Tennessee's Phil Fulmer Earns a Well-Deserved Contract Extension

It was recently announced that Phillip Fulmer will receive a raise and a one-year contract extension, and I couldn't agree more with University of Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton.

But 2012?

Why not make it 2015, or longer?

After being on the chopping block several times this season, Fulmer found a way to prove his critics wrong.

Yes, his team came up short in the SEC Championship against LSU, but if you consider Tennessee's entire body of work in 2007, you can't have anything but respect for the head coach.

Consider how easy it would have been to give up following each of those early letdowns:

A 14-point loss at Cal. Well I guess we are not that good this year.

A 39-point loss at Florida. There goes our chance at winning the SEC.

And what happened at Alabama?

After the third Saturday in October, Tennessee was left for dead.

The 41-17 loss in Tuscaloosa left Fulmer and Vols searching for answers. The team was sitting at 4-3 and on the verge of repeating the 2005 nightmare.

Then, they did the unthinkable by winning out and capturing the SEC East crown.

Sure Tennessee got some luck in games against South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Kentucky, but a coach's job is to put his players in a position to win games, and Fulmer did that.

He did it against LSU, too.

There is no person more qualified to be the head football coach at Tennessee. The bar is extremely high in Knoxville, but it's because of coaches like Fulmer, (Robert) Neyland and (Johnny) Majors.

This season has been a roller coaster for the Vols, but the Tennessee administration is making the right choice by rewarding Fulmer.