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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEDIA DAYSJuly 24, 2008Phillip FulmerBIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA COACH FULMER: Well, good afternoon. We'll get started. Have a few statements, then we'll certainly take your questions. Obviously, like every other coach in the Conference, I'm excited about the start of the season, building on last year's football team. The Eastern Division Championship, 10 wins, a Bowl win, all those things are very exciting for us. Our team has worked really hard during the course of the off-season. Starting back in January, we had a couple of issues, off-the-field distractions that weren't very pleasant for us to deal with. And to our team's credit, to our coaches' credit, particularly to our seniors' credit, we haven't had anything that's come up really since February. I like that. I think that says something about our focus and our attitude, about what this team could and hopefully will be about. We're certainly in a process right now with our football team growing, new offensive coordinator that I'm really excited about, new quarterback, in the same year, is a challenge, defensively, of getting back and playing at the level that we expect to play as we did against some teams last year, Arkansas, for an example; Georgia, in the championship game against LSU, to play at that level consistently is certainly a challenge. The growth of our team from a leadership standpoint, I have made a list. There's about 11 or 12 guys on the offensive side that look like they can be outstanding leaders for us. Got about that many, 11 or 12 guys, on the defensive side. Not all of them are starters, but guys that can have that kind of demeanor and personality to be good leaders. Then at the bottom of it, the question mark is, Will they do it? That's the big question as we go into the fall. You lose a guy like Jerod Mayo, the 10th player picked in the NFL Draft, to a team that prides itself on drafting character guys, it's hard to replace that kind of leadership. Erik Ainge, who was an exceptional leader for us, particularly from the standpoint of matching up numbers, numbers very similar statistically to what Peyton had accomplished when he was there. So not without our challenges as we go into this football season. I am excited about the fact that you're always looking for ways to motivate your football team any way that you can. I appreciate y'all's help picking us third or fourth in the East. Has served us pretty well at different times. We'll certainly use that. I think we're probably at the best time in my 16 years as a head coach in this conference with incredible coaches that are in this league. You just look in our division, Vanderbilt played everybody tough and to the end. Had some big wins. Kentucky coming off a great season last year. Coach Brooks has done such an unbelievable job. Georgia finishing second in the country. South Carolina in November was sixth in the country. Florida had a great football team and the best player in the country in Tim Tebow, and a couple of guys around him that are really special. I guess we just happen to be playing in the best division, in the best conference in the entire country. So always a challenge. That's just the Eastern Division. LSU wins the National Championship on the other side. So a real challenge, a real challenge ahead for us. We're growing and working, excited like everybody else, and can't wait to get started. Every year, even after 16 years, this time of year, last few days of vacation, you're thinking and writing notes down, everything you see wherever you are reminds you of something. You're getting ready to play. My wife usually says, It's time for you to go back to work because we're not paying enough attention to her. I'm excited about this team and about getting back to work and seeing where we can go with this team. I'd a lot rather be playing for the SEC Championship in December than to be picked first in July in Birmingham. So we'll see if we can make that happen. Questions. Q. You talk about being picked third or fourth in the East. What do you think is the reason for the perception y'all have dropped off a little bit? How do you feel just about that? Where do you see your team fitting in this year? COACH FULMER: I mean, we were picked third in '98 when we won the National Championship. I just think it's a reflection of how good this league is. It hasn't changed since I came into it or the divisional play started. It's always been Georgia or Florida or us. Now you add Coach Spurrier, what he's done at South Carolina to that equation, what Coach Brooks has done at Kentucky, and Bobby has done at Vanderbilt. The first goal has to be to win the division, and then you worry about winning the SEC Championship. Although I'm about tired of going to the SEC Championship and not winning it. I think it's three times we've been and not done that. I think it's the fact that the division is as good as it's ever been. Whoever has those few players that make a difference and stays healthy and the schedule falls good for them, all those things, you