Irony: A Tale of Two Coaches

Fulmer to resign as UT's coach

Not that, in this part of the country, you haven't heard yet but there's the link.

What's amazingly ironic - and I called it, incidentally, last week:

Previous UT football coach Johnny Majors had a disastrous year in 1992, personally and professionally. He had heart problems and surgery, which led him to step down for a few games early in the season. Offensive Coordinator and Asst. Head Coach Phil Fulmer stepped in and led the team to a miracle victory at Georgia which debuted the ascendancy of QB Heath Shuler. A couple victories later and UT's the toast of the country. Seeing the writing on the wall, Majors struggles back from his deathbed and returns to the sidelines in a bid to save his job. A loss to newly minted SEC team Arkansas in mid-October dashed UT's title hopes, and finally at the end of the month they lost calamitously to South Carolina - another newly added SEC team, at South Carolina. Days after the lost, Majors resigned effective immediately and Fulmer was hired as UT's full-time head coach soon after.

Sixteen years later Fulmer will resign after his own South Carolina debacle, although he will coach out to the end of the season (as he should). Who will take over for him? No interim this time around, so we're saved from a John Chavis-coached team...