Phillip Fulmer was the starting left guard on Tennessee’s 10-win football team in 1971 and coached the Volunteers to 152 victories, two Southeastern Conference championships and the 1998 season’s national title.
He is among the most recognized and revered names in the program’s storied history, but his final few months as Tennessee’s athletic director will not be remembered quite so favorably.
Fulmer, who hired Jeremy Pruitt in December 2017 after a tumultuous search that began with John Currie as AD, was not implicated in any of the violations revealed Friday by the NCAA. The university avoided a postseason ban but must pay more than $8 million as a result of its 18 Level I violations during the three-year Pruitt era that contained more than 200 infractions.
In emails obtained by the Knoxville News-Sentinel through an open records request, Fulmer was asked during his final weeks as AD by Tennessee chancellor Donde Plowman what he planned to do should Pruitt have to be fired. The Volunteers were going through a COVID-shortened season in 2020 that yielded a 3-7 record, but Fulmer paid more attention to the wins and losses than any of the allegations into the program in his response.
“You also have to realize how bad the program was when we arrived here,” Fulmer wrote to Plowman. “We had no big linemen, no one that benched 400 (pounds), and no natural leaders.
“(Pruitt’s staff) inherited a very bad 2018 football team. The loss to Vanderbilt was really hard for anyone to swallow. Vanderbilt had an excellent QB that picked us apart.”
Fulmer announced his retirement on Jan. 18, 2021, the same day Pruitt was fired. In the undated emails obtained by the News-Sentinel, Fulmer was not seeking the removal of Pruitt before leaving.
“I am not (at) all advocating a change in football and hope we do not get there with pending issues,” Fulmer wrote. “I do believe we can overcome our challenges, and I have seen signs of progress.”
Another email from Fulmer stated: “Jeremy knows the rules and will ask if something comes up. I have made it clear we will not cheat.”
Fulmer did have a list of 16 potential candidates should a change be made, but current Tennessee coach Josh Heupel was not among them. The list included three current SEC coaches — Auburn’s Hugh Freeze, Florida’s Billy Napier and South Carolina’s Shane Beamer — as well as former Austin Peay and Charlotte coach Will Healy.
Healy, the former Boyd Buchanan quarterback and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga assistant, had just finished his second season at Charlotte and is now in his first year as a special advisor to UCF coach Gus Malzahn.
The worst ever
Forget Derek Dooley explaining the hygiene lessons he was providing to players or the incessant “brick by brick” references of Butch Jones.
Pruitt is the worst coach in Tennessee football history, and the numbers aren’t close.
As part of the NCAA sanctions handed down Friday, the Vols must vacate all eight wins from the Gator Bowl season of 2019 and the three wins from 2020 due to the use of players who were deemed ineligible. That will result in Pruitt’s three years in Knoxville yielding 5-7, 0-5 and 0-7 records for a 5-19 career mark.
Tennessee’s all-time record entering the 2023 season has been adjusted from 867-410-53 to 856-410-53, with one of its vacated victories the 45-0 triumph over UTC in 2019.
Sewell’s farewell
Right-handed pitcher Camden Sewell, who recently finished his fifth and final baseball season with Tony Vitello’s Vols, posted a farewell message Saturday on social media. In 85 career appearances, the former Cleveland High School standout went 19-3 with a 2.84 ERA.
“We did a lot of special things they can never take away from us, and I was blessed to be a part of these last five years with this special program,” Sewell said. “Seeing this program change over my career was special and surreal. Coach V and the rest of the staff are a player’s dream to play for, and this program is in great hands for years to come.
“To Vol Nation, thank you for taking in this small town kid from Cleveland and making me feel at home. I didn’t always bleed orange growing up, but I’m forever glad I do now.”
The 6-foot-4, 185-pounder’s most memorable performance was getting the start and throwing five scoreless innings in an 8-5 win over Florida in the 2022 SEC tournament title game. He is the only player in Tennessee history to appear in two College World Series.
Zeigler update
One of the biggest questions concerning Tennessee’s 2023-24 basketball season is the availability of Zakai Zeigler, as the junior point guard continues to work his way back from the torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. The injury occurred in the early stages of the Feb. 28 win over Arkansas.
“He would tell you he wants to practice today, but we have to keep holding him back,” Vols coach Rick Barnes said this past week in a news conference. “He’s ahead, but he’s not going to come back until we know he’s 100% ready, and that won’t be until late in the fall, probably. He’s itching to, and he would tell you right now that his left leg is stronger than his right leg, which is obviously a good thing.
“He’s gone about this rehab the way you would expect him to. He’s been a model patient, but he is impatient. We’ve got a timetable, and we’ll stick with it.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.