By Larry Fleming
larryfleming@daltoncitizen.com
November 03, 2008 11:56 pm
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Over the years, Ronnie McClurg has gotten to know Tennessee football coach Phillip Fulmer. And he was disappointed when Fulmer said Monday he would step down after this season.
“Phillip is a very good friend of mine and I have a lot of respect for him,” said McClurg, Dalton High’s athletic director. “But I’m not surprised by what happened, although I am disappointed for him, his staff and the players. They’re good people and Phillip has been good for Tennessee.”
McClurg, who was raised in Alcoa, Tenn., about 10 miles from the Tennessee campus, saw Fulmer as the coach, the father figure and the recruiter.
“Many of those players came to Tennessee to play for Phillip,” McClurg said. “He’s a super recruiter and he recruits all over the country. No recruiting trip is too long for him. That’s why I think an awful lot of their players are disappointed with the news.
“But at that level it’s about winning and dollars and cents. If the revenue starts falling, people start hollering. That’s the nature of the beast.”
Former Northwest Whitfield lineman Sean Young, who now lives and works in Knoxville, lettered at Tennessee from 2000-03, and he didn’t hold back in holding Tennessee responsible for what he called a “terrible mistake.”
“Three men I look up to in my life — David Gann (former coach at Northwest and Southeast who is now at Ringgold, Phillip Fulmer and my cousin, Michael Young, who is a Green Beret and has served twice in Iraq,” Young said. “Those are the three best men I know. Coach Gann taught me and got me to college. Coach Fulmer made me into a man. “Tennessee made the worst mistake they’ve made since I’ve been a fan and that’s a lot of years. They pushed the man out. I love Tennessee. I bleed orange, but Tennessee has a bunch of fair-weather fans. That’s why I don’t go to games over there.”
Young is hopeful Fulmer finds a new job because he’s “such a great coach.”
“I don’t like Georgia and I don’t like Alabama, but if they were to hire coach Fulmer at their schools, I’d be a fan of Georgia or Alabama,” he said. “That’s how much I respect the man. I don’t know who Tennessee will get, but somebody is going to have a hard time filling his shoes. That’s how I honestly feel.”
Ron Wheeler, a former Northwest Whitfield football coach, also knew Fulmer.
“I have a lot of respect for coach Fulmer,” Wheeler said. “He’s been good to me and my family. I worked his camps for three or four years and he had me up there several times on the sidelines with recruits. He visited down here at Northwest when he was recruiting Sean Young and he always had a moment for everyone at school, the custodian, the dishwashers, everyone. I can see why he’s such a good recruiter because he’s so personable. He is just a good man who fell on hard times with his program, especially the wins and losses.”
Wheeler also said whenever he was on the sidelines at Neyland Stadium and Fulmer saw him, the coach would always ask about his wife, who is a cancer survivor, and Wheeler’s children.
Wheeler believes Fulmer missed the discipline of offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe, who left Tennessee after last season to become head coach at Duke.
“On any staff you need a hard-tail guy and some good guys,” Wheeler said. “You have to have that kind of mixture. I think he had the hard-tail guy in Cutcliffe and he missed that. I tell you this, I think he deserved better.”
Fulmer won 150 games and lost 51 and only two other active coaches won more — Penn State’s Joe Paterno and Florida State’s Bobby Bowden.
“That’s pretty good company,” Wheeler said. “And Phillip did it the right way and was always up front with people. I don’t know what he’s going to do, but sometimes it’s better just to get out of there, just walk away and let the new regime do the best it can. I’ll still be a Tennessee fan and I’ll still be a Phillip Fulmer fan.”
Chip Kell, a former Southeast football coach, knew Fulmer long before most Tennessee fans because the two were part of the same Vols offensive line during the late 1960s.
Kell said he’s kept in touch with Fulmer over the years, often running into each other at reunions or awards dinners, and that the Tennessee coach was always welcoming to him when he brought up a football team to visit Knoxville.
He hopes that hospitality to Tennessee supporters didn’t exit with Fulmer.
“We want somebody to come in there that bleeds orange,” Kell said. “We want somebody to keep the traditions that have been going before him going. Whoever that is, I’m sure they’ll make a selection with that in mind — you have to feel that way, because there’s been too much put in by too many people. It has to keep going.”
Fulmer’s emotions were clearly evident during his Monday press conference. Kell has some understanding of what Fulmer is going through — he was asked to resign in his final season at Southeast, but refused before being fired. Kell, who said he plans to call and write Fulmer when “the time is right,” would advise his former teammate to look within himself for confidence.
“The way I look at it,” Kell said, “I always told my kids — and I’m sure Phillip feels the same way, because it’s the same at any level — when you’re on the playing field, if you’re giving it your all you have to best of your ability, you can always hold your head up when the game’s over, because you’re automatically a winner.
“I know Phillip Fulmer gave it his best while he was a Tennessee and he contributed a lot to that program.”
Chad Young, Sean’s brother who played at Georgia, has never liked Tennessee or Fulmer.
“I’m glad he’s gone,” Chad Young said. “I don’t like Tennessee at all. I don’t know Fulmer as well as Sean, but I never liked the way Fulmer treated me when I was up there visiting Sean.”
Daily Citizen sports writer Marty Kirkland contributed to this story.
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