Wednesday night was Phillip Fulmer's last Thanksgiving dinner with his Tennessee football team. This morning will mark the final Last Tackle Drill he will ever oversee. Saturday evening’s game against Kentucky also will mark the last time Fulmer will run through the “T” as the head football coach of the Vols.
“There are going to be a lot of lasts around here this week,” said Fulmer on Tuesday during the last media day of his 16-year career. “Right now, I'm just trying to focus on beating Kentucky.”
He has beaten the Wildcats every time he has faced them as head coach. The school's overall winning streak against the Cats goes back to 1985.
But like so much else that has happened this season, a lot of ignominious firsts have shockingly led to Fulmer's last season atop Rocky Top.
“I'm going to write a book one day,” said the coach for the second time in four days. “I'll tell you about it.”
He didn't tell us much about his plans two days ago. As might be expected, his emotions have been a wee bit raw of late. No one is forced to close the door on 35 years of his life without a few tears surfacing.
So he tried to stick to the business of winning his 152nd game instead of losing his 53rd. He tried to steer clear of feelings in favor of facts. One fact he said he could promise concerning today’s last Last Tackle tradition was the rumor that Fulmer might revive his “flying bambino body block” routine from a few years back.
“I haven't done that in at least 10 years,” the coach grinned. “I just want to make sure I get to the game Saturday.”
The game won't be like any other Tennessee-Kentucky game in recent memory. For one thing, the 6:30 kickoff is believed to be a first in this rivalry, and just the third November night kickoff inside Neyland Stadium ever.
There is expected to be a reception for Fulmer's former players to kick off Phillip Fulmer Appreciation Day. The coach and his family are then supposed to run through the “T” — which is expected to include many of those former players — before the opening kickoff.
“There have been a few times in the past, with really special seniors, that it's taken them half a quarter to recover (from that sendoff),” said Fulmer. “I can't afford that on Saturday.”
Dealing with distractions has always been one of his greatest strengths, at least until this season, when his team finally had too many weaknesses for even Fulmer's famous focus and feistiness to overcome.
“I've learned a lot about managing from Coach Fulmer,” said offensive coordinator Dave Clawson. “The way he can jump in and out of seven situations and grasp everything that's going on in all of them. He always seems to find time for everybody and he knows everything that's going on this program at all times. Everything. He's truly a CEO.”
But knowing it and being able to correct it in a few short weeks are two different things. For whatever reason — wretched quarterback play, inability to quickly adapt to Clawson's offense, injuries, the five-game suspension of punter Dustin Colquitt, more bad bounces than good — these Vols never really clicked.
As Fulmer said Tuesday, “UCLA and Auburn, we win those two and win the Wyoming game, we're sitting here and playing for our eighth win (instead of standing 4-7). Say what you want, but that's the truth.”
The truth is that no one in this state ever believed at the close of that UCLA game on Labor Day weekend that UT would part company with Fulmer three days after Halloween. Twenty-four days later it still shocks many, saddens more than a few and surprises most.
In a year in which so many more important things have betrayed us — the stock market, the banking industry, the auto industry — the Fulmer saga is another grim reminder that past success is no longer a reliable predictor of the future.
So the coach will have an unusually quiet and reflective Thanksgiving dinner with his immediate family today. He'll take a pass on the family's traditional pre-feast pick-up basketball game, citing his 58-year-old knees. He may watch a little football, but probably not too much, given the presence of his first grandchild.
Then on Saturday, with so much of his splendid past surrounding him, Fulmer says he wants to, “Celebrate the good things.”
For most of us, the good things never include a national championship, a $2-million-a-year contract, the adulation (at times) of an entire state.
But asked what he would give thanks for today, Fulmer mentioned none of that.
“Faith, family, friends, health,” he said.
Because on this Thanksgiving more than most, if you have those, you've had a winning season.
E-mail Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com
Mark Wiedmer started work at the Chattanooga News-Free Press on Valentine’s Day of 1983. At the time, he had to get an advance from his boss to buy a Valentine gift for his wife. Mark was hired as a graphic artist but quickly moved to sports, where he oversaw prep football for a time, won the “Pick’ em” box in 1985 and took over the UTC basketball beat the following year. By 1990, he was ...
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