UT Vols: Is Phillip Fulmer a hero or villain for Tennessee football?

Knoxville

Phillip Fulmer during a press conference on Friday, December 1, 2017 as Tennessee's acting athletic director.

John Currie should have known he was in trouble when University of Tennessee president Joe DiPietro created a job for former UT football coach Phillip Fulmer.

Just two months after Currie was named athletic director, DiPietro hired Fulmer as a special assistant. And oh by the way, Fulmer was the man Currie beat out for the job.

Currie and Fulmer go back further than that, though. Currie was an assistant athletic director on then-AD Mike Hamilton's staff at Tennessee when Hamilton fired Fulmer as UT's football coach in 2008.

More:John Currie out as AD, Phillip Fulmer takes charge

Nine years later, Fulmer campaigned for the UT athletic director’s job. Fulmer lost. Currie won.

The roles were reversed Friday when Currie was fired as athletic director and Fulmer was hired in his place, although it wasn't so easy to figure that out from the comments of chancellor Beverly Davenport. She said Currie had been "suspended" and spent most of the press conference extolling the virtues of a university that has been a national laughingstock during its ongoing failed search for a football coach.

More:UT Vols: Phillip Fulmer ushers in 'new era' as athletic director, heads coaching search

She also refused to answer relevant questions, like why would you fire an athletic director who might have been on the verge of hiring Washington State coach Mike Leach. After all that has gone wrong in this coaching search, after all the rejections from coaches, Leach would have been a great hire.

Between the firing of Currie and hiring of Fulmer, national media-types were reporting that Fulmer had conspired to undermine Currie’s search for a football coach. I wouldn’t be surprised if Currie were their source. Nor would I be surprised if the reports were accurate.

That’s right out of the Fulmer playbook.

More:Phillip Fulmer: 5 things to know about Tennessee's new acting athletic director

Fulmer was the big winner Friday. He got payback on Currie and assured himself of a bigger paycheck from the same school that paid him millions of dollars to go away in 2008.

Now, all he has to do is name himself as UT’s football coach and then make a run at General Robert Neyland’s school record for victories. Just kidding. Not even Fulmer would try to pull that off.

Some fans will be absolutely giddy that a Vol for Life is in charge of the athletic department after a series of failed administrators — foreigners, if you will — took Tennessee’s money and gave it so little in return. And the fact that he has no experience as an athletic director, which Davenport stated was so important when she hired Currie, won't trouble fans.

Fulmer can get an assistant to handle the daily details of the job. What he needs to do is what Currie couldn’t: hire a good football coach. Think what that would do for Fulmer’s legacy.

More:Tennessee lawmakers laud Fulmer appointment, criticize University of Tennessee

Fulmer is now remembered as UT’s last national championship coach. He's a visible reminder of the program’s glory days from 1995 through 1998 when it won a national title, two SEC championships and 45 of 50 games.

In the current climate of UT sports, when frustrated fans are so desperately trying to turn back the calendar and embrace all things Vol, Fulmer could enjoy another surge in popularity if he welcomed back a former Vol.

Perhaps, he could hire former UT assistant coach Kevin Steele, who is Auburn’s defensive coordinator, as head coach, and former Tennessee quarterback Tee Martin as associate head coach and coach in waiting. That might be the easy and the popular thing. But would it be what’s best for Tennessee football?

I believe Leach would have been great for Tennessee football. He could have combined his Air Raid offense with the Vol Navy. He could have made Tennessee football fun again.

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But perhaps, Fulmer has someone better in mind. If he does, he will be remembered for more than the glory days of the late 1990s.

He will be remembered for restoring the glory days.

John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him at: Twitter.com/johnadamskns.