Fulmer wants to restore stability at Tennessee as athletic director

FILE - In this Dec. 31, 2017, file photo, University of Tennessee athletic director and former head football coach Phil Fulmer serves as the Tennessee Titans' 12th Man before an NFL football game between the Titans and the Jacksonville Jaguars in Nashville, Tenn. As the new athletic director, Fulmer says he wants to help bring back the stability that marked the Volunteers' athletic department during much of his tenure as the school's football coach. That stability has been missing for most of the last decade. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski, File) FILE - In this Dec. 31, 2017, file photo, University of Tennessee athletic director and former head football coach Phil Fulmer serves as the Tennessee Titans' 12th Man before an NFL football game between the Titans and the Jacksonville Jaguars in Nashville, Tenn. As the new athletic director, Fulmer says he wants to help bring back the stability that marked the Volunteers' athletic department during much of his tenure as the school's football coach. That stability has been missing for most of the last decade. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski, File)

By Associated Press January 12, 2018 5 min read

KNOXVILLE – Phillip Fulmer believes stability played a major factor in his coaching success at Tennessee, and he wants to help bring it back.

Stability – built on trust, expectations and communications – was replaced by upheaval.

After taking over as athletic director last month, Fulmer has been working to return Tennessee to the cohesion it enjoyed in its peak years.

The College Football Hall of Fame coach remembers when he had Tennessee’s football program consistently competing for Southeastern Conference titles in the 1990s. Joe Johnson was entrenched as university president; Doug Dickey was a fixture as athletic director.

“We knew what was expected,” Fulmer said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We weren’t going to embarrass our university or them. They knew that we were going to do the right thing and that we were going to give the kids who were here a positive experience, and those kinds of things. There was a great trust.