Tennessee held a press conference to announce the "start of a new era" with the naming of Phil Fulmer as the new acting athletics director. PROVIDED/UT Athletics
Robert Gillespie’s departure from Tennessee was sudden Tuesday, as his tenure as Vols running backs coach came to an end after five seasons.
But Gillespie didn’t leave without a conversation with Tennessee athletic director Phillip Fulmer, who said he loved Gillespie and his family on Wednesday at the Big Orange TipOff Club.
“This is a big boy’s business,” Fulmer said. “He understood. He was very professional. We talked yesterday. It was simply a matter of coach (Jeremy) Pruitt doing what he thought was right for his program and Robert.
“Robert was fine. Robert is OK. He didn’t like it, I’m not saying that. But he’s OK. He understood. It’s a big boy business.”
More: Tennessee football, Robert Gillespie — last of Butch Jones' assistants — part ways
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Gillespie was hired in 2013 to join Butch Jones’ staff and was the lone holdover from the previous staff when Pruitt hired coaches. But now the change is wholesale as Tennessee seeks to get back to winning ways on the football field.
Fulmer, who is little more than two months into his stint as athletic director, said the obvious reason he is in charge now “is to help fix football.”
“That’s my main responsibility here: To get the engine going that makes everything else work over at UT,” Fulmer said.
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Fulmer, who coached at Tennessee from 1992-2008, praised the staff Pruitt assembled and noted the many national championships won through the years by the group. But he cautioned not to expect such results overnight in Knoxville after a 4-8 season and a tumultuous coaching search.
“Are we going to do that next year? Don’t even go there,” said Fulmer, who won the 1998 national title with the Vols. “We have got our work cut out for getting back to where we are fighting in this conference for the Eastern Division title. That’s going to take steps along the way. I know that we have somebody who knows what it looks like and knows how to work.
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“You can take all the fluff in the world out of it. He’s not a fluffy person. He’s about football. He’s about recruiting. That’s what we need right now.”
While football is the focus, Fulmer said he has met with almost all the head coaches now and expects to have completed his rounds in the next 10 days to learn what the needs are in each program.
He also said he thinks coaches across the board are probably “thrilled to have a coach that understands coaching around them.”
Fulmer has sought advice from other former coaches who turned into athletic directors in his transition, including former UT athletic director Doug Dickey and former Alabama athletic director Bill Battle. One of a pair of conversations with Wisconsin’s Barry Alvarez left a lasting mark on Fulmer’s outlook on his position.
“He made a statement to me that he feels sorry for the other athletic directors when he goes to meetings because most of them haven’t been on the field or on the sideline and don’t understand how to coach,” Fulmer said. “They understand about the other things on the business side or whatever they might be. In dealing with coaches and young people, he felt like he has an advantage. I felt like that’s probably true.”
There also is another truth Fulmer noted multiple times as the football program seeks to bounce back: Winning cures all ails.
“If you win,” Fulmer said, “things get better in a hurry.”
Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes talks the hiring of Phillip Fulmer as the UT athletic director Mike Wilson/News Sentinel
About that video board
Jones was fired more than three months ago, but the former Tennessee coach remains on the back of the video board on the south end of Neyland Stadium.
Fulmer said UT is “in the process” of changing the images and he is working with chancellor Beverley Davenport to get it done.
“We will have an announcement,” Fulmer said. “That will be changed as soon as we can. Believe me, I would have done it yesterday if I could have.”
UT hit a pair of snags in the process, as the crane needed to make the changes was broken and the images set to be placed on the video board had “resolution problems.”
University of Tennessee celebrates National Signing Day by introducing coaching staff at the Tennessee Theatre Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2018.
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Blake Toppmeyer, John Adams and Mike Wilson on Pruitt's press conference on Wednesday, January 10, 2018.
Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt, hired as Tennessee’s coach in December, discusses the challenge of juggling two jobs. Blake Toppmeyer/News Sentinel
Tennessee reporters Blake Toppmeyer and Mike Wilson discuss the Vols' recruiting class heading into the early signing period Blake Toppmeyer and Mike Wilson/News Sentinel
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Keaton Jones, whose bullying video has gone viral, visited with UT Athletics Director Phil Fulmer and members of the Vols football team on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017. Submitted/ University of Tennessee.
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