make the plays that you need to make to win a game, it will be that close again. That's the way it's been really in my entire time at Tennessee. Q. I know you want to talk football, but you probably want to get this out of the way right away. Were you given a subpoena in the lobby and can you confirm or deny that, and your thoughts on it? COACH FULMER: I have not seen that. I have not seen a subpoena. As I said to all the other groups, this is not the place for that kind of thing. There are great fans that have great passion about the Southeastern Conference that are not interested in that kind of BS. And I would have some other choice words if there weren't so many cameras in here (smiling). Q. You're one of five coaches in the conference that won national titles, a lot of guys have won BCS and Bowl games. Talk about the coaches in this league and how tough that makes it game in and game out. COACH FULMER: Well, you know, y'all do this more than I do. The five that have won it, then you have Tommy, who was 13-0, should have won it or could have won it at least. We had the good fortune of playing them that year. They were one of the best teams in the country. It's about recruiting. It's about scheduling. It's about the discipline in your program. It's about a few plays and a few players that make a difference. It's that close in this league. You can look at other conferences that have outstanding teams, the top two or three teams. But you can go from top to bottom in this conference and you better bring your A game every week or you'll get your butt beat. Q. There was a time earlier in your tenure, during the '90s, seemed like the SEC came down to you guys and Florida, and obviously now it's a much deeper, more competitive landscape. What have been some of the factors that you've seen over your time here to get to this point? COACH FULMER: Well, when I took over, we were all chasing Florida. We were able to catch up. Everybody was chasing us for a little while. It just goes in cycles that way. Georgia's become a team that's won the championship two or three times. I'm talking about our division first. And schools, they're committed. They're committed to going out and hiring great coaches. They're committed to facilities and to recruit guys that can make a difference in your program. All those things, you've seen the budgets go up. It's an unbelievable commitment in the Southeastern Conference to the quality of play that y'all are blessed with and we're blessed with -- you're blessed to cover, we're blessed to coach, and be a part of. I'm proud of our 16 years that we've been able to do it. I don't know how many guys are going to do it that long, you know, in the future because of the incredible amount of scrutiny and pressures and those kind of things. But the fact that we've done it right, which I hope continues in this league, you know, that those standards are set to follow the rules and do things right, that APR-wise we've done it right. That's the good things that's happening in college football. I know this is probably more information than you're interested in. You know, that we continue to be one of the group of teams that every year are going to compete not only for the divisional or conference championship, but have a chance to compete on a national level. Last year, I don't know, most places had one and two in this country coming out of this league. Q. It's 10 years now since the National Championship. Could you just look back on the state of the union for Tennessee football, what's different, what's the same, where you've been in that 10 years now? COACH FULMER: Well, you know, you look at the whole scenario. We were right there in '97. We won it in '98. We had a really good team in '99, had a chance. Dropped off a little bit in 2000. I think we had eight wins or whatever. We were in a recovery mode. In 2001, we were a team that had a chance to play for it. LSU did a great job and upset us in the championship game. You know, along the way probably the 2005 season being the most disappointing season that we had. But every situation that you are given - good or bad - you learn from it. I think in 2005, I said this last year or the year before, you know, we assumed way too much. If anything I was taught, you don't assume anything. We won nine year before last. Won 10 this year and hopefully have laid the groundwork to make a run again at the championship. That's how we do it. So I don't know what you're asking, the state of Tennessee football. If you go back and look at the era in the late '90s, you're talking about some really great players. You know, I think we're getting close back to that kind of athletes at Tennessee again. Q. Could you talk a little bit about what Eric Berry brings to your defense, what he allows y'all to do as far as coverage-wise and scheme-wise? COACH FULMER: You know, I was asked that in several of the rooms as we went through. I don't know if we have enough time or tape to talk about all the things that Eric Berry brings. But, you know, one, he's got great character, great work ethic. He's a very smart young man. He takes his academics very seriously. Wants