offer $21 million over 7 years to Muschamp and close to that for Calhoun. That money evaporated when Cutcliffe came into play. Thanks to Fulmer's buyout the perennially sold-out Vols can�t swing a $3 million buyout of the assistant coaches that Kiffin insisted upon.
I wouldn't want to be Mike Hamilton
