The Tennessean: Vols: Fulmer's job at UT isn't on the line ... yet

By DAVID CLIMER

I keep hearing that this is a critical season for Phillip Fulmer. So what else is new? This just in: Every season is critical for the coach at a top-tier college football program. Failure is not an option when you're being paid $2 million a year.  But the suggestion by some reactionaries that Fulmer's job is on the line if Tennessee has another losing season is ludicrous. His overall body of work merits considerable cachet. And the national championship of '98 remains a noteworthy entry on his resume.  Say what you want about UT administrators and power brokers, but they do not have itchy trigger fingers. They are not prone to fire first and ask questions later.

This is not to suggest that there won't be plenty of grousing by Vols fans if there isn't a quick turnaround. The 5-6 carnage of last season left a bitter aftertaste, especially to those who had noted some prior slippage. And, yes, the program has lost altitude. Tennessee has not been to a BCS bowl since '99. The best the Vols have done in the last six years was the '01 Citrus Bowl. UT has finished in the Top 10 only once in that period. Too, there is concern that Fulmer has fallen behind the learning curve of coaching in the SEC East. He is only 1-4 against Georgia since Mark Richt arrived. Urban Meyer's first Florida team beat him last year. Ditto for Steve Spurrier and South Carolina. (An aside: While some have noted the ice melting in the long-running cold war between Fulmer and Spurrier, Visor Boy still likes to get in his digs. At a meet-and-greet event this spring, Spurrier was asked how his Gamecocks managed to beat the Vols in Knoxville. His response: "The same way Vanderbilt did.")

Certainly, the events of last season served as a wake-up call. Fulmer thought he had assembled the kind of talent that would get the Vols into the national championship hunt. But UT was overrated and under-coached. Credit Fulmer for taking care of one matter that compromised his job security. After years of running a looser ship than Capt. Hazelwood at the helm of the Exxon Valdez, he finally cracked down on UT's off-field antics. The result: This has been a pretty quiet offseason for the Vols. Yes, there has been a hiccup here and there, but nothing like the previous couple of years when the Knox County police blotter dripped orange ink. Losing games is one thing. Losing with a bunch of players who are pillaging the countryside Sunday through Friday is another. That will get a coach fired. With all that said, Fulmer can't afford to string together a handful of mediocre seasons. He won't enjoy the leeway Joe Paterno was granted at Penn State. With UT sports in the midst of a huge capital campaign with various construction projects under way, fans are being asked to give till it hurts. And it hurts more when Vol Ball goes south. All things considered, no, this is not a make-or-break season for Phillip Fulmer. But it's a critical season. Again.