to be a dentist. He brings his A game to the practice field every day, to the weight room, wherever, to be as good as he can be. Just love all those tangible and intangible things that he brings. If he stays healthy and continues on the path that he's on, he'll certainly be one of the best players that Tennessee has had in a long time and one of the best players that has played in the country in a long time. I expect those things to continue. He's a humble, hungry young man. His mom and dad have brought him up right. He has his priorities in order: his faith, family, football and his team. He just is a real pleasure to coach. Q. Can you talk about whether you like the new clock change this year, and do you see this could be advantageous as far as some of the things that Dave Clawson brings to your offense now? COACH FULMER: You're talking about flipping the line? Q. The 40-second and the play starting. COACH FULMER: Oh, the clock. Q. Yes. COACH FULMER: I do like it, I think. We scrimmaged it all spring, in spring practice. We actually managed it really well. That's not at Auburn or at Georgia, you know, with the crowd noise, the intensity that it will be. But our system allowed us to work and maximize the potential that you can get from the clock, whether it's fast huddle or if you wanted to milk the clock. I just would like for them to leave it alone. It's a pain in the butt every year to have to go through all those processes to change, particularly when you're going to be different in the last two minutes of a half or a game than you were the entire game. But, yeah, I think it's workable and I think it's probably a good rule. Some people say we'll lose some plays from it. If we play offensively like we did in the spring, we won't lose any plays, I don't think. Can other teams milk some plays from the game? Yes, you could do that because it's a set period of time that you're going to burn each time. Q. Recruiting question for you. When you get looking at prospects, a lot of coaches like certain heights, weight parameters for players. How locked in is your staff to that, and what does it take to get away from that? COACH FULMER: You know, that's a great question because it's one you battle all the time. The parameters that you would like to have in recruiting, you know, they're pretty easy to set. They're awful hard to go fill, particularly at a place like Tennessee, where you're crossing a lot of state lines and going other places to recruit. So you're looking instead of at the tangible things, you're looking more at some of the intangible things that a young man might bring. You still have to have a certain size, certain ability and speed, those kind of things. But we're not locked into anything that way. You know, everybody says an offensive tackle needs to be 6'5". Arron Sears was an All-American, played great for us. To stretch it, he was 6'2" and a half maybe. That goes at all the positions. Now, if I had my choice, I'd rather all the defensive linemen to look like John Henderson looked. But that's not real. That's hard to do, hard to get. You know what happens in recruiting, too, is you almost get locked into numbers because you got 85 scholarships, and it doesn't always match up. You got more tailbacks interested because of the style of offense, but you can only have four or five, you know, on scholarship. See what I'm saying? So that tailback that you signed may end up as a linebacker. We've had some really good successes for that. Or a defensive back, vice versa. It's an interesting and ongoing process. Q. Arian Foster has a pretty good chance of ending his career as Tennessee's all-time leading rusher. Can you talk about some of the qualities that have made him successful? COACH FULMER: You know, it's amazing. I think Arian has stayed under the radar, has been underappreciated a bit. When we left Tampa, I didn't think we had a chance in heck of keeping him at Tennessee. Came back as a second-round, evaluated from the NFL, second-round pick. I probably asked too much of Arian last year to be more vocal of a guy. He's more of a quiet, get-it-done, working guy, rather than an outspoken team leader. He's worked on his game a lot to get that extra step. That's kind of the wrap on him. He's not a game-breaker guy. He's going to make the first guy miss. He's going to fall forward most of the time. He's going be a threat as a receiver. He can protect. You can split him out and use him that way. He's a really, really good football player. My hope is he takes his -- stays healthy and takes his game to the next level and becomes the all-time leading rusher in Tennessee history. When you think of all the backs that have been through there, that's quite impressive. Q. I want to clarify so there's no margin for error here. When you said that you had not seen a subpoena -- COACH FULMER: I've talked all about that I'm going to talk about that. If you have a question about a schedule or a team or anything, I'd be glad to talk to you. Otherwise, I'm not talking about it any further. Q. Could you talk about losing Eric Young, what that will mean to the offense, what kind of player he was for you? COACH FULMER: