Can Anyone Tell Me Why Phil Fulmer is Still at Tennessee?

I have always been a Gators fan and an SEC fan when it comes to college football. Our conference is easily the best in all of the nation. The teams have amazing talent and we have the best coaches. Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Steve Spurrier, and Les Miles are all elite coaches.

A while ago Tennessee's Phil Fulmer was considered an elite coach. Though he does have a national championship, he doesn't deserve the job at Tennessee due to his failure to recruit the best talent and adapt to a more powerful SEC.

Watching Tennessee play UCLA was almost unreal. Though they got a lead in the first half, the entire game went the wrong way for the Volunteers. They looked completely outplayed by UCLA.

A team with supposedly inferior talent, a team that was in rebuilding mode, a team with a new coach and a new offensive system beat one of the "powerhouse" teams of the SEC. However, that game has amplified how Tennessee has fallen from grace since 1999.

At the turn of the century Phil Fulmer was sitting on top of the SEC. He had led the Volunteers to three BCS bowls in the past three seasons. He had won a national championship and two SEC titles.

He had players such as Peyton Manning coming to Tennessee and won Coach of the Year in 1998. Things couldn't look better for the Tennessee Volunteers.

Yet in this millennium the Volunteers have continually underperformed in comparison to the early years of Fulmer's reign.

Though they have had winning seasons every years, with exception to 2005, they have yet to win an SEC title in this millennium. They haven't finished in the top 10 since 2002. Though he is known for his recruiting, Fulmer's teams have been able to attract less talent every year. Since 2002 this is how their recruiting had gone.

• 2002—No. 5 recruiting class in the nation with 25 commits, five five-star players, and fourteen four-star players
  
• 2003—No. 18 recruiting class in the nation with 22 commits, only one five-star recruits and seven four-star recruits
• 2004—No. 11 recruiting class in the nation with 24 commits, only two five-stars and eight four-stars
• 2005—No. 4 recruiting class in the nation with 27 commits but only one five-star recruit and sixteen four-stars and only three in top 100
  
• 2006—No. 24 recruiting class in the nation with 21 commits with only one five-star recruit and four four-star recruits
• 2007—No. 4 recruiting class in the nation with 32 commits but only four five stars, twelve four-stars, and only six in the top 100
• 2008—No. 35 recruiting class in the nation with only 18 commits, zero five-stars, and two four-stars

Let's compare this to Florida, the best team in the SEC East,

• 2002—No. 20 recruiting class in the nation with 21 commits, five three-stars, and seven four-stars
• 2003—No. 4 recruiting class in the nation with 28 commits, five five-star recruits and fourteen four-star recruits and 10 in the top 100
  
• 2004—No. 8 recruiting class in the nation with 24 commits, only one five-star player and nine four-stars and five in the top 100
  
• 2005 (Urban Meyer becomes coach)—No. 11 recruiting class in the nation with 18 commits two five-star recruits and ten four-stars and only two in top 100
  
• 2006—No. 2 recruiting class in the nation with 27 commits, six five-star recruits and twelve four-star recruits and seven in the top 100
  
• 2007—No. 1 recruiting class in the nation with 27 commits, 10 five-stars, thirteen four-stars, and 12 in the top 100
• 2008—No. 12 recruiting class in the nation with 22 commits, four five-stars, four four-stars and four in the top 100.

Urban Meyer has out recruited and out-coach Fulmer in not only recruiting the best talent but developing the talent.

That 2005 class that Fulmer recruited, though highly touted, has failed to win an SEC title and the 2007 class was embarrassed by Cal and by UCLA (who haven't had a recruiting class ranked better than 20th until this season. During this time LSU has won two national titles and Florida has won in 2006.

The coaching not what it was in the 1990s.Nick Saban has proved a recruiting titan and Alabama has shown definite progress after their win against Clemson. The old ball coach has made progress at South Carolina.

In light of these changes in the SEC and the failure of Phil Fulmer to win ONE SEC TITLE in this millennium, the University of Tennessee gave him an extension. WHAT?

I know that winning a national title gives a coach a guarantee of employment. However, when a program as great as Tennessee once was has regressed so much, this leniency can only go so far.

Tennessee needs to find a new, big time coach from a smaller conference if they want to resurrect their image in the SEC.