Former U.S. Sen. Howard Baker (R-Tenn.) of Huntsville autographs a photograph for former Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer. The framed photo, taken by Sen. Baker, was gifted to Fulmer at his appearance at the Boys & Girls Club of Scott County tonight.
It’s an unfamiliar feeling for Phillip Fulmer.
For the first time in his adult life, the 7 o’clock hour on an October evening doesn’t find him concluding football practice, reviewing film or preparing for an upcoming game.
Instead, the former Tennessee coach is eating green beans and turkey in a darkened gymnasium that has been transformed into a banquet hall, as he prepares to speak to a few hundred East Tennesseans about the important role of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
“I haven’t had a fall off since the 6th grade,” Fulmer says.
That was the fall before he began his playing career in middle school; a career that would ultimately lead the Winchester, Tenn. native to his home state’s flagship university on scholarship as an offensive lineman. Fulmer dedicated a lifetime to Tennessee, including 17 years as head coach. During that time, he amassed a record of 152-52 and won a national championship. But after two losing seasons in four years and falling short of the BCS for a decade, Fulmer was forced out.
So why was Fulmer in such a hurry to finish his speaking engagement at the Boys & Girls Club of Scott County and hit the beaten path back to Knoxville? You might say he’s taking advantage of being unemployed during the fall season.
“I wish I could say I have a good reason (for his hurried exit),” Fulmer said. “The truth is, I’m going to go out in the morning bright and early and go goose hunting.”
That’s the new life for one of college football’s all-time winningest coaches. Instead of trying to dissect the Xs and Os of defensive schemes employed by Alabama and Florida, he’s attempting to decipher the spawning habits of rainbow trout and the migration patterns of waterfowl.
“I fished the Clinch (River, in Campbell and Anderson counties) just the other day,” he said.
But Fulmer isn’t ready to retire to his oft-mentioned property along a Montana trout stream. Not just yet. His perusal of East Tennessee’s hunting and fishing sports is merely a reprieve; a sabbatical of sorts. The two-time SEC champion has made it clear: He wants to coach again.
Fulmer’s name has been mentioned in connection with anticipated football vacancies at Memphis and Louisville. But wherever he winds up, he already has his eye on his right-hand man.
“When I get my next job, I’m going to hire Dr. Jerry Punch as my offensive coordinator,” he joked. Dr. Punch is a Scott Countian by default. Well, sorta. He married the daughter of Mary Fields, Scott County’s first lady of non-profits. In addition to his duties as an ESPN commentator, Punch coaches his son’s little league team in Knoxville. He was among the 400 or so in attendance at tonight’s event.
But with his future coaching gig as of yet uncertain, and with the goose hunt still a few hours away, Fulmer settled in for some war stories from his time spent at the University of Tennessee. He purposely avoided any mention of his final season in Knoxville, though the subject was one that was bound to be broached at some point. “Coach Fulmer,” someone called as Fulmer made his way into the building, “We wish you were still coaching instead of Lane Kiffin.” Fulmer laughed. “I wish I was, too.”
This wasn’t a night for wistful wouldas or shouldas, however. Fulmer reflects back on some of the lighter moments of his long tenure at Tennessee — when he made like a fiery Baptist preacher with famed locker room pep talks and the Vols were a perennial challenger for the SEC trophy.
His favorite team, Fulmer said, was his second at Tennessee: The 1994 team that started the season 1-3.
“The 1998 team was obviously special,” he said. “And 2001, when we would’ve gone back to the national championship game if we had beaten LSU in the conference championship.
“But that 1994 team laid the foundation for what we were able to accomplish over the next 4-to-5 years, which turned out to be the winningest era in Tennessee football history,” he said.
In early October 1994, it looked somewhat doubtful that Fulmer would even be around for 4-to-5 years. Quarterback Jerry Colquitt went down with a season-ending injury at UCLA, a game the Vols lost 26-24. There was a 30-0 disaster when Florida visited Neyland Stadium. UT did manage to upset Georgia, but then 2nd-string quarterback Todd Helton went down with an injury.
“You can imagine what the Knoxville talk shows were like,” Fulmer said. “There were a lot of people doubting us. A lot of people weren’t happy.
“I went to Coach Dickey (Doug Dickey, Tennessee’s athletics director at the time), and I said, ‘Coach, I don’t know if we can win any more games this year. You’re still gonna love me, aren’t you?’
“He said, ‘Phillip, if you don’t, we’re gonna love you, but we’re sure gonna miss you.’”
The most troubling loss of his career, Fulmer said, was the 1993 Alabama game. With an opportunity to end Tennessee’s long losing streak against the Tide, the Vols found themselves leading by 16 points in the fourth quarter. On the Crimson Tide’s home field. But Bama’s David Palmer single-handedly led the Tide back. The game ended in a tie. For Tennessee, it might as well have been a loss.
“I was usually very good with the media, with our coaches and with our players before watching the film,” Fulmer said. “[But] I let my emotions get the best of me that day. And I had forgotten that I had promised Vickie to stay in Birmingham that night with some friends of hers.
“The next morning, she wanted to go out and eat breakfast with her friends, and I said ‘no. I’m not going out in this town to eat breakfast. We’ll stop on the road and get a sausage biscuit.’
“I made the mistake of stopping and getting a Birmingham paper and reading about the game,” he said. “That made me mad all over again. I guess I snapped at Vickie a time or two. She finally stopped the car on the side of the interstate and said, ‘Phillip, everybody in the state of Tennessee hates you today. Except me. And you’re about to lose me.’”
Fulmer even gets a chuckle out of the beginning of the end — Tennessee’s loss to LSU in the 2007 SEC Championship Game.
“After the game, as we were leaving the stadium, I bump into this lady dressed in orange from head to toe. I said, ‘Pardon me; no offense.’ And she said, ‘Yeah. Not much defense, either.’”
It isn’t that Fulmer has taken his firing at Tennessee in stride; there has been plenty of bitterness. He still hasn’t sat down with Kiffin, for instance. But he adheres to the old lemons-to-lemonade philosophy.
“It’s not what happens,” he said. “It’s what you do with what happens. It’s what you do with your God-given opportunities. Pushing things under a rug isn’t going to work too well in the long run.”
Fulmer told the crowd of Boys & Girls Club donors that it’s important for men and women in America to step up and be role models for the nation’s younger generation.
“Our young people need men to guide them,” he said. “They need examples of how to make manly decisions; of how to respectfully treat a young lady. Who’s going to do it if not us?
“This is what I refer to as the MTV generation,” he added. “Whatever feels good now, do it. Morals and leadership are eroding in our country. It’s important we stand up to that.”