Phillip Fulmer

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Phillip Fulmer

Title Head Coach
College Tennessee
Sport Football
Team record 147–45
Born September 1, 1950 (1950-09-01) (age 57)
Place of birth Winchester, Tennessee
Career highlights
Overall 147–45
Coaching stats
College Football DataWarehouse
Championships
1997-98 Southeastern Conference
1998 National Championship
Awards
1998 Eddie Robinson Award
1998 The Home Depot Coach of the Year Award
Playing career
1968-71 Tennessee
Position Offensive Guard
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1992-Present

1989-1991

1980-1988

1979

1974-1978
University of Tennessee
- Head Coach
University of Tennessee
- Offensive Coordinator
University of Tennessee
- Assistant Coach
Vanderbilt University
- Assistant Coach
Wichita State University
- Offensive Line Coach
- Linebackers Coach

Phillip Fulmer (born September 1, 1950 in Winchester, Tennessee), is the head football coach at the University of Tennessee, where he has been since 1992. Fulmer is the 20th head football coach in the history of the school.

Contents

[edit] Before coaching

Fulmer grew up in Winchester, Tennessee where he attended Franklin County High School. Fulmer enrolled at the University of Tennessee as a student in 1968. He promptly joined the football team as an offensive guard. Fulmer helped Tennessee to a 30-5 record from 1969-71, where he played for coaches Doug Dickey (who returned to UT as athletic director and hired Fulmer as the Volunteers' coach) and Bill Battle. The Volunteers captured the SEC championship with a 9-2 record in 1969, went 11-1 and won the Sugar Bowl in 1970, and finished as Liberty Bowl champions with a 10-2 record in 1971.

[edit] Early coaching career

Fulmer served as linebacker coach and defensive coordinator for the Vols freshman team in 1973 before moving to Wichita State University the following season. He spent five years at Wichita State, where he coached the offensive line in 1974 and 1977-78 and served as linebacker coach in 1975-76. He followed those years with a one-season stint at Vanderbilt, serving as an aide to Commodores head coach George MacIntyre.

[edit] University of Tennessee

Fulmer served 13 years as a Vols assistant coach beginning in 1980 before becoming the 20th head football coach at Tennessee, after a controversial decision to replace then-coach Johnny Majors, who had been ill. [1]

In Fulmer's early career Tennessee won two Southeastern Conference championships, in 1997 and 1998, and a national championship in 1998. The Vols made three other SEC Championship game appearances in 2001, 2004, and 2007 losing all three. Despite the decline over the past several years, Fulmer's winning percentage is still among the top in the country for coaches who have over ten years' experience.

Fulmer helped return Tennessee to national prominence from 1993 to 1998, when he won the first ever BCS National Championship Game. The Vols appeared in three consecutive Bowl Alliance or BCS games from 1997 to 1999, and posted 10 or more wins from 1995 to 1998. The senior class of the 1998 team complied a record of 45-5, losing only to Florida (3 times), Nebraska and Memphis.

See also: 1998 Tennessee Volunteers football team

Fulmer has a reputation as an ace recruiter, leading many analysts to praise him as one of the game's top head coach recruiters. [2]. Fulmer has only had one losing season at Tennessee: in 2005, Fulmer's pre-season third-ranked Volunteers went 5-6, losing to in-state SEC rival Vanderbilt for the first time in his 14-year tenure. The losing season also kept Tennessee out of a bowl game for the first time since 1988, a streak of 16 years which was the third-longest in the NCAA.

[edit] Head coaching record

Year Team Overall Conference Standing Bowl Coaches# AP°
Tennessee Volunteers (SEC) (1992 — present)
1992 Tennessee 4–0* 2-0 W Hall of Fame 12 12
1993 Tennessee 10–2 7-1 T-1st (East) $ L Florida Citrus 11 12
1994 Tennessee 8–4 5-3 2nd (East) W Gator 18 22
1995 Tennessee 11–1 7-1 2nd (East) W Florida Citrus 2 3
1996 Tennessee 10–2 7-1 2nd (East) W Florida Citrus 9 9
1997 Tennessee 11–2 7-1 1st (East) L Orange 8 7
1998 Tennessee 13–0 8-0 1st (East) W Fiesta 1 1
1999 Tennessee 9–3 6-2 2nd (East) L Fiesta 9 9
2000 Tennessee 8–4 5-3 T-2nd (East) L Cotton 25
2001 Tennessee 11–2 7-1 1st (East) W Florida Citrus 4 4
2002 Tennessee 8–5 5–3 3rd L Peach
2003 Tennessee 10–3 6–2 T-1st (East) $ L Peach 16 15
2004 Tennessee 10–3 7–1 1st W Cotton 15 13
2005 Tennessee 5–6 3–5 T-4th (East)
2006 Tennessee 9–4 5–3 2nd (East) L Outback 23 25
2007 Tennessee 10–4 6–2 T-1st (East) W Outback 12 12
Tennessee: 147–45 87-27 *-other half of the season was coached by Johnny Majors.

$-Finished tied for first in East Division, but missed spot in SEC championship game due to tiebreaker.

Total: 147–45
      National Championship         Conference Title         Conference Division Title
#Rankings from final Coaches Poll of the season.
°Rankings from final AP Poll of the season.

[edit] Family

Fulmer and his wife Vicky have three daughters Courtney, Brittany, and Allison. Son Phillip Jr. is from a previous relationship.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Marvin West, Tales of Tennessee Vols: Volunteer Legends, Landmarks, Laughs and Lies, 2002, pp. 88-92.
  2. ^ Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Johnny Majors
University of Tennessee Head Football Coach
1993
Succeeded by
Current