- Phillip Fulmer won a national championship as coach at the University of Tennessee. He could still be an asset for the Vols, who handle the fourth-string left tackle.
- As Tennessee's AD, Phillip Fulmer juggled running the Vols' 20-sport athletic department with coaching Jeremy Pruitt's offensive linemen.
- The proposed college football rules would allow programs to hire weightlifting analysts who also serve as assistants to assistant offensive line coaches. Cue Philip Fulmer?
Philip Fulmer, with hat and whistle. Maybe your coaching career isn't over yet.
A new proposal from the NCAA Football Oversight Committee should pique the interest of the former Tennessee football coach. (And former Vols Director of Athletics. And former Special Advisor to the President at UT. Former helper in John Curry's failed coaching search. And…well, you get the idea.)
According to Yahoo Sports, the proposal would allow college football programs to hire an unlimited number of assistant coaches during practices and games.
Under current rules, the program can hire an unlimited number of analysts, recruiting coordinators, aides, secretaries, gophers, interns, smoothie makers, film editors, espresso artists, regional manager assistants, sleep technicians, bench press enthusiasts, and more. be able to.
However, only the head coach and 10 assistants are allowed to provide instruction and guidance during practices and games.
Does the program always break this rule? I don't know, does the Pope wear a hat?
It's a convention that programs should at least pretend to follow anyway.
However, if this proposal is approved, there will be no need to pretend anymore. The program allows him to load up on the sideline on Saturdays and practice with an assistant who specializes in teaching linemen the three-point stance.
Hurry up and give Fulmer the clipboard and give him the duties of assistant weightlifting analyst and assistant offensive line coach.
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If you think such a role is under Fulmer, you must be forgetting his constant quest to help improve Tennessee's offensive line during the Jeremy Pruitt era.
Ostensibly, Fulmer was Tennessee's AD at the time, but it was as real as the Mafia's olive oil business. Fulmer was a die-hard football guy and became a regular at Pruitt's practices, but he apparently overlooked the massive NCAA fraud perpetrated by Pruitt and his henchmen.
But nothing passed through Fulmer's keen eye during offensive line practice. When Fulmer became helpless and gave sharp orders to multiple linemen during practice, which was captured on video, the SEC banned him from Vols practice for a week. imposed sanctions.
Do they have no mercy?
NCAA rules can be very heavy-handed. Why shouldn't the athletic director, or the Gophers, be allowed to lead line drills?
The Soccer Oversight Committee is clearly fed up with this crackdown that restricts Gophers from being Gophers and smoothie makers from making smoothies.
One rule adaptation would prevent the Gophers from inhaling the euphoric power of coaching shuttle drills.
Fulmer is no Gopher. He is a versatile veteran who once juggled coaching the Vols' 20-sport offensive guard with Pruitt running a nine-figure budget.
Granted, Fulmer has already been fired as Tennessee's coach and has been allowed to “retire” as an AD, but a man with a national championship on his resume will coach Tennessee's No. 4 left tackle. I am qualified.
Fulmer's return to coaching will come with a simple rule change.
Blake Topmeyer is the SEC columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow us on Twitter @btoppmeyer.
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