We lost Eric about the fifth game into the season, so we really had to overcome that. It took two moves to do that. Chris Scott, who was a starter at guard, moved out to tackle. Had a really good year there. Jacques McClendon moved up. So we're well on our way to replacing Eric Young. We'll miss him from a personality standpoint, from a leadership standpoint. But that goes back to mid-season. We're past that. Q. Montario Hardesty has certainly had his issues with injuries the last few seasons. What is his status coming out of spring practice? COACH FULMER: He is one of the greatest kids that you could ever be around. I hate the fact that he stayed hurt. When he's played, he's played well. He says right now he feels better than he's felt in a long time. He's had a knee injury, a couple of ankle injuries. My hope is that he can help Arian, help our backfield be a real solid backfield, that he can have a great year for us. He's also a very complete back. He actually gives you more of a breakaway threat a little bit than Arian does at times. We would be blessed if he could be healthy. Q. Your opinion on the idea of an early signing period, how early would you like to see it, and also your current stance on plus-one? COACH FULMER: I like the plus-one. I think that's a real possibility. If people would just understand that we are in a playoff, particularly in our league every week to get to the point, then the plus-one would give you maybe a better picture of a national champion. The early signing date, I have not been for it, up until the last year or so. Recruiting is going so much faster now. There's so many more services, so much more information available. The kids, players and parents are much more in tune prior to their senior year than they used to be that they're forcing the issue by visiting campuses and those kind of things. So I think there's some merit to an early signing date. Would I choose December or September? Probably I'd choose December, this is for Tennessee, to get some guys on campus that otherwise we might not have gotten on campus. It would save money and time in the month of January. I think it would be a plus. As I said prior to this, I've always said, No, that's not a good thing for Tennessee. But I saw a poll. I don't know if it's right or wrong, but I saw a poll from the AFCA that said 77% of the coaches out there were for it. So I think they'll find some kind of early signing period that works for everybody. Q. What are your thoughts on what Demetrice Morley went through to get back on the team? With his return, how good can your secondary be? COACH FULMER: Demetrice is back on the team. He's done well in football. He's had a great spring practice and off-season. You know, still I'm gonna reserve the right to get him to the practice field in the fall, that he's done everything that he's supposed to do to be an accountable football player and to be a guy that we know that we can count on on a daily basis. If he does what he's supposed to do, it would certainly be a benefit for him, and it would be a great benefit for us, as it could give us the best pair of safeties that I've had at Tennessee in my time at Tennessee, which is a pretty big statement. He's a very gifted young man. I'm proud of him getting himself back in good graces, what he's done. Don't let my silence about him during the off-season confuse that he's done anything wrong. That's not the case. I'm just kind -- I want him to prove himself over a long period of time, not for one or two semesters or half a year. Q. If this was 25 years ago and you had your record, do you think there would be as many critics out there? COACH FULMER: I don't know (laughter). You guys have to answer that. I had a guy last night, we had a little barbecue that we were at, had a guy come up to me, Hey, coach, don't let them bother you. I'm like, Who is "they"? 90% of the people were very positive about what we've been able to do. He said, I was at Tennessee in the late '50s, early '60s. I thought back, they were struggling at that particular time. I think sometimes it's just natural, somebody's been at a place for a long time, you take them for granted a little bit possibly, or you like the newness of things. I'm really, really appreciative of the contract and the support that Mike and our people have given us. That's got us headed in a very, very good direction from a recruiting standpoint, from a stability standpoint. You know, there's some things out there that people tend to want to start talking about with records, how many games, all those kind of things. Honest to goodness, my whole focus is on this team and what we can do and how in the heck we're gonna figure out a way to win at Georgia or win at Auburn or beat Florida, those kind of games. That's how we've done it. I am proud of the fact we've done it right, as I said earlier. When you talk about APR, those kind of things, we've been right in there as good. Things that people really understand appreciate. THE MODERATOR: Coach Fulmer, thank you. COACH FULMER: All right. Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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