Tennessee's Football Program is One Hot Skillet to Jump Into—Here's Why

Your psychologist may tell you it's good to vent your feelings, to get those things off your chest that bother you. But booing your team's players and coaches may not be good for your team today or, more importantly, tomorrow.

Phillip Fulmer may have had a terrible season this year, but, as of his firing, he had brought a national championship home, gave over a million dollars of his own money back to the school in donations, and had the third-highest winning percentage of all active coaches. He did not deserve boos from his own fan base.

The man lost his job, was publicly forced out against his own wishes, and not given a chance to go out with the dignity he deserved. The stake through his heart was his introduction, where fans loudly booed and made obscene gestures.

Can such treatment go unnoticed by people that Tennessee is now courting to become the next coach? If this is how they treat someone who is has the third-best winning percentage of any active coach and dedicated not just a few years, but his entire adult life to the program, how can he expect to be treated at the first sign of trouble?

Then there is recent booing and ridicule of players. Believe me, this doesn't go unnoticed. Players may make mistakes, but they do it for no pay and are trying their best. No college player deserves to be booed by the fan base.

Obviously, the Vols need a quarterback. Quarterback recruit Josh Nunes was attending the Vols game against Florida. At the time, he was committed to Tennessee. The Vols and the quarterback did not have a good game. With boos raining down on the players, time and time again, Nunes decided this wasn't the place for him. He pulled his commitment and signed with Stanford instead.

Other athletes have similarly looked elsewhere. Fulmer had a long history of being a great recruiter. His replacement is coming in with two strikes against him.

Lastly, there are the former players, many of whom are also big donors to the university and its sports programs. Many, in fact the great majority of the current players, who packed the press conference where Fulmer was forced out did not take the firing well. They as a unit were rude and vocal at that conference.

Senior offensive tackle Ramon Foster summed it up for the current players, "Tennessee is a family, one, and we take care of each other. That right there (Fulmer being forced out) wasn't a very stand-up thing to do. I mean, you're talking about a guy who's worked his butt off from a student, to a GA, to an assistant coach, to a coordinator, to a head coach. This was not the way for him to go out. He should have been able to go out on his own terms, and that's how the rest of my teammates feel about it."

Will Overstreet, a defensive end on the 1998 national championship team, said the decision by Hamilton to push Fulmer out during the season was "shameful." "They lost a lot of ex-players today, a lot of players who played on that national championship team," Overstreet said. "A lot of the former players I talked to thought maybe this was his decision to step down now, but he was fired. He deserved a lot better than this. They did him wrong."

So what should have happened? Hamilton should have quietly met with Fulmer and told him that the decision had been made to replace him as head coach at the end of the season. He should have offered Fulmer the opportunity to call his own press conference and resign with dignity while the university publicly still showed support him for him. 

Hamilton could have publicly said afterward something like, "We have always backed Coach Fulmer 100 percent in his decisions with guiding the football program at the University of Tennessee. He has led us to conference and national championships and is one of the best coaches in America today. Today we can say that we are sad with his latest decision, but, like always, we respect his decision and wish him well and hope that he will remain in some capacity here and continue to help shape our course in the future and the lives of young men and women who choose to come here."

He could have pretended to continue his gushing praise of the man and his sadness in him choosing to retire, but he didn't. Shame on you Mr. Hamilton, I hope your firing goes as well and as face-saving.

Your actions and those of your fans with all that booing is going to hurt Tennessee for years to come. I hope you both can live with your actions.