Tee Martin returned to Tennessee last month for a 10-year reunion of the Volunteers squad he quarterbacked to a national championship. Amid the memories, he poked around the 2008 edition of Phillip Fulmer's program and found things a little too familiar.
"It looked like Coach was going about it the same way as when we were there," Martin said by phone Monday afternoon.
And there lies the problem with Tennessee football, and the reason why the school decided Monday that this season, Fulmer's 17th in charge, would be his last. Almost every aspect of college football has changed since that undefeated championship season. Fulmer changed little, and few of the changes he allowed improved the program. So Tennessee, lapped by its competition in the SEC and across the country, finally needed to change itself.
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"We're not a Florida or a Texas school," former Vols quarterback Casey Clausen said Monday by phone. "We need a guy that people know nationwide as somebody who can recruit. And he better bring in some assistants that people recognize, too."
Both Martin and Clausen work with high school players -- Clausen as an assistant coach at Oaks Christian High in California, Martin as head of his Playmakers Sports company that trains young quarterbacks. Both said kids speak with affection of Tennessee and its traditions, from super-sized Neyland Stadium to the checkerboard end zones. But too often in recent years, those players opted to win championships as Gators, Tigers and Trojans instead of Volunteers.
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