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Tennessee football: 5 assistant hires that got a Vols head coach fired

By Caleb Calhoun

COLUMBIA, MO - NOVEMBER 11: Head coach Butch Jones of the Tennessee Volunteers coaches from the sidelines during the game against the Missouri Tigers at Faurot Field/Memorial Stadium on November 11, 2017 in Columbia, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA, MO - NOVEMBER 11: Head coach Butch Jones of the Tennessee Volunteers coaches from the sidelines during the game against the Missouri Tigers at Faurot Field/Memorial Stadium on November 11, 2017 in Columbia, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Rick Stewart /Allsport
Photo by Rick Stewart /Allsport /

5. Phillip Fulmer – 1989

Head Coach: Johnny Majors

Position: Offensive Coordinator

Yes, our first person on this list is a bit ironic. Phillip Fulmer did end up getting Johnny Majors fired, but it wasn’t because of his failures. It was because of his success. This was just an eventual result, not an immediate one.

In fact, in the short-term, Fulmer may have extended Majors’s career. After all, he orchestrated a turnaround in 1989 and 1990 that saw the Vols win back to back SEC titles, and in 1991 Majors went 9-3. Majors himself acknowledges those were his best three years on Rocky Top. So this one’s dicey enough like that for us to keep the hire at No. 5.

But then 1992 happened. And with Majors recovering from open-heart surgery and Fulmer filling in for him, Tennessee football started the season 3-0 and beat the Georgia Bulldogs and Florida Gators. Fulmer then became a household name. You could actually put this on David Cutcliffe as well, who took Fulmer’s spot as offensive coordinator and maximized Heath Shuler’s talent.

Fulmer only got more popular after Majors came back and the Vols lost three straight, including two bad one-point losses to the South Carolina Gamecocks and Arkansas Razorbacks, both conference newcomers who would finish with losing records. At that point, UT as 2-3 with Majors back, so he got fired, and Fulmer replaced him at the end of the season.

I’m not in the camp that Fulmer backstabbed Majors. He did his job filling in like he was supposed to. It was on Majors to keep the team together when he returned, and he failed. But regardless of who is to blame, Majors lost his job because he hired Fulmer in 1980, promoted him in 1989 and let him fill in in 1992. It’s just ironic he lost it because Fulmer performed so well.

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