Former Tennessee Vols Head Coach Phillip Fulmers Says He Wished CFB Playoff Was Around in His Day

Former Tennessee Vols Head Coach Phillip Fulmer says he would have liked to have had the College Football Playoff certain years he was there.

It’s something that will gnaw at so many head coaches whose team finished the year No. 3 or No. 4 in the country now. They all would have liked to have had the College Football Playoff when that happened.

We should just go down the list of coaches that can say that, because if they ever had a Top Five finish, they will say that.

And now Phillip Fulmer has joined the club.

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At a charity golf event Monday, Fulmer said he would have liked to have had the playoff a few years during his tenure as head coach at Tennessee, according to a report from the Knoxville News Sentinel.

"“I would have liked to have had a playoff four or five years that I was there,’’ Phillip Fulmer said before teeing off in the Niswonger Children’s Hospital Golf Classic at The Virginian Golf Club."

"There, of course, was Tennessee, from 1993-2008.There was one year Fulmer admitted he didn’t pine for a playoff:“I didn’t want to play any more games in ’98 for sure.’’"

Here’s the thing with Fulmer, though. Even during his heyday with the Vols in the mid-1990s, was there ever a year in which the College Football Playoff would have helped him?

The 1997 season might have, but given the way the Vols were blown out by the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the Orange Bowl anyway, it’s hard to say it would have helped at all.

However, given the fact that the Michigan Wolverines’ Rose Bowl win that year cost the Vols any chance at a national title, perhaps they felt they did not have anything to play for.

They would have just missed in in 1993 with a No. 6 ranking and Auburn, who was ahead of them, being on probation.

In 1995, it would have come down to the Vols and Ohio State. Both teams were No. 4 in different polls while neither won their conference. With Northwestern at No. 3 and Florida at No. 2, there would have been a point of contention. Should a Big Ten or SEC runner up play in the playoff? Tennessee had the better loss because Florida was far better than Michigan that year, but that is not always the best barometer. This year is a toss-up.

In 1996, they clearly would have missed out due to their loss to Memphis, but then again, perhaps if there was a playoff they would have not blown that game to the Tigers to begin with. It would once again come down to them and Ohio State if that were to happen, though.

The 1999 season is a definitive no because they were No. 2 when they suffered their second loss to Arkansas, so they blew their chance anyway, and they finished the regular season No. 6.

While 2001 was a great year overall, the loss to LSU would have left them out, and it’s not like they didn’t blow everything they had a chance to play for anyway with that loss.

The final year where this might have been a discussion was 2003, in which the Vols won a share of the SEC East. Had they won the tiebreaker with Georgia and Florida, which they didn’t, then they would have played LSU with a chance to get into the Top Four because that would have been No. 6 vs. No. 2, and the winner definitely would have made it into the playoff.

So with Tennessee in the Phillip Fulmer years, we are looking at 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, and 2003 as potential years in which the CFB Playoff would have helped.

There would have been a serious debate in 1995 and potentially 1993 and 1996. They clearly would have made the playoff in 1997.

But there is no year where the Vols just missed the national title game, won their bowl game, and in which we are asking “what could have been?” during the Fulmer years in regards to a CFB Playoff. There was always something else in the way.

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Former Tennessee Vols Head Coach Phillip Fulmer says he would have liked to have had the College Football Playoff certain years he was there.

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