A few of the old timers who were upset when Majors was fired blamed it on Fulmer, and say hay Fulmer "stabbed Majors in the back." And, they are now saying that Fulmer stabbed Currie in the back in order to steal the AD position from him. However, neither of these stories are true... not even close.
1). Johnny Majors had heart problems and had to have surgery. Fuller was promoted to ACTING head coach. When Majors returned he went in to see AD Dickie and told him that he was ready to return, but wanted a raise. Dickie told him that The UTAD was under a salary freeze and he could not offer him a raise at that time. Majors cussed Dickey out and told him that if he wasn't getting a raise he was going to quit. Dickie said, "I accept your resignation." That was the end of Coach Johnny Majors career at the University of Tennessee, and ACTING Head Coach Phillip Fulmer had the "Acting" taken off the title and was promoted to Head Coach. Everyone knows that Majors had other personal issues that were probably involved in Dickie's decision to accept Major's oral "resignation" as he did, but that is water under the bridge and there is no need to bring that up again.
2) After a number of successful years of coaching at UT including SECC's, bowl wins, and even a Natty, Fulmer had a tough year in 2008. Haslam told Mike Hamilton that he would pay Fulmer's buyout if he would fire him mid-season, and the rest is history. There are a few unfounded (undocumented) rumors that Fulmer contacted coaching candidates to warn them away, but they are all rumors... so do with rumors what you will. However, evidence has shown that Fulmer, since his firing, has always been very supportive of everything Big Orange. He has assisted the University of Tennessee in every way they have asked him.
3) And most recent, Fulmer was accused of messing up John Currie's coaching search in order to get him fired... so Fulmer could replace Currie as AD. Again, there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever to support those accusations. The evidence does, however, support the fact that Currie and Haslam were big buddies with Greg Schiano, and that there was no real search going on for a football coach apart from Schiano... until the fan base protest caused the Chancellor to refuse to sign the MOU to end that deal. No, Fulmer did not stab Currie in the back, the fan base rose up and put an end to that deal. Then Currie and Haslam went into panic mode and started jetting all over the country making offers to Gundy, Brohm, Doeren, Leach, and putting out feelers to others. But it was Currie going to Los Angles aboard a Kansas State booster's jet to meet with Leach without the Chancellor's knowledge that got him fired. Fulmer had nothing to do with that, but the Fulmer haters grasp at that straw to spew their hate and division anyway.
After Fulmer was hired as AD, he has not bad-mouthed anyone. He simply went to work quietly and found us the best coach who would answer the call to come to UT to clean up the ashes of the dumpster fire left by Mike Hamilton, Dave Hart, John Currie, Derek Dooley, Butch Jones, and yes, to some degree, by Phillip Fulmer himself during those last couple of years as head coach. I do not put all the blame on Fulmer, because he did not have the support of Haslam and Mike Hamilton to turn things around. They would not give him the $$$ to hire assistants and good coordinators after Cut left. But, Fulmer did make a couple of bad hires and would not fire them, and he made a few bad coaching decisions that lost some games. So, yes, as AD he is helping clean up a huge mess that he was in at least a small way responsible for, and I appreciate that.
So, to answer the OP's question, haters are gonna hate... so go ahead and hate away. But I think there is enough hate in the world already, so why not look at the big picture and try to see that things are not always as they seem... and that rumors are not always true... and neither are "Grumors."
