It’s almost difficult to believe, but Phillip Fulmer has been the head coach at Tennessee for all or part of 15 seasons now. He took over on an interim basis in 1992 after Johnny Majors was fired midseason, and he’s been the head man ever since.
Fulmer is by far the dean of SEC coaches, with the second-longest tenure belonging to Tommy Tuberville, who began at Auburn in 1999.
His longevity is remarkable, considering how high the coaching turnover in the league is. The fact that Tennessee won the first-ever BCS championship in 1998 is a big reason why he is still employed.
Fulmer recently got a contract extension that automatically extends by a year for every eight-win season he posts, effectively amounting to a lifetime contract.
There has been considerable grumbling in Knoxville of late though. Part of it has to do with “the season of which we do not speak,” according to Vols fans—the 5-6 campaign in 2005. A lot of it has to do with the fact that Tennessee has not won the SEC since the championship in ’98, and it has only won the conference twice in Fulmer’s 15 years.
In those nine seasons since the title, he has won 10-plus games four times and won the SEC East three times. As good as that is for most programs, that’s below the standard that Fulmer set in his first six seasons, when he won 10-plus games five times and won the conference twice.
The fall from elite to very good coincided with David Cutcliffe’s departure to be the head coach at Ole Miss. Randy Sanders replaced him, and after three seasons of holding steady, the offense tailed off from where it had been.
While it’s true that Tennessee did not have another Peyton Manning come through, the Vols still scored 33 a game with Tee Martin in ’98. Fulmer, nothing if not loyal, did not replace Sanders until after the disastrous ’05 season.
From 1993-98, Tennessee failed to hit 400 points in a season only once. From 1999-2005, Tennessee hit 400 points exactly once, scoring 400 on the nose in 2001. After Cutcliffe returned, it took just one warm-up season before UT reached that plateau again, scoring 455 in 2007.
Throughout the past decade, John Chavis' defenses have been good, allowing more than 300 points in a season just once (ironically, in the SEC East-winning 2007 year). That means the Big Orange faithful have their eyes squarely on first-year offensive coordinator Dave Clawson's new offense. The hope is that he can add some new wrinkles that haven't yet been seen coming from the home sideline in Knoxville.
On to Fulmer's record, first by site:
17 comments Last one added 11 months ago — Leave a Comment
Gray Ghost 11 months ago
Great info and good research. If Fulmer has a bad year he just fires one of his co-ordinators so as to insinuate that it wasn't his fault and to deflect blame to his staff. He has been known to throw them under the bus when the alumni are on the war path. It also creats a "next year will be different" scenario that I personally think is growing old. If he doesn't have a good year.... who know's?
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David Wunderlich 11 months ago
As long as he wins eight games a season, he's going nowhere. His contract automatically extends by a year whenever he hits that milestone.
Not sure what you mean about the coordinators. Chavis has been there since 1995, and Randy Sanders' offenses clearly declined from where Cutcliffe's offenses had been. People wanted Sanders gone long before he actually left.
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Gray Ghost 11 months ago
After the pathetic 2005 season which left Fulmer apologizing to Vol fans he fired two assistants, receivers coach Pat Washington and offensive line coach Jimmy Ray Stephens. Randy Sanders resigned on Oct. 31 and rightfully so. His disloyalty to his staff has always been something that rankled me. In an email to season ticket holders he promised "No stone will be left unturned and no question left unanswered as to what went wrong." He should have looked in the mirror.
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Will Shelton 11 months ago
"Disloyalty to his staff" is simply inaccurate...most of the offensive staff is new this year because Cutcliffe left for Duke and took most of them with him, while Trooper Taylor took a co-offensive coordinator position at Oklahoma State. Greg Adkins is the holdeover and he survived 2005, he's been here since 2003. On defense, Chavis has been on staff since 1989, Dan Brooks since 1994, Steve Caldwell since 1995, Larry Slade since 1999. You simply don't find loyalty and longevity like that anywhere. Fulmer's outlasted almost 50 other coaches in the SEC who've come and gone since he took over.
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Gray Ghost 11 months ago
Will, thanks for the response. I do think that Fulmers days at Tenn are numbered. Maybe I'm wrong. One thin for certain - Tenn has certainly been loyal to him.
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Tim Pollock 11 months ago
Great stuff, David, and thanks for writing on Fulmer.
I'm not sure what to think of Phil. I hate Tennessee, but sometimes I think Fulmer takes way too much heat.
I personally think way too much has been made of the new contract. It won't affect his coaching, recruiting, or anything else.
The Clawson hiring was bold. Before looking at the guy's track record, I expected to see some awesome win-loss records or some qb's he groomed into quality players. But the proof of Clawson's success really isn't there--how about a part 2 about Clawson? (Kidding but I wouldn't mind reading it actually.)
