Alabama Football: Phil Fulmer sticks it to Crimson Tide again

As many longtime Alabama football fans know, the greatest passion of former Tennessee Vols coach Phil Fulmer was to take down the Crimson Tide. ‘Take down’ in this case meaning off the field rather than in games.

While Fulmer coached Tennessee, the school’s most famous booster loudly proclaimed he enthusiastically violated NCAA rules. Going back to the recruitment of Tee Martin, Alabama fans believed Fulmer was what LSU’s Will Wade became; a coach who made ‘strong-assed’ offers to recruits.

Now Tennessee is in trouble with the NCAA – sort of. In today’s college football world, a school being in trouble with the NCAA is akin to a nagging cough. It holds on for a long while but does no serious damage.

The most recent development in the NCAA investigation of Tennessee is some underlings have been penalized. It is eerily similar to what happened at Tennessee when Bruce Pearl was caught by the NCAA. Pearl received a show cause and jumped to TV for big dollars for a couple of years. Two of Pearl’s assistants received show-cause penalties that put them in severe financial distress.

The same thing has now happened to members of Jeremy Pruitt’s Tennessee staff. As reported by CBS Sports, the NCAA investigation into Tennessee’s 18 Level One violations has reached a partial conclusion. As reported earlier by SI.com, the staffers are,

"Inside linebackers coach Brian Niedermeyer, outside linebackers coach Shelton Felton, director of player personnel Drew Hughes and student assistant Michael Magness"

Bell will toll for former Alabama Football DC

Jeremy Pruitt’s penalty will come later. It is expected to also include a show cause, which is why Kevin Steele is now Alabama Football’s Defensive Coordinator. This is not to suggest Kevin Steele was not a good hire for Nick Saban. It just was not the hire Saban wanted to make. While Saban might still add Pruitt as an analyst at some point, it was too risky to hire him for an onfield role.

Tennessee’s problems, leading to problems for Nick Saban, no doubt make Phil Fulmer happier than a box of doughnuts. It is ludicrous to believe then Tennesee AD Fulmer, as Pruitt’s boss, was unaware of all NCAA violations under his watch. There is too much history with Fulmer for such a conclusion. Fulmer has (will) skate because his days of corrupting college football are over. But his last laugh will be sticking it to Alabama again.

There is no small irony in this. The total of all the known violations under Pruitt is $60,000 in impermissible benefits. That is chicken feed for a program that purportedly gave its most recent quarterback recruit an $8M NIL deal.