by Gordon Ashley

Created on: December 12, 2008

Two Saturdays ago was Philip Fulmer's last game with the University of Tennessee Volunteers. The Vols won out over Kentucky - the only team in the SEC that has never beaten Fulmer's Volunteers in his seventeen seasons as head coach - and carried Fulmer triumphantly from the field.

I've been a long-time fan of the Vols, even before I moved to Knoxville almost seven years ago. I grew up with Tennessee football, every Saturday in the fall. In the past few years, though, my opinion of my fellow Vol fans has been steadily dropping.

For the past three years or so, the general sentiment in Knoxville has turned against Fulmer. Many voices cried for his head. On Saturday, those voices were all silent. Long time fans wiped tears from their eyes. I heard plenty of people saying it was stupid of UT to fire Fulmer, who holds the best win-loss record in UT history since General Robert Neyland. Fulmer is also the only coach besides Neyland to take the Volunteers to the National Championship.

Fulmer has led the Vols since 1992. That was the second season I ever followed football. Other than one season under Johnny Majors, which I can barely recall, Fat Phil has always been the face of the Vols to me. It gave me a strange feeling, watching that final game on Saturday.

The following Monday a press conference was held introducing the new head coach, Lane Kiffin, formerly of the Oakland Raiders. Those same fans who were out for Fulmer's blood throughout the 5 - 7 season, who changed their minds on Saturday, now are voicing their disapproval of the third new head coach in the past three decades.

Kiffin is inexperienced, they say, and this is true. He spent less than two full seasons as the Raiders' head coach, and when he was hired there in 2007 he became the youngest head coach in NFL history. He was only 31 years old. Why didn't UT pick someone with more experience, then? Because everyone else said "no."

UT just threw away one of the winningest coaches in the game, with an impressive 75% win record over seventeen seasons. There are only two men still coaching college football with a better record than Fat Phil. Who could take up the reins and expect better treatment from the University and fans? This is a lesson our long-time rivals at the University of Alabama had to learn for themselves

They say also that Kiffin is a terrible coach, pointing to the Raiders' five and fifteen record under him - but this only shows that they don't know how owner Al Davis likes to run the Oakland Raiders. Ancient Al has always hired young, up-and-coming coaches like John Madden, who was only 32 when Davis hired him back in the late sixties. But this could be because he is scouting for tomorrow's big names - or because Al Davis likes to run the team himself, hiring young coaches he can push around more easily. Kiffin's treatment at Oakland could be called disgraceful, but the way he handled himself after his recent termination is commendable and speaks very well of his qualities as a coach.

He may be young, inexperienced. But let's face it - after the way we've treated Fat Phil, young and inexperienced was the best we could get. As a fan, I welcome Lane Kiffin to Knoxville, and I wish him the best of luck. And next year, when it's once again football time in Tennessee, I hope the Volunteers win every game except for the season's final match-up: Kentucky. It would be a nice reminder for the loudmouth fans if we took that one loss, to the one team that could never beat Phil Fulmer.

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