Phillip Fulmer's Record at Tennessee

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:

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