Fulmer on hot seat in down year for Vols

The brimstone seems to have faded. The debate, once hotly contested, now appears decided. The end looks inevitable.

The old saying is, “It’s all over but the shouting.” Well, when it comes to the job status of Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer, the shouting also might be done in Knoxville.

A sports-talk radio station on Monday took 29 calls. Four callers said keep Fulmer. Four said fire him. The others wanted to talk about something other than Vols football, an almost unheard-of occurrence on the first show after a Tennessee-Alabama game.

“I think apathy has set in a little bit,” said Jimmy Hyams, the host of a drive-time show in Knoxville.

Fulmer, the dean of SEC football coaches, brings his Tennessee team to South Carolina on Saturday. It looks more and more likely to be the final time Fulmer faces the Gamecocks.

In fact, a loss could seal Fulmer’s fate. The Volunteers enter with a 3-5 record. Two weeks ago, athletics director Mike Hamilton told the Knoxville News-Sentinel “our goals are not to be a .500 ball club.”

It was Hamilton who a few months ago rewarded Fulmer with a contract extension and now faces a decision on Fulmer’s future. It escaped few people’s attention that Hamilton’s alma mater, Clemson, also gave Tommy Bowden a new contract last offseason, only to see him resign under pressure after six games.

Hyams, who has covered Tennessee for about 25 years, hasn’t called for Fulmer’s firing or discussed replacements. But he thinks the outcome is clear.

“I would be surprised if he is retained,” Hyams said.

One cautionary note: Last year at this time, many had Fulmer’s head on the chopping block. Then a late run, spurred by a win against USC, shooed the wolves from Fulmer’s door, propelled the Vols to the SEC title game and resulted in the extension.

Since then, little has gone right.

The offense ranks 112th in the nation. The Vols have been lackluster in nonconference action, losing at UCLA and barely beating Northern Illinois. Perhaps its most impressive SEC performance, at Georgia, came in a loss.

Two weeks ago, in an unusual public statement, Hamilton confirmed boosters briefly had discussed potential replacements for Fulmer. He also said there was “without question” some fan apathy.

And that was before Saturday’s loss to Alabama, when ESPN.com writer Chris Low noted: “The only thing easy about Tennessee football right now is getting out of Neyland Stadium at game’s end.”

If this is it for Fulmer, it’s been a strange journey.

He won a national championship 10 seasons ago. He has won nearly 70 percent of his SEC games and 75 percent overall. He’s a Tennessee alum, grew up in the state and has given more than 30 years of his coaching career to the school.

Fulmer has said little about his future. He has yet to face direct questions about it, but he was asked Sunday if he thought the speculation was affecting his players.

“I don’t think it has,” Fulmer said. “The guys have played hard and have tried to respond as we have asked them to. We haven’t had any off-the-field issues or those kind of things that sometimes come when the players sense something.”

That doesn’t mean the players don’t sense something. At this point, it appears everyone does — probably even Fulmer.

Reach Emerson at (803) 771-8676.