Phil Phulmer Phired?!

(Apologies for the awful post title)
It's like the powers that be want me to write about this. By now it's old news in the college football world that Phil Fulmer has been fired as the head coach at Tennessee. This is not a surprise. To anyone.

What's sad is that they didn't have the decency to wait until the season was over. Seriously, Ty Willingham got axed but is holding onto his job until the season ends, Tommy Bowden was just dumped for some guy named "Dabo," and Tommy Tuberville won't be at Auburn next season unless the Tigers win out.

But let's get back to Fulmer. I've never understood the purpose of telling a coach not to come back BEFORE the season ends! It provides almost no inspiration for this team to do anything for the remainder of the year. Tennessee's not very good--and with their coach gone no matter how well they do, they have no real impetus to improve.

Fulmer's problem is that he's in the "Win it now!" SEC. He lasted for a long time, and he did very well in the conference. The man had a great string of wins and teams. And while Tennessee hasn't been the same since the turn of the century, Fulmer will go down as one of the best things to ever happen to Tennessee football. Tennessee will eventually be back as an SEC contender, but Coach Fulmer will be remembered as the one who got them to the top in the first place.

Good luck to the next coach in Knoxville. In today's football climate, you've only got 3 years to prove yourself, so you'd best hope the recruits are good this year.