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Michael Shibley 11 months ago
I agree about the contract. Much of it was to reward him for his longevity and let him know his job is secure. It is not like he is going to just shoot to get eight wins every season.
I like the Clawson hire too, just the chance to get some fresh blood into the offense.
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Michael Shibley 11 months ago
Good article Tim, just want to point out that there were no I-AA teams to leave out because Tennessee has the brass no to schedule those teams.
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David Wunderlich 11 months ago
That is true that Tennessee had no I-AA teams. I do a lot of copying and pasting around the tables from previous coaching articles since the verbiage to explain them is the same. The remark about leaving out I-AA competition was extraneous.
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Will Gigavol 11 months ago
Fulmer's contract was to send a message to detractors: UT is way behind Fulmer.
That said, if he goes 6-5 without some other unusual positivies (i.e. running back saves a bunch of handicapped people from a burning church), he's gone. Fulmer's buddy Thuder Thorton will pay his insane buyout. That's the deal.
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David Wunderlich 11 months ago
That's kind of the point of the whole "win eight games and it extends by a year thing." Eight games is the minimum for keeping his job. Winning six games would put him in jeopardy, but that won't happen this year. Plus, any time he goes to the SEC championship game, I estimate it would buy him at least two more seasons of security.
In essence, the job is his as long as he wants it.
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Mark Rupert 11 months ago
It sorta looked like Phil threw Randy sanders under the bus. I assume he was fired because of lack of offensive production, it makes you wonder when sanders went to Kentucky and tutored the best quarterback in the conference. I think Sanders was the fall guy. To me the real problem was a lack of discipline, wasn't the team kinda split for a while.
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David Wunderlich 11 months ago
Keeping in mind that Cutcliffe left after the '98 season, I want to highlight this excerpt:
"From 1993-98, Tennessee failed to hit 400 points in a season only once. From 1999-2005, Tennessee hit 400 points exactly once, scoring 400 on the nose in 2001. After Cutcliffe returned, it took just one warm-up season before UT reached that plateau again, scoring 455 in 2007."
Sanders' offenses, for whatever reason, definitely underperformed in comparison to Cutcliffe's offenses. The standard had been set, and Sanders didn't meet it. Despite that, if Tennessee goes 7-5 or 8-4 instead of 5-6 in 2005, then Sanders probably still has the job. Someone had to fall for that 5-6 season, and it shouldn't be a surprise that the guy who was in charge of the atrophied offense was one of the ones to go.
And while Sanders did tutor Andre' Woodson, Woodson was running Joker Phillips' offense. Also remember that Casey Clausen was up and down during his time at Tennessee, never completely fulfilling the promise he showed early in his career, and Erik Ainge didn't maximize his talents until his second season under Cutcliffe.
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Rob Sansing 11 months ago
UT is one of the best programs in the sec, and fulmer is one of the best coaches. every school's fanbase (especialy UT & bama) just expects too damn much. in the this conference no school is going to win the championship every year!! there are just 2 many good teams. I mean in 10 years of the BCS 3 different teams from the SEC have won the national championship...and fulmer & tenn were one of them.
the vols have to compete every year with georgia & florida just to win their division to get to the SEC championship game!! that may be the most difficult road to a championship any where in the country!!!
of course, in defending fulmer & the vols I have to say I don't like them!!!
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Scott Taylor 11 months ago
Good comment Rob, it is crazy with the expectations for all the coaches in the SEC when they have to play each other, like what Terry Bowden mentioned in an earlier story. with florida and georgia in the east, winning that division alone once every three years, which UT has done (98, 01, 04, 07) is pretty good. As a UT fan, I wonder where all the expectations come from. UT wasn't nearly as good with Majors as they are now. Maybe Ill do a story comparing how much better their record is with 15 years of Fullmer to 15 years prior to Fullmer.
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Rob Sansing 11 months ago
as an outsider looking in it seems to me that the vol fans in general do NOT like fulmer...and I can't understand it.
I guess if the unknowledgable fan expects to win every game, then the quickest fix is to fire the coach!!
many years ago I followed auburn to gainesville for a game. neither team was exactly setting the world on fire. some disgruntled fans had sneaked into Florida Field (this was before it was called "the swamp") and burned "dump doug" in huge letters at mid-field and nobody could figure out which team the message was for: florida's DOUG dickey or auburn's DOUG barfield!!!!
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H S Fry 11 months ago
Fulmer is hated around the SEC because he has consistently beaten everyone (except Florida). Any Tennessee fan with an once of sense realizes how fortunate we are to have had a head coach that has produced a consistent, winning program for 16 years. You would be hard pressed to name a school with a better record since '93.
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