My Phillip Fulmer memories. | tennesseejed's Blog

Fulmer

I grew up in Seymour, Tennessee. It's a small community about ten miles south of Knoxville on Chapman Highway, right where Knox, Sevier and Blount Counties all meet. Now, I live in Los Angeles County. I still bleed orange and I still love my Tennessee Volunteers. I went to the opening game against UCLA at the Rose Bowl on September 1^st. I respect Phillip Fulmer, and I also think he is one of the best college football coaches of all time.

Watching the Kentucky game on Saturday was surreal. It was hard to believe that I was watching the last game for coach Fulmer at Tennessee. I actually had tears on my eyes and felt a little empty inside. This man has been the coach of my favorite football team since I was a sophomore in high school. Seeing him get carried off the field on his players shoulders was awesome.

My favorite memory of the Phillip Fulmer era was in 1998. I worked for the Athletics Department that year. So, I got free tickets to all the home games. The first home game was against the Gators. Tennessee hadn't won in the series since 1992, when Heath Shular was quarterback. Everyone expected UT to have a rebuilding year, after losing the best player in school history in quarterback Peyton Manning. But in 1998, Al Wilson took charge. He caused three fumbles in that game. Shawn Bryson has a 50 plus yard touchdown run, and Peerless Price caught a huge touchdown. Florida missed a kick in overtime and all hell broke lose in Neyland Stadium. About 25,000 fans stormed the field and the goalposts came down in record time, even with the CBS cameras still attached to them. I felt like I was at a rock concert. I felt in my heart that day, that the Vols would use that win to do something special. They did just that. I sat in the rain when Tennessee was losing 24-10 to Arkansas. Half the fans left, and the hand of God happened and we won 28-24.

Phillip Fulmer wasn't just the coach at Tennessee, he was the face of Tennessee for 17 years. He took that program to new heights not felt since General Neyland was the coach. Not even Majors could match him. Fulmer won 100 more games than he lost. He won two conference titles. Johnny Majors won only two also (three if you count 89, but I don't since they where tied with Alabama in the conference and Tennessee lost to them 47-30). Johnny Majors had a losing record against Alabama. Fulmer has a losing record against Florida. But we sure did give them fits.

I will miss Fulmer. I think Lane Kiffin is the best choice to be the new head coach. People want to say Tennessee is taking a risk with someone who has no experience as a head coach in college. Well... neither did Fulmer, and he did pretty good I must say.

Josh Coffee

Long Beach, California