The Battle Captain

Mike Slive and Mal Moore have  completed their final task: They have secured the exit of Phillip Fulmer from the Tennessee.  Karma is mother when the Bear is calling the shots…

Fulmer was a considered a benevolent coach/mentor about whom rousing songs were composed and whose portrait still occupies a prominent place in some homes and public buildings.  Mountain Children will honor him en masse every year on his birthday. It is without question that SEC brotherhood and unity will dissolve quickly following Fulmer’s departure, as his “sons” vie for the position of the *Dean of SEC Coaches*. There will be an escalation of gruesome and violent acts by Bammers (Pinson and Evergreen) will lead to a fracturing along divisional lines. Solidifying an unrepentant Alabama is the central hub for graft.

With The Battle Captain’s imminent departure, Who is left to keep an eye on the cheating Bammeroids? Who?

I’m not saying that at some point UT Football won’t be more successful on the field, but I am saying that it will never be the same. For the last 30 years, a Tennessee man has lead a Tennessee Football team through the T. Many UT Fans loved Coach Fulmer (and even Majors) and he loved them back. IMO, the next coach will see this as a job where as Fulmer and Majors saw it as a calling – a labor of love.

The best thing he did was smoke Bama for buying human beings. I just think most ‘Bama fans have their feelings about this incident severely misplaced.

They get angry because Phil turned them in when in reality they should have been angry that a rogue booster put them in a position that enabled him to rat them out in the first place.

The NCAA and the FBI were coming down on this situation like a ton of bricks long before Fulmer got involved, he just decided to make the best of a bad situation.

Fulmer had a winning percentage that was really eye-popping. Over the past five years, the record has been mediocre at best in terms of conference play. Two losing seasons in five years is not going to cut it, especially when you set the bar so high yourself. People took it on faith that 2005 was an anomaly and not a trend and that the Vols should have been showing improvement. They are not.

I have heard that some of the MTV generation are celebrating on campus. And while people were happy the atmosphere on campus certainly wasn’t celebratory. I’m almost sad to hear that people are celebrating. This guy has been part of, and excelling in, competitive sports for over 40 years. It’s never easy to lose, especially for a competitor like that.

This probably needed to be done, but it doesn’t change that a guy who’s given basically his entire life to a program just lost his job. I’m hoping that people never forget what may turn out to be the “heyday” of UT football (95-98). I don’t feel sorry for him from a financial perspective, but he’s still human, and not getting it done has to